The men and women on our staff in 2019

The risk culture project was driven forward and implemented in the year under review. A functioning risk culture requires a change in behaviour and an understanding that there is a shared need for action throughout the group. In the reporting year, this involved:

• Defining areas of action for the target risk culture
• Holding open lab events at all locations
• Consciously encouraging interconnection of the concept of risk culture to other projects and in subsidiaries

Cultural changes within organisations can only succeed if all parties affected understand that these changes are necessary and make a constructive contribution to the process. Human Resources works with an external service provider to conduct a survey of all employees every two years, with the aim of determining the effectiveness of measures in the modernisation and transformation process and the sentiment among the staff.

For instance, the effects of new teamwork models (agility) and the risk culture project were assessed throughout the group. The main result of the 2019 employee survey was confirmation of the progress made in KfW’s risk and management culture:

• The excellent participation rate of 74% showed that the majority of staff members have a high emotional attachment to KfW. The general strengths of the KfW culture to be emphasised are work-life balance, working relationships with direct managers, the established risk culture, and the trust fostered by the Executive Board.
• A good basis has been achieved as regards agility, with two-thirds of employees experiencing that managers promote agile values and principles, and that around half of staff have already worked with agile methods.
• The results show a good start for the risk culture, with more than two-thirds of employees experiencing good cultural conditions for dealing with risks constructively.
• The results will be reviewed on two levels in Q1 2020. At one level, the departments will evaluate their specific results in employee workshops. They are supported by internal results controllers who are particularly qualified for their task as sparring partners and moderators of the departments. At the same time, overarching issues are processed throughout KfW involving all levels of the hierarchy, including the Executive Board.

Digitalisation and agile work processes are fundamentally changing our world of work. KfW continued to pursue a large number of related projects in 2019 with the aim of better dealing with existing and future challenges:

• Following a bank-wide test period, successful agile working methods are now being standardised to firmly implement agile working across the board. This is supported by a regular training programme, leading to certification as “Scrum master” or “product owner”, for example.
• The DTO programme continued in 2019, with the departmental digital transformation officers advancing digitalisation and new working methods within their departments.
• “Transition Team Scrum” is driving forward activities for the introduction of Scrum in software development, with around 50% of IT teams having switched their software development to the Scrum method by the end of 2019.
• The issues of agility and agile leadership have key roles in the “Lead transformation” management development programme.

The future of learning:
The “Future of learning” project is aimed at reviewing KfW’s strategy as regards skills acquisition, and adapting the portfolio to a new framework in terms of content, formats and the role of HR. The focus is to be on use of digitally supported learning formats, in order to establish a target-oriented mix of different formats in the internal training programmes offered, such as linking live to a video platform and setting up a video room where own videos can be produced.

Lead transformation:
The “Lead transformation” leadership development programme is designed to enable managers to deal with the new requirements in a targeted manner, and to acquire the expected leadership insight and skills in preparation for their role in KfW’s central change processes. The programme is based on new learning methods and a high degree of individual responsibility on the part of managers, who are required to contribute their knowledge and their expectations for the future.

New management skills model:
The new management skills model was developed in the reporting year through interviews with managers in agile project settings and workshops with employees. Aspects of employee leadership, digitalisation and the new requirements of the modern working world played an important role.

Striking the right balance between work and personal life is a key requirement for employee health, employability and professional development. This applies in particular to employees with family responsibilities, who are also increasingly caregivers for relatives in addition to children. KfW offers a wide range of support options in this area. KfW and KfW IPEX-Bank have applied for a re-audit under the workandfamily audit scheme, which will be carried out from 2020 to 2023.

A particular focus of 2019 was on reconciliation of work and family life for men,

• which included establishing a fathers network among staff at KfW Frankfurt, soon to expand its dialogue and joint activities to other locations as well.
• KfW and KfW IPEX-Bank joined the nationwide Fathers Network in 2019. The Fathers Network connects companies and offers an insight into existing networks of other cooperating companies through lectures, webinars and workshops.
• Given the positive high response to lectures, workshops and webinars, the offer will continue in 2020.

KfW wants to help its employees stay healthy so as to maintain and encourage their motivation, job satisfaction and performance. The focus was on the following activities in 2019:

• Team training opportunity for “First aid in medical emergencies”, in which 120 employees were trained to provide a proficient response.
• Blood donation drives – KfW held two drives in 2019, in which 354 employees participated.
• Company sports groups and health courses, for which suggestions are systematically accepted from staff. For example, a mindfulness group was set up and health courses further developed.
• Operational integration management; the new staff agreement on operational integration management was concluded with the General Staff Council. All employees who have been unfit for work for more than 42 days within a 12-month period are invited by the KfW health manager to attend an OIM procedure. This involves a meeting to discuss how to overcome incapacity to work, prevent repeated incapacity to work and maintain efficiency.

KfW continues to strive to expand and optimise its offerings in the area of operational health management.

Once again, we are striving to increase the proportion of women at management level and in non-collective wage agreement positions. Women are to be given particular consideration when filling positions or roles newly created through agility (e.g. Scrum master). This involves development of existing instruments such as a talent pool, and redesigning evaluation of the application process.

Support with childcare and care for relatives continues to form the framework. KfW is also aiming for increased utilisation of the opportunities for flexible and mobile work. The initiative launched in 2019 to motivate men to take advantage of work-life balance opportunities is to be continued and also made available to women. The work-life balance agreement is being revised and the addition of new components, such as short-term family care leave with continued social insurance, assessed. It also provides for a job guarantee following parental or family care leave of up to a year. As part of its human resources planning, KfW also aims to offer people with disabilities full professional prospects (the BGleiG protects in particular women with disabilities).

KfW ensures that its remuneration policy is in line with requirements and structurally appropriate, among other things by means of peer group comparisons and guidelines for determining salaries. The results of the remuneration check by the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes) are being examined with a view to implementing the proposals. Given that working lives are now longer, KfW would like to use existing potential and promote the skills of staff who have taken advantage of work-life balance offers for an extended period, as part of a “second life career”. Agile methods would be of particular importance here.

Even the best ideas are not effective without cultural change and incorporation into the company culture. This is why KfW plans to use a variety of channels and methods to promote equal opportunities, with a focus on individual issues.

The focus of our measures in 2019 was on increasing awareness of inclusion issues, with the aims of encouraging employees to disclose their disabilities and building a solid basis for new hires. The instruments introduced to increase external recruitment of employees with disabilities are showing the first positive effects, and the number of applications has increased significantly. The proportion of employees with disabilities was 5.7% (previous year: 5.6%). A series of interviews of working with a disability was very well received. It covered conditions including multiple sclerosis, depression and migraines, each from the point of view of the person affected and an expert. It was underpinned by an “Inclusion Day” held in Bonn.

A second focal point was digital accessibility, as the German Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz – BGG) requires KfW to make its website, Intranet, all applications for mobile devices and PDF files, among other things, accessible by September 2020.