The men and women on our staff in 2021

Number of employees (including staff of foreign branch offices; as of Dec. 2021)

Women in management positions

Further key figures

Employee surveys conducted every two years provide insight into the corporate culture and enable proactive management decisions to be made. With a high response rate of 71%, the 2021 survey also obtained valid statements on areas for action and learning for KfW. Separate survey findings on psychological stress were also fed in to the results. The following findings can be derived from the results:

• Development of the corporate culture and the planned changes at KfW have picked up speed. All the key corporate culture issues such as trust, leadership, teamwork and identity have developed positively, and underscore the effectiveness of the planned changes in corporate culture.
• There is a high level of acceptance of mobile and flexible working models after 18 months of the pandemic (at the time the survey was conducted).
• The risk culture and dealing with change have also improved considerably.
• Increasing the extent of digitalised processes has accelerated decision-making and transparency.

The risk assessment of psychological stress was also conducted by means of an employee survey. Staff were surveyed not only about stress-inducing aspects of work, as legally required, but also about their resources and the consequences of stress in order for the bank to obtain a comprehensive assessment of the situation by focusing on factors contributing to wellbeing – a good basis for deriving preventive health-promoting measures. The following results can be derived from the survey:

• KfW is a healthy and resilient organisation, although it is clear that increasing demands on the modern world of work will need to be even better supported in the future. The detailed analysis found that none of the teams required immediate action.
• The survey indicated that the strong sense of purpose of work at KfW and the positive support provided by the work-life balance model serve as a good buffer. Employees responded relatively critically regarding emotional demands, procedures and the intensity of work, although these are a reflection of an increasingly contradictory and dynamic world of work with greater blurring of boundaries.

Completeness, variety and meaningfulness of tasks scored considerably higher than in cross-sectoral benchmark data.

A range of measures is intended to better foster talent at KfW, KfW IPEX-Bank, DEG and KfW Capital in future. They include targeted mentoring, various learning and networking tools, scholarships for young employees studying part-time while continuing to work, and a stronger focus overall on job changes between departments.

In addition to fostering talent on an individual basis, two talent pools are being created – one to support “young creators” with a maximum of five years’ professional experience, the other for “experienced drivers of the future” with management experience. This underscores the development of young leadership personalities, as well as placing more focus on the responsibility and commitment of outstanding, experienced managers. Special attention is also paid in this context to the development of women for management positions.

How and where people can and want to work these days is an important part of the new world of work. The continuing coronavirus pandemic has also accelerated this development. In addition to the major developmental steps KfW took in 2020, digital and hybrid collaboration opportunities were expanded and further developed in 2021. Mobile and hybrid working will play an important role in KfW employees’ day-to-day work in future.

• KfW did not suffer any loss of productivity due to the pandemic in 2021 either. Further improvements were also made to the digital collaboration infrastructure in 2021.
• Opportunities were offered including (virtual) training on topics such as leadership at a distance and self-organisation, setting up hybrid meetings, psychological counselling on blurred boundaries, and even (virtual) exercise sessions for strengthening back and neck muscles.
• Specific rules for successful mobile and digital collaboration at team level were agreed in 2021. These now include transparent and team-specific rules on how digital and hybrid collaboration should be arranged.

Further technological improvements are to be made in the future, such as upgrading and modernising conference room equipment to enable the rooms to be used for hybrid and digital collaboration as needed.

PANDA GmbH’s “Employers for Equality” programme rolled out in 2020 was very well received in 2021. KfW is among the best represented companies in this regard. Participation in the programme is intended to support the goals set out in the Equal Opportunities Plan 2020-2023 as well as further advance the anchoring and practice of all seven of the charter's diversity dimensions.

Employees regularly attend the programme’s webinars. More than 80 employees and managers from all areas of KfW have expressed their interest in the programme.

KfW signed the diversity charter in 2019, thereby committing itself to an open and unprejudiced working environment. Launched in 2020, the initiative was successfully continued in 2021. Staff had the opportunity, for instance, to participate in a campaign on the subject of “unconscious prejudice”. KfW also sent two teams to the Diversity Charter’s “Diversity Challenge”.

Initiatives on the “ethnic origin” and “nationality” areas of diversity were implemented. The action plan mainly comprised measures that could be carried out via digital channels due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Executive Board set a target rate of 6% employees with disabilities at KfW in 2021. KfW slightly increased its rate of inclusion to 5.9% (2020: 5.8%) despite overall headcount growth, through various corporate culture development and recruitment measures. For example, KfW established cooperations with inclusive (sporting) associations and other organisations and carried out joint measures (including recruitment events and many others); it also participated in an external young talent programme to attract students with disabilities as future employees, with success.

Moreover, in-house inclusion events also attended by the Executive Board were held to raise manager and employee awareness of inclusion issues.

KfW wants to help its employees stay healthy so as to maintain and encourage their motivation, job satisfaction and performance. The way to do this is through structured health management. The focus was on the following activities in 2021:

• In addition to flu vaccinations, COVID-19 vaccinations were offered to all employees at the earliest date possible in 2021.
• Company exercise and health classes primarily took place online and outdoors where possible due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Webinars on dealing with particular family challenges help workers to manage tense work-from-home situations and support parents in coping with their children and teenagers.
• Online presentations were also offered on stress management and promoting greater resilience, with a view, among other things, to the challenges posed by the pandemic and mobile working.
• A new mental health analysis procedure was also established. The survey conducted showed KfW to be a fundamentally healthy and resilient organisation.

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

In the “New Learning” project, KfW’s skills acquisition strategy is adapted to meet the new overarching conditions and requirements. The new learning and training offering is more digital, needs-oriented, modular, self-directed and flexible in terms of time and location. Besides expanding content and digitalising the training offering, other learning formats were also developed in 2021. These included self-learning materials, videos and e-training courses. Topic-based learning paths help to guide learners and facilitate adherence to the recommended order of the courses offered. Newly established feedback and discussion formats for employees and in-house trainers identify needs and stimulate dialogue.

A video portal for all employees was rolled out in spring to facilitate and promote knowledge-sharing by means of innovative tools. Besides a video search platform, the video portal also enables creation of videos, screen recordings and podcasts.

Digitalisation and agility will continue to significantly transform what is required of employees in the coming years. The Skills of the Future project creates transparency in terms of the existing and future agile and technological skills that will be needed at KfW. On this basis, measures were derived in 2021 for staff development, recruitment and promotion of young talent, with further development provided for employees at KfW in particular. Implementation is iterative and will continue in 2022.

Management functions and duties are analysed for the purpose of creating a virtual network organisation based on value streams (building blocks). The agile roles necessary to deliver the best possible effect in this changed context are defined. Moreover, measures are derived to prepare the new role owners to meet the new challenges.

KfW aims to continue the option of mobile working under a set of transparent overarching conditions after the coronavirus pandemic. These conditions are set out in the “mobile working” service agreement, already adopted. This means that standard practice in the future will include hybrid forms of collaboration, (combination of digital and in-person) for day-to-day work at KfW.

Additional training courses and workshops to boost digital collaboration and on dealing with hybrid collaboration models were offered to this end in 2021. Initial preparations for retrofitting conference rooms for even better fulfilment of future needs commenced in 2021.

One bank – one collaboration model. A set of principles and behaviour anchors was developed in 2021 that offers a joint company-wide guide to our collaboration. This model defines the basics of our collaboration in terms of joint objectives, behaviour/attitudes toward others, responsibility, gradual progress, decision-making, reflection and feedback.