Our People

The Volkswagen Group is a social employer. We stand for a diverse, inclusive, and non-discriminatory culture. By paying fair wages, we help to secure our employees’ standard of living at our locations. We invest extensively in the qualification, safety and health of our employees.

A woman in work attire stands in a modern industrial facility, smiling at the camera. The text "unsere Belegschaft" (our workforce) is overlaid on the image.

Culture

The Volkswagen Group promotes a diverse, inclusive, and non-discriminatory culture

At the Volkswagen Group, we reject discrimination in any form. We promote cooperative behavior in the work-place and are committed to inclusion. We are convinced that integrity and compliance can only be practiced in a culture free of fear, and we create the conditions for this. We are particularly focused on increasing the proportion of women at all levels of the workforce. As a company traditionally dominated by engineers and technical workers, we face special challenges, as do all automotive companies. By 2025, the proportion of women in management is to be increased to over 20%.

Diversity is also important to us with regard to culture, origin, and native language. Every year, we measure the degree of internationalization in the top management of the Volkswagen Group and our goal is to continuously increase it.

Workforce

The Volkswagen Group wants to be a unique employer and lead teams to success

The transformation of the automotive industry is making work at a company like the Volkswagen Group more diverse and interesting. Coding is taking its place alongside traditional engineering, artificial intelligence is relieving employees of routine tasks, and digital business models are increasingly taking their place alongside physical products. At the Volkswagen Group, we want to capitalize on these advantages to provide all employees with a unique working experience. It is important to us that everyone can keep pace with change. That is why we are investing heavily in training. We are aiming for 30 hours of training per employee per year by 2030.

Occupational Health and Safety

The Volkswagen Group is known for its excellent occupational health and safety

Ensuring a safe and healthy working environment is not only a key component of sustainable corporate management but also the basis for individual well-being, good work results, and effective collaboration. We will further expand our prevention programs for employees in the coming years. The Volkswagen Group favors preventive approaches to promote the physical and mental health and well-being of its employees. In the area of accident statistics, our goal is also to establish an accident frequency rate at a leading level for all brands and companies. For the systematic management and quality assurance of our health and safety activities, all Volkswagen Group production sites with more than 1,000 employees are to be certified in accordance with ISO 45001 by 2026.

Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

Through various programs, we pursue the promotion of a diverse, inclusive and non-discriminatory culture.

Bentley launches ‘Belonging Bentayga’ with a strong statement for Inclusion and Belonging

The Bentayga Hybrid is hand-painted by architectural artist Stephen Wiltshire MBE, a British architectural artist and autistic savant, and features 29 different landmarks and people from all over the world. The design also includes many drawings of people, nationalities of the world united in one design. This is the first time a Bentley has been hand-painted in this way at the factory in Crewe, developed with a unique process from the Bentley Excellence Centre Bespoke Paint team. The Belonging Bentayga is the third such piece of art unveiled by the company to mark its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Diversity Day 2023 China Region

On October 17 and 18, 2023, colleagues from various units of Volkswagen Group China came together to celebrate Diversity Day 2023. Colleagues in Hefei, Dalian, Tianjin, and Beijing had the opportunity to participate in both online and offline streaming activities that foster a sense of unity on our journey to diversity and inclusion.

Mentoring for Diversity of Perspectives

As an employer, we strive to ensure that our workforce can spend their entire working lives creating value in attractive workplaces in our company. With various programs, we pursue the goal of strengthening the diversity of perspectives and communicating them to our colleagues.

Porsche Mentoring

The international Porsche Mentoring program brings experienced managers together with employees to provide them with individual guidance and exchange ideas. Thinking outside the box contributes to a growing diversity of perspectives at Porsche and strengthens networking within Porsche. It not only connects employees at German locations, but also colleagues from international markets. Since its launch in 2019, more than 600 tandems have been matched. Porsche Mentoring has become a much sought-after tool and will therefore be expanded further in the future.

SEAT Mentoring

SEAT currently runs two different mentoring programs:

The circular mentoring program aims to promote mutual learning between people who differ from each other in a specific diversity characteristic. In contrast to traditional mentoring formats, in circular mentoring both partners take on the role of mentor and mentee and swap between the two in their mentoring sessions, enabling barrier- and hierarchy-free communication and learning.

The cross-mentoring program offers SEAT/CUPRA employees the opportunity to mentor a person from a company outside the industry or to learn from an external mentor as a mentee. When matching mentoring partners, we pay particular attention to ensuring that the pairs are as diverse as possible, not only in terms of industry, but also in terms of other diversity characteristics. The aim is to give people the opportunity to broaden their horizons and perspectives, break down biases and provide new inspiration for innovative ideas through contact with other people from different corporate cultures.

Running for a good cause

In 2023, Volkswagen held the "International Health.Care.Run.", a brand-wide charity run, for the first time. The event kicked off in mid-May 2023 with around 500 employees in Bratislava, Slovakia, where Volkswagen produces the Touareg and the up! Thousands of employees took to the starting line at a total of 21 locations in eleven countries to raise money for a good cause. The run benefited the "a chance to play" project, which is aimed at disadvantaged children and young people living near Volkswagen sites. The projects supported by the "a chance to play" initiative have been implemented in cooperation between the Group Works Council and the international children's charity terre des hommes with local partner organizations for over 20 years and meet internationally recognized standards.

Our People

Culture

Workforce

​Occupational Health and Safety

Occupational Health and Safety