Fair Employment
We strive to create an engaging and fair working environment, where the rights of our employees are respected and where every person can thrive.
Our approach
Our success is based on the engagement and performance of our employees. It is their dedication to delivering excellent solutions to our customers that helps us maintain and further develop our competitive global position. As a company with employees in over 50 countries, we aim to ensure an engaging working environment so that we are an employer of choice for current and prospective employees. We also ensure that we treat employees fairly and in accordance with our company values, and that we provide them with equal opportunities and fair remuneration.
Our approach toward our employees is governed primarily by our Code of Conduct, as well as by country-based labor regulations and the local employee handbooks, where available. Our Group-wide Responsible Labor Directive regulates the minimum business standards during recruitment, hiring, and employment in terms of freely chosen employment, working hours, wages and benefits, the prevention of child labor, freedom of association, and workersʼ accommodation. Furthermore, the Zero Recruitment Fees Directive regulates the business standards regarding fees and costs associated with recruitment governed by the Employer Pays Principle.
Key activities
Engaging our employees
High employee engagement has been proven to lead to increased productivity, fewer workplace accidents, and improved customer satisfaction. A key method for supporting employee engagement is to ensure a culture of open dialogue across the organization.
To monitor any changes in the level of employee engagement, we use a global norm as a benchmark1. Our target is to maintain our Employee Engagement score at or above the Global Norm (currently 73% favorable) until 2027. Our comprehensive global employee survey, the dormakaba dialogue, is sent out every two years, and the last edition in the FY 22/23 saw an employee engagement score of 71%, a slight improvement versus our baseline. Besides this, we initiate smaller Pulse Checks on an annual basis to learn about our employeesʼ engagement level. During the FY 23/24 edition, 6,655 employees worldwide (58% participation rate) gave feedback on the topics of our company strategy and transformation, our Behaviors, the working environment, direct supervisorsʼ relationships, and engagement. The survey was accessible to all employees with a company email address and wherever allowed by local works councils, if existing.
The main findings were:
- Employees are generally satisfied with their direct supervisors (80% favorable answers) and working environment (69% favorable answers). This is a good indicator of a strong management team throughout dormakaba.
- Areas showing the largest room for improvement (50% or less favorable answers) were related to simplifying processes for internal and external customers, feeling part of one global team, and collaboration between departments.
As a follow-up, three workshops were conducted to come up with top-down actions to improve the three least favorably rated survey items. Each workshop focused on one of the above-named topics.
Fair remuneration and benefits
An overview of best practice employment-related benefits and measures across the Group can be found in the Employee Benefits table.
We aim to establish fair compensation that is determined based on job function and relevant local market benchmarks. It is not influenced by personal attributes such as age, nationality, or gender. The global grading system ensures that functions are evaluated in a consistent manner across the organization.
In FY 23/24 we started a global living wage gap assessment to verify that even entry level employees are paid enough to afford the necessities of life based on the local cost of living. We have completed the pilot living wage gap assessment for India and Sweden in the scope of our internal employees, and we will roll out the assessment to all other countries during the next financial year.
Furthermore, following local regulations, 15 entities conducted an audit on equal pay for equal work this financial year. For example, in Switzerland, an independent external auditor verified that the legal entities fully comply with equal pay regulations and there is no statistically significant difference in pay based on gender.
In addition, we provide locally specific benefits and welfare programs. For example, in FY 23/24 we collaborated with a local hospital in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) to offer free breast cancer screening for our female employees over the age of 40 to raise awareness of breast cancer prevention.
Employee attraction and retention
We strive to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, where everyone can be their authentic selves.
We are proud of our diverse workforce, our openness, and our transparency and strive to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be their authentic selves. All this is part of our company culture. Many factors shape our culture, but the most important one is our behavior: how we work together and how we act toward our customers and colleagues. So that we are clear on what we can expect from each other, we have established six Behaviors that all employees must adopt. We rolled out a Behaviors eLearning course that is available to all employees who have access to the eLearning platform. Additionally, they were incorporated into the performance reviews for employees in selected countries.
By adopting these behaviors, we aim to provide a working environment in which people can thrive and where everybody feels part of one team. We also provide our employees with professional development opportunities to retain our qualified workforce. And when filling open positions, promoting from within our own workforce is preferred.
This financial year we introduced the global Talent Acquisition Directive, which provides a common understanding and key principles for attracting, recruiting, and onboarding talents across the company. The directive includes a clause on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, aiming to ensure that the attraction, recruitment, and selection practices are free from bias and are fair to candidates, including those with diverse backgrounds. To facilitate the adoption of this directive across our organization, we developed an online training course that is mandatory for all managers and available to all employees with access to our online training platform.
Furthermore, we have successfully built and finalized our global talent acquisition structure and strategy. We now work in global teams, supporting and learning from each other. Our local career websites also follow a global standard, allowing for a consistent candidate experience. And as part of our growth strategy, we have opened dormakaba business services in Sofia (Bulgaria). The new center will serve as a backbone that bundles services and expertise to improve quality, efficiency, and flexibility in HR and other business processes.
Fluctuation
In FY 23/24, a total of 1,930 employees joined the company and 1,801 left within the reporting scope. This corresponds to rates of 13% and 12% respectively, which reflects a slightly higher joiner rate than leaver rate and a lower leaver rate than in the previous year (14%).
Employee fluctuation across all business regions was similar, with higher rates being seen in Australia and New Zealand, where we see higher attrition rates from employees who have been at the company for less than one year. To reverse this trend, an onboarding system is being developed so that our new starters are feel better supported and educated when they start working with us.
Some fluctuation can be attributed to our S4G transformation program. Through this program we aim to simplify processes, become more efficient, reduce costs, and invest the freed-up resources in growth and innovation. While the programʼs implementation may impact up to 1,800 positions, the expected net reduction of full-time equivalent positions will be approximately 800. Of these, as part of the implementation of the various initiatives, approximately 700 full-time positions will be reduced in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland over three financial years until the end of June 2026. Communication about the restructuring process has been transparent through townhall meetings, internal articles, and in-person conversations with the affected employees.
About 400 of the affected positions are in Germany, where intensive negotiations took place between the employee representatives and dormakaba to find socially acceptable solutions for all those affected and to significantly reduce and, if possible, avoid layoffs. Solutions to mitigate the negative economic consequences for the employees affected were agreed in a social plan. For example, we offered early retirement opportunities wherever possible. All employees affected by a layoff were offered a transfer period of five months so that they could qualify for a new job in addition to receiving a severance payment.
In Switzerland, a social agreement was successfully concluded and signed by representatives of the Swiss companies and the Swiss Employee Representation (ANV). The social agreement contains a range of measures to support and safeguard the employees concerned. These include individual job search support as well as advice from external outplacement specialists, compensation for potential salary disadvantages in the event of internal and external reemployment, or extended or shortened notice periods in the employees’ favor.
In Austria, the company and the works council concluded an agreement on measures to prevent, eliminate, or mitigate the consequences of the restructuring. A social plan has been developed for those employees who are affected by the restructuring measures to mitigate the adverse consequences of the changes, for example through severance payments in the event of job loss or relocation support in the event of a job being shifted from one Austrian site to another.
Outlook
In the next fiscal year, we will continue to execute the restructuring program in a socially responsible manner. Beyond that, we will focus on improving and expanding our candidate experience, and build on as well as simplifying our improved global recruitment processes. We will also continue to roll out our global recruitment tool to the remaining 25 countries to harmonize processes. Finally, we will also complete the living wage gap assessment and begin developing actions to close any gaps discovered.