Since 2020, United Internet’s diversity measures have been coordinated and enhanced by a Group-wide project team lead by a central Diversity unit. United Internet signed up to Germany’s Charta der Vielfalt (Diversity Charter) in 2021, undertaking by doing so to create a nondiscriminatory working environment.
The project team works closely together with the “queer.united,” “Part-time Initiative,” “Intercultural Community,” and “Cross-generational Cooperation” employee diversity networks.
A diversity strategy process was started in 2023. This resulted in a new diversity mission statement and three strategic focus goals for future diversity work. The process included specific survey results, Management Board and Supervisory Board interviews, and the results of the 2022 enterprise-wide employee diversity survey.
Diversity Mission Statement
Having a workforce leveraging this diversity adds value for our success as a company and our corporate culture. We live up to our social responsibility and have a positive impact by promoting diversity.
For us, diversity affects the following dimensions: age, ethnic origin and nationality, gender and gender identity, physical and mental abilities, religion and beliefs, sexual orientation, and social origin.
Our vision is for a nondiscriminatory diversity mindset to be part of our corporate DNA. This approach can be seen in both our working conditions and our dealings with customers.
The individual United Internet business segments are committed to maintaining and strengthening this awareness, e.g., by taking their own diversity measures with the goal of starting a discussion about diversity, promoting education on the topic, and building knowledge about it in the organization concerned. The aim is to understand and dismantle barriers to equal opportunities in the diversity dimensions mentioned .
We aim to learn from each other across segments , leverage synergies, and promote enterprise diversity networks .
Because creating diversity and living respectfully is everyone’s responsibility . The Management Board and executives play their part as role models here.
The importance of diversity is discussed during the onboarding events for new recruits and managers, and attention is drawn to the internal platform that provides information on all aspects of diversity. Here, employees and managers can find statements by the Management Board members on the topic, practical tips for ensuring a nondiscriminatory daily working environment, and numerous portraits of colleagues. The platform also contains enterprise-wide guidelines for ensuring nondiscriminatory, gender-sensitive visual imagery and language.
United Internet will not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, or bullying in the workplace. All staff are provided with personal, confidential contacts who/that can be reached online, such as Vertrauenspersonen (persons of trust), compliance managers, and the electronic whistleblower system. Any indications of discrimination are taken seriously and investigated: the Company is committed to swiftly getting to the bottom of all issues that are reported.
In 2023, United Internet took part for the third time in the “German Diversity Day” organized by Charta der Vielfalt e. V. and held its “Diversity Days” – a two-day virtual in-house conference – in May with almost 30 sessions on the topic. Among other things, the program featured keynote speeches by Management Board members, interactive workshops, reports by staff on their own experiences, and panel discussions. The feedback from the 700 or so employees who took part was extremely positive and it is planned to continue the format in 2024.
United Internet won the “Impact of Diversity” award in the “Best company” category in 2023 for its Diversity Days format. This diversity prize is awarded every year by Impact of Diversity & Frauen-Karriere-Index for outstanding commitment to diversity. The jury chose to give the Impact of Diversity Awards to United Internet because the Diversity Days create an inclusive offering that enables staff to be heard and gives them the opportunity to highlight diversity issues.
The Diversity Days were flanked in the reporting period by open, virtual lectures (“diversity keynotes”) by external diversity experts in German and English. One was on the overarching topic of “discrimination-aware language” and one on “unleashing AI’s potential with diversity in tech.”
Since 2022, managers throughout United Internet have been offered the opportunity to participate in a voluntary two-part diversity training course. In the first part of the course, managers are made aware of unconscious thought processes, while the second offers them help with developing an inclusive team and work culture in their areas of responsibility. A total of 18 managers took part in the training in 2023.
In addition, two e-learning courses aimed at managers were rolled out in the Business Applications Segment. The first module provides an overview of the topics of diversity and demonstrates its relevance in a corporate context. The second module looks at unconscious bias and its impact in work settings.
Human resources colleagues throughout the United Internet Group receive special training that aims to reduce the influence of unconscious bias and thought patterns across all HR processes, from recruitment down to talent management. A total of 61 employees were trained in 2023.
Last but not least, cultural awareness and intercultural communication training is offered for the entire United Internet Group. English and German language courses are offered so as to ensure optimum communication on specialist subjects. In addition, all staff have access to an online language learning portal.
Diversity training courses will be developed for all employees by 2025. These will be included in the onboarding process. The goal is to have trained at least 80% of the workforce (both employees and managers) by the end of 2025.
The United Internet Group defined a voluntary target for gender quotas in management positions in 2022, going above and beyond the requirements placed on United Internet AG by stock corporation law and the German Corporate Governance Code. This target was raised in 2023 in agreement with the Management Board. The aim is to have roughly 25% women in management positions on average by 2030. The current ratio is 21.2%; it includes all segments and applies to all management levels from the Management Board down to the third level below it.
Women accounted for 34.1% of new hires in the reporting period (2022: 32.7%) and 19.0 % of newly recruited managers (1) (2022: 22.5%).
The following table provides a breakdown of staff by gender and employment type.
(1) The figures for InterNetX were not included when calculating the percentage of newly recruited managers who are women.
Women
32.3
32.1
Men
67.7
67.9
67.8
Nonbinary
n/a.
0.1
Employees by gender (1) in %
2021
2022
2023
(1) The figures relate to the core employees as of December 31 of the fiscal year concerned.
In addition, 11.5 % (2022: 11.1%) of core employees worked part-time during the reporting period.
Women, full-time
74.8
75.0
74.3
Men, full-time
95.7
95.4
95.2
Nonbinary, full-time
100.0
Women, part-time
25.2
25.0
25.7
Men, part-time
4.3
4.6
4.8
Nonbinary, part-time
0.0
Employees by employment type, by gender (1)
Finally, the following table provides a breakdown of staff by gender and employment type.
Women, temporary employment contracts
5.0
3.4
3.1
Men, temporary employment contracts
7.3
6.5
5.7
Nonbinary, temporary employment contracts
Women, permanent employment contracts
27.9
29.1
29.5
Men, permanent employment contracts
59.7
61.1
61.7
Nonbinary, permanent employment contracts
Temporary employment contracts, Germany
11.1
9.3
8.5
Temporary employment contracts, outside Germany
1.2
0.6
0.3
Permanent employment contracts, Germany
71.1
72.3
73.5
Permanent employment contracts, outside Germany
16.6
17.8
Employees by employment contract and by region (1)
(1) The figures relate to all active employees in the United Internet Group as of December 31 of the fiscal year concerned.
United Internet starts actively promoting gender equality to school-age children, for example by taking part in Germany’s national Girls’Day and Boys’Day or by offering school students programming courses. Dedicated measures designed to increase the number of women at United Internet were also taken in the 2023 reporting period as part of the Group’s university and professional marketing activities. These included providing mentoring for female students at the University of Mannheim and attending careers and networking events specifically targeting women, such as “Women in Business” in Frankfurt and “Women in Technology” in Munich. In Germany, United Internet offers a talent and networking offering called “Women explore,” which won the 2020 HR Excellence Award in the “Diversity and Female Empowerment” category. A total of 49 women from all areas of the Company took part in the third round of the program that was held in 2023. “Women explore” aims to make high-potential women visible within the Company, to make it easier for them to network with one another, to allow them to specifically examine their strengths and their career and networking strategies, and to draw conclusions for the Company as whole. In addition, participants work on initiatives designed to promote gender equality, cross-enterprise networks, and diversity. Participation in the initiatives aims, for example, to facilitate formats for enabling explicit cultural dialog between the sexes or to intensify discussions about topics such as part-time working and cross-cultural exchange. “Women explore” has also established a pool of female role models who are available to act as discussion partners and mentors within the Company, and who demonstrate potential internal career paths for women at United Internet.
To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, 2023, female managers and experts in Germany were invited to take part in the internal “Women in Management Network” event devoted to the relationship between sustainability and gender equality. Another, informal opportunity for female colleagues to get together in 2023 was the virtual “Ladies Lunch” format.
Equal opportunities depend on all employees, regardless of their gender, being able to easily combine their family duties with their profession. With the exception of a few occupations, all staff in Germany can work remotely from home on two flexible “cover days” per week. (2)
In Germany, an external, independent employee assistance program offers tailor-made assistance where needed. Services include support with childcare (e.g., free emergency childcare places for children up to 12 years of age); vacation programs (including virtual formats); advice on the German statutory parental allowance, kindergartens, and the like; assistance with finding home helps; and advice on how to finance long-term care and in personal emergencies.
In addition, two presentations on “work-life balance” and a workshop analyzing the needs of fathers were held in 2023 and were very warmly received. As a result, the creation of a fathers’ network and an expansion of the concrete benefits available to parents are currently being examined, so as to make it easier for staff to achieve a healthy work-life balance.
(2) The cover day rule does not apply to 1&1 Versatel GmbH, STRATO AG, InternetX GmbH, Sedo Holding GmbH, united-domains AG, World4You Internet Services GmbH, we22 Aktiengesellschaft, home.pl S.A., or their respective subsidiaries.
United Internet has been addressing the issue of including people with visible and invisible disabilities since the last quarter of 2023. A cross-segment working group was set up for this comprising the HR, Sustainability and Facility functions. Among other things, this is looking at topics relating to physical accessibility, technical support, and awareness-raising within the organization.
A disability power awareness session was offered to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, with the aim of encouraging openness and self-confidence when dealing with the issue of disability, especially in day-to-day work.
The launch of the working group and the abovementioned presentation laid the foundations for the topic in the 2023 reporting period. A road map is to be drawn up in 2024 and action areas resolved.
United Internet has set itself the goal of signing a Group-wide inclusivity agreement in 2025 so as to create an inclusive working environment for people with disabilities.
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