Employee Health, Safety, and Well-being

United   Internet is aware that employees can be exposed to a variety of physical and psychological stresses in the workplace, e.g., as a result of heavy workloads and hence a poor work-life balance, or a lack of safeguards and protective measures. Employees can also be subjected to additional psychological stress as a result of inappropriate behavior such as mobbing or harassment, or the failure to comply with employment law rights or human rights.

Occupational Health Management

Ensuring health and safety in the workplace is part of the Company’s duty of care towards employees. United   Internet’s goal is to minimize accidents, sickness, and health risks as far as possible and to promote employees’ health. The focus is on two areas here: occupational health management (OHM), and occupational health and safety including data center safety.

All issues relating to these two focus areas are discussed at the regular meetings of the Health and Safety Committee, both in relation to individual locations and at an overarching level.

Occupational health management measures comprise the following offerings: 

• Occupational medicine and first aid: Company medical service and check-ups, training of Company first aid staff


• Exercise and ergonomics: Sport and health classes, events, videos, and workplace assessment


• Stress prevention & crisis counseling: Relaxation and mindfulness training, coaching, and confidential contact points

These offerings are based on a holistic health strategy ¹ that was developed as part of a comprehensive needs assessment. ²

Contact points such as the internal Occupational Health Management team, the United   Internet Vertrauenspersonen ³ or the external experts from the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) also provide employees and managers at German locations with in-person advice.

In the case of the EAP, United   Internet works together with an external provider. Service provider contacts are available by phone around the clock to provide confidential free advice on childcare, care for relatives, and life coaching to cope with personal challenges. Flexible working time models are another way of avoiding employee overwork. Other measures are hazard assessments, occupational medicine support, and the Health Week and Health Day offerings with their wide range of courses and advisory offerings.

In fiscal year 2024, for the first time, United   Internet trained 33 employees as “mental health first aiders” (18 “psychological first aiders” in the Consumer Applications segment) to provide colleagues undergoing psychological stress with anonymous support in confidence, to offer initial actions, and to help organize professional help.

Occupational Health and Safety, Including Data Center Safety

Annual safety inspections in line with health and safety agency/statutory rules and regulations are performed at the Company’s German locations together with experts from external service providers. ¹ In addition, reports are evaluated, measures implemented, and Health and Safety Committee meetings are held at these locations.

Health and safety activities are continuously enhanced on the basis of the statutory/health and safety agency rules and regulations. Only authorized employees have permanent access to the data centers. ² These employees are obliged to attend (digital) training on the following topics, among other things ³ :

• How to behave if there is a fire
• How to behave in an emergency
• First aid courses run by the DGUV (Germany’s statutory accident insurance scheme) that are specially tailored to data center environments
• Emergency first aid training in the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
• Fire prevention training that is specially tailored to data center environments
• Safety training for electrical equipment
• Practical training in Category III personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Energy and environmental management systems

Courses and training are also organized for those employees who are responsible for powering up and booting servers in the abovementioned data centers. The Company works together with Verwaltungs-Berufsgenossenschaft (VBG, in German only), the German occupational health and safety agency, to train safety officers for each operations team, who then attend regular courses. In addition, United   Internet is assisted by external occupational safety and fire protection specialists. An internal communications platform is used to provide employees with emergency manuals, work instructions, and the rules and regulations to be followed.

Occupational Health and Safety in Figures

United   Internet’s objective is to reduce stress-related absences and avoid accidents at work. It will continue to precisely analyze the causes for absences and accidents going forward. The effectiveness of its health and safety management can be seen from the accident and absence statistics.

United   Internet’s health and safety management system covers 82   % (all German locations) of employees. No deaths of employees due to work-related injuries or illnesses were recorded.

A total of 34 reportable accidents at work were reported in fiscal year 2024. These resulted in 1,211 employee days lost, corresponding to a ratio of 2.02% of the total hours worked. Adjustments were made for absences due to vacations, days lost to illness, and holidays when calculating the estimated hours worked on the basis of the standard working hours.

Promoting Employee Well-being

Employee well-being is important to United   Internet. Some of the HR policies and actions designed to contribute to United   Internet’s attractiveness as an employer also aim at strengthening employee well-being. These include offerings of social events contributing to a motivational working environment, fair pay, regular salary reviews, and the use of flexible working times and remote working options to promote a healthy work-life balance. The diversity and inclusion programs and extensive training offerings also promote workforce well-being. United   Internet specifically implements initiatives designed to enhance the Company’s social impact and to promote a respectful corporate culture. Employee satisfaction is measured using regular surveys. The fact that United   Internet was named a “Top Employer” ¹ demonstrates the success of the Group’s HR strategy.

The following table shows the employees who have taken family-related leave. A total of 99.6   % of employees are entitled to this. The difference to 100   % is due to the fact that in Austria male employees are only entitled to take a “Papamonat” (“Daddy Month”) after they have completed their probationary period, and that in the United States the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) must be taken into account, which can lead to restrictions in entitlements to family-related leave.

¹ The figures relate to core employees (head count) as of December 31 of the fiscal year in question. They include apprentices and trainees, student workers, interns, school students, thesis students, and casual workers.

*Gender as specified by the employees themselves.