A progressive and responsible human resources policy

KfW IPEX-Bank owes a great deal of its long-term market success as a leading project and export financier to the extraordinary commitment and excellent work of its highly motivated employees. Placing trust in all employees and showing an appreciation of their work, as well as a progressive and responsible human resources policy, are firmly established components of KfW IPEX-Bank’s corporate culture.

KfW IPEX-Bank employed an average of 697 members of staff in 2018 (previous year: 680). The proportion of employees working part-time increased further from 23.3% in the previous year to 24.6% at year-end. Female staff made up 48% of the workforce. The proportion of women in management has also increased again and now stands at 29.2% (previous year: 27.3%). The proportion of disabled employees was 2.3% at year-end (in accordance with the law on disabled persons, previous year: 1.8%), and this figure is set to rise continuously. The average age of the bank’s employees was 43 years, and the staff turnover rate adjusted for retirement was 5.9% in 2018 (previous year: 5.0%), taking account of transfers within the Group.

A remuneration system linked to performance and market developments

KfW IPEX-Bank’s remuneration system helps to promote the bank’s attractiveness as an employer. As a major institution within the meaning of the Remuneration Ordinance for Institutions (Institutsvergütungsverordnung – InstitutsVergV), KfW IPEX-Bank observes regulatory requirements regarding the appropriateness of its remuneration systems. These are designed to link all employees’ remuneration with personal performance and sustained success at bank, department and individual level, and are set out transparently and in a way that is easy to understand. There is a balanced combination of fixed and variable remuneration, which is structured in such a way that there are no incentives for employees to take disproportionately high risks.

Company pension scheme

For many years now, KfW IPEX-Bank has offered a company pension scheme to its employees. As a modern, forward-looking company, KfW IPEX-Bank took steps during the reporting year to adapt the existing pension scheme to current demographic, legal and economic conditions.

A reliable, employer-funded pension scheme remains an important component of the remuneration package within KfW Group. In addition to a basic employer contribution from KfW IPEX-Bank, under the new system employees are given the option to increase their future company pension benefits through voluntary deferred compensation. KfW IPEX-Bank then boosts this personal employee contribution with a supplementary employer contribution.

The new company pension scheme, which is open to new members from 1 January 2019, will enable KfW IPEX-Bank to continue to fulfil its responsibility towards its employees in the future. This transparent pension system ensures a sufficient degree of planning certainty and, together with the state pension, offers employees an appropriate level of pension benefits once these become due.

Health management

As part of its responsible human resources policy, KfW IPEX-Bank is systematically developing its company health management programme. By helping its employees to stay in good health, the bank hopes to maintain and enhance their motivation, satisfaction and performance at work.

During 2018, the emphasis was on the following activities:

• Provision of ‘First aid in medical emergencies’ team training: In 2018, teams were offered training to improve their first aid skills in the event of a medical emergency. Employees learned about the chain of survival and practised performing CPR.
• Company integration management following illness: KfW IPEX-Bank constantly strives to provide the best possible support to its employees, including when they fall ill. With this in mind, during 2018 the existing company integration management programme was redesigned, improved, and enshrined in a works agreement.
• Health check examinations for managers: In 2018, the voluntary health checks offered to senior levels of management were also extended to team head level. These are now an integral component of the company health management services offered.

Modern staff development

To ensure employees and management can continue to work effectively in the future, staff development at the bank concentrates on continuously adapting professional skills from an early stage, on developing modern management tools and on identifying and promoting talent. The focus in 2018 was on the following areas:

Promoting young talent – trainee programmes

A central focus of our human resources strategy is the training of graduates, who can take part in a 15-month trainee programme at KfW IPEX-Bank. During the reporting year, the number of trainee programmes was increased to four. This means that talented young graduates with an international outlook can be offered training with varying emphases, according to their individual aptitudes and backgrounds. In all four trainee programmes, the content of the different training elements has been specifically structured in order to prepare trainees for the roles they will go on to assume. The trainee programmes include on-the-job training in various positions, professional and personal off-the-job training modules, individual mentoring provided by top-tier management and further communication formats. The intention is to fully integrate young talent in the bank, to provide them with the best possible preparation for their future field of work, and to enable them to identify strongly with KfW IPEX-Bank as an employer.

Flexible deployment and development team

During the reporting year, KfW IPEX-Bank initiated an innovative human resources concept aimed at filling internal vacancies, in the form of its flexible deployment and development team project. This team consists of permanently employed staff who can be deployed flexibly in positions that become vacant for up to one year as a result of temporary absences such as parental leave or sabbaticals. The first aim of this concept is to allocate appropriate, qualified resources to the specialist departments relevant to the credit process. Secondly, the programme helps its participants to advance their careers, as they gain experience in different departments of the bank within a short space of time. The flexible deployment and development project was put into operation in spring 2018 and has been established successfully within KfW IPEX-Bank.

KfW IPEX-Bank Academy

KfW IPEX-Bank places great emphasis on the continuous professional development of its employees. The in-house training catalogue now includes over 60 different training courses, some of which are taught in English, and over 100 events were held at the KfW IPEX-Bank Academy in 2018. Employees participate in a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from training on credit processes or sales through to communication seminars and separate units for managers. The entire offering is aimed at maintaining on-the-job professionalism of employees at its already high level or increasing it even further.

Around two thirds of all training sessions are run by the bank’s in-house experts, which enables the organisation to ensure a structured transfer and exchange of valuable experience and relevant knowledge. External partners are generally used for special topics such as sessions relating to management and communication.

Annual development meetings are held between managers and employees, who work together to identify areas for development and set these out in a training roadmap.

Employee survey action areas

Based on the results of the employee survey conducted in autumn 2017, workshops were held with all departments of KfW IPEX-Bank in early 2018. The objective was to gain a better understanding – through dialogue with employees – of the reasons behind the evaluations given by employees in response to specific questions, in order to identify areas where action should be taken to improve future collaboration.

Employer branding and personnel marketing

Career fairs

Since face-to-face contact and communication with potential candidates is an essential part of its recruitment strategy, KfW IPEX-Bank took part in a number of career fairs during 2018.

Fair Company, fair trainee programme and Top Employer

KfW IPEX-Bank participates in the Fair Company initiative along with a further 600 businesses. This is the largest employer initiative in Germany for students and young professionals, and aims to ensure that university graduates and interns are treated fairly and not used as substitutes for full-time positions. In 2018, KfW IPEX-Bank also again won recognition for its commitment in this area under the Trendence Institut’s charter of fair and career-enhancing trainee programmes (Charta karrierefördernder und fairer Traineeprogramme), while the Top Employers Institute reperformed its independent evaluation of KfW IPEX-Bank and awarded it Top Arbeitgeber Deutschland 2018 (top employer in Germany in 2018) certification.

Works council and representation of disabled employees

Successful human resources policy is based on a social partnership that is put into practice and takes account of employees’ interests. The works council with its 11 members plays a key role in achieving this, and a close, trusting working relationship exists with the works council with regard to all relevant topics. Working in collaboration with the representatives for disabled employees, the number of employees with disabilities was increased further in 2018.

At a glance: Personnel key figures (2018)

Legal notice:

The information contained in this online Annual Report 2018 is based on KfW IPEX-Bank’s Management Report 2018, which you can download here(PDF, 2 MB, accessible). Should this online Annual Report 2018, despite the great care taken in preparation of its content, contain any contradictions or errors compared to the Management Report, KfW IPEX-Bank’s Management Report 2018 takes priority.