Our commitment to diversity and equal opportunity are anchored in our mission statement. Our forward-looking and sustainable human relations policies ensure a level playing field for professional success, respect cultural differences, and promote interaction among each other. For Messer, diversity is essential to innovation and sustainable business success, and mutual trust and respect are the company values in which our corporate culture is deeply rooted.
Diversity management
The goal of our diversity management program is to create a respectful work environment that is free of prejudice, regardless of the employees’ gender, nationality, ethnic or social origin, religion, ideology, disability, age, sexual orientation or gender identity. Since 2019, Messer Group has been a recipient of the Total E-Quality Award for equal opportunity in personnel and organizational policy with the special citation for diversity. Valid for three years, the award is supported and recommended by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth as well as by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
In addition, we are signatories to the “Diversity Charter,” an initiative that promotes diversity in companies and institutions. Our interdisciplinary team and contact persons responsible for diversity management in our international subsidiaries help us deliver on our diversity commitment throughout the organization.
In 2021, the Americas nominated a Diversity and Inclusion Officer, as well as D&I Ambassadors for each of the countries in the Americas region. The D&I Officer together with the D&I Ambassadors help advance diversity and inclusion efforts through dedicated initiatives and concrete actions. To progress the Americas D&I agenda, a formal program was established focusing on three key pillars: education, engagement and process.
Unconscious bias training
In 2021, Messer established an international training program against unconscious biases. Unconscious biases and prejudices are considered to be among the greatest barriers for diversity strategies. They can affect hiring, for example, when recruiters unconsciously give preferential treatment to people of their own gender, skin color, orientation or cultural affiliation. Messer’s international management team received training in the form of a comprehensive and mandatory e-learning course. In a first stage, the training course was then expanded to the international HR network team and the workforce in Germany. It uses examples to illustrate the problems that “fast thinking” can create – both in private life and at work. Building on that foundation, managers were then trained in techniques designed to help them take more conscious decisions, and therefore better ones.
A leading provider of unconscious bias training was selected by the team in the Americas to facilitate its training program, which is formally being rolled out to the entire organization.
The unconscious bias e-learning courses will continue its expansion in 2022.
Diversity Report
In May 2021, Messer published its second annual Diversity Report. A wide range of data are collected anonymously, including the workforce’s key indicators relative to gender along with length of company service, age distribution and nationality, and the diversity management actions are also reflected. This monitoring will help us achieve the established objectives and metrics.
As of December 31, 2021, Messer employed 10,209 people; on December 31, 2020, that figure was 10,764. The share of women was 28.1 percent, which was slightly below the 28.4 percent share of the previous year. The share of women in first and second level management positions was 25.1 percent versus 24.1 percent in 2020. The share of women in management positions at Messer in the Americas (35.8 percent) was significantly higher than in Western Europe (23.8 percent) or Central and Eastern Europe and Asia (21.4 percent collectively).
The share of women in the first and second levels of management will be raised over the long term, with the goal of establishing mixed-gender management teams with a 30-percent share of women by 2030.
Our salaries are based on function, market, performance, education, experience and number of years of service, as well as any collective wage agreements or comparable collective wage agreements and adjustments for inflation. It goes without saying that our remuneration policy makes no distinction among genders.
Supervisory Board of Messer SE & Co. KGaA reflects gender parity
Messer appointed Sabine Scheunert to its Supervisory Board, which now comprises four women and four men. Ms. Scheunert is the Vice President of Digital & IT Sales/Marketing for Mercedes-Benz Cars at Mercedes-Benz AG. In her executive board function at Mercedes, Ms. Scheunert is responsible for all IT-based marketing, sales and after-sales activities as well as the complete digital customer experience of the brand.
Colombia / Chile: International Women’s Day activities
In March 2021, Messer’s subsidiaries in Colombia and Chile organized many activities to honor the accomplishments of women and to raise awareness for equal rights. These activities were conducted in conjunction with International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8. Webinars featured interviews with female employees in management positions, and a workshop focused on the importance of gender equality. Activities were rounded out with tips on how to promote human rights and diversity in our everyday lives along with recognition of important contributions made by women leaders.
USA: Messer signs CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge
Messer America’s CEO, Jens Luehring, signed the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge. The CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion is an organization with over 2,000 CEO signatory companies that are devoted to driving measurable action and meaningful change in the workplace. Additionally, the company promotes celebrating diversity recognition events including, Pride Month, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Hispanic Heritage Month, Veterans Day and Global Diversity Awareness Month to engage employees and promote inclusion.
In 2021, the average length of service of our employees since joining Messer was 9.7 years versus 10.2 years in 2020. Total staff turnover fell slightly from 13.2 percent in 2020 to 10.1 percent in 2021.
The employee survey in Europe in 2020 identified three areas in which local organizations should place greater focus: Digitalization, communication and employee development. To improve internal communication, Messer launched an international app in 2021: the “Beekeeper” app facilitates worldwide exchange between organizations and their teams: there are different streams for information, messages and files. Moreover, Beekeeper makes it possible to conduct anonymous and non-anonymous surveys, send out newsletters, and disseminate information campaigns. The Corporate Communications area was redesigned at the same time. Now it focuses more on content and in-house communications and is no longer organized according to communication channels. A “digital newsroom” reinforces cooperation with the communications officers in all companies.
Since the end of 2019, Messer Americas has been conducting surveys annually, in order to determine the needs and requirements of the workforce and to establish appropriate employee development programs. Their survey results from 2021 demonstrated indicators of employee engagement in the areas of company pride, safety and culture. The survey also provided employees an opportunity to express why diversity and inclusion (D&I) are important and what makes them most proud to work at Messer.
Messer is committed to the education and training of talented young professionals, who represent an important investment in the competitiveness and capability of our company. Some of that training takes place at various locations, supplemented by multi-week assignments abroad. As in the previous year, the training quota at Messer in 2021 was 1.3 percent.
Open dialog and in-house transmission of expertise are important to us. That’s why we promote the establishment and maintenance of cross-regional and intercultural networks. In 2021, most network meetings were held virtually. We use this to win over even more networking participants and to network our workforce on the professional level to an even greater extent. In all, employees participated 20,509 times – in most cases virtually – in site conferences or network meetings designed for strategic integration or know-how transfer. By contrast, that figure was 15,559 in 2020.
Continuing education and support
The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic has changed how people think about continuing education. At Messer, we used the extensive offering of virtual webinars to provide continuing and advanced education for employees in 2021. Participation in paid seminars averaged 15 hours per person in the year under review. On average, a total of 114.5 euros per person were spent on advanced training. In tracking the cost and hours of continuing education, Messer Americas took into account only training courses involving Compliance.
Selected network meetings of specialized groups
Messer reinforced digital networking activities in connection with the in-house Global Finance Conference. Along with existing channels, this communications concept relied on two new digital formats: The “Quarterly Touchbase,” in which reporting topics were discussed, and the “Finance Forum” for a topic-based exchange on innovations and best practices in the finance area.
For all regions, Corporate Application Technology held virtual meetings in the Food, Welding and Cutting, and High-Temperature Processes segments, as well as the annual Applications Manager Meeting.
The Global Workshop Specialty Gases was also held in four separate events, with participants from Europe, China, ASEAN as well as – for the first time – North and South America. It focused on exchanging information among the regions along with developing synergies and cooperation.
In September 2021, Messer held the Global Sales Meeting as a hybrid conference: While a large share of the European team traveled to Bad Soden to participate in person, the remaining employees of the international sales network and invited guests accessed the event virtually. Topics covered sales digitalization measures, business growth in the “clean hydrogen” segment, and the launch of a new system for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
In 2021, Corporate Logistics organized three virtual meetings of the management teams in charge of logistics in the national subsidiaries. These meetings focused on current developments and mutual exchange, with the goal of further raising the productivity of logistics processes. Through the continuous optimization of supply chain management, Corporate Logistics is making a key contribution to greater efficiency and profitability.