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Progressive and responsible

Human resources policy in 2020

In the 2020 reporting year, despite difficult conditions for KfW IPEX-Bank and for all of us individually, our employees continued to demonstrate a high level of commitment and to work very successfully on the bank's behalf. With their clear focus on our customers around the globe and their expertise, service orientation and professionalism, they have helped KfW IPEX-Bank to maintain its competitiveness as one of the market's leading project and export financiers. Well-trained and committed employees are the most crucial resource of all, which is why a progressive and responsible human resources policy is essential.

KfW IPEX-Bank employed an average of 837 members of staff in 2020 (previous year: 745). The proportion of employees working part-time increased again, from 26.6% in the previous year to 27.4% at year-end. Female staff made up 48.2% of the workforce (previous year: 47.5%). The proportion of women in management has also increased again and now stands at 30.9% (previous year: 30.4%). The proportion of disabled employees was 2.6% at year-end (in accordance with the law on disabled persons, previous year: 2.3%), and this figure is to rise continuously. The average age of the bank's employees was 42 years. The staff turnover rate adjusted for retirement was 4.1% in 2020 (previous year: 3.1%; if all employment contracts for interns and work placement students that expired were to be included, the figure for 2020 would be 6.6%). This takes account of transfers within the Group.

Management of the pandemic

Protecting the women and men on our staff is the highest priority for KfW IPEX-Bank. Early on the bank stepped up to its responsibilities in the coronavirus pandemic, introducing measures as soon as March 2020 that included immediately implementing and monitoring a strict hygiene policy for office work, flexible adjustment of working time arrangements, enabling employees to work from home, providing additional childcare support, and communicating transparently and regularly on management issues.

A separate staff survey by KfW Group on coronavirus and mobile working, in which 59% of KfW IPEX-Bank's employees took part, provided important information on how to deal with the crisis and created a significant boost for home working and digitalisation. The desire for more flexible working in terms of time and location also in the future has become a priority area for KfW IPEX-Bank. Issues such as the blurring of boundaries between work and private life, heavier workloads and difficulty communicating – also informally, such as the lack of "corridor conversations" – had a negative impact on employees and managers, including greater stress. The analysed issues have flowed into ongoing projects and new initiatives, providing important impetus for developing new ways of working.

logos of awards

A remuneration system linked to performance and market developments

As an international specialist bank of relevance to the German and European economies, KfW IPEX-Bank is an attractive employer. This is also underpinned by its remuneration system, since KfW IPEX-Bank, as a major institution, is subject to the German Remuneration Ordinance for Institutions (Institutsvergütungsverordnung – InstitutsVergV) and therefore fulfils regulatory requirements regarding the appropriateness of its remuneration system. Employee remuneration, which is transparent and easy to understand, is therefore based on the link between personal performance and sustained success at bank, department and individual level. There is a balanced combination of fixed and variable remuneration, which is structured so that there are no incentives for employees to take disproportionately high risks.

Gender-sensitive culture – active diversity

Gender equality is a key component of KfW Group's human resources policy and is anchored in KfW IPEX-Bank's guidelines. In accordance with the German law on equal participation of women and men in management positions in the private and public sectors (Gesetz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im öffentlichen Dienst – FührposGleichberG), KfW IPEX-Bank continues to pursue its objective of increasing the proportion of women in management positions (see also information in the Management Report) and takes appropriate measures to promote women as future managers.

KfW IPEX-Bank became a signatory to the Diversity Charter in the reporting year, an employer initiative to encourage diversity within a company that aims to foster a progressive, unbiased and open working environment. The member companies of this diversity network advocate, among other things, an organisational culture characterised by mutual respect and esteem. We believe unreservedly that active diversity is an enriching experience, and we demonstrate this in accordance with the Charter through various activities to promote, appreciate and cultivate diversity.

KfW IPEX-Bank also joined the nationwide Fathers Network in 2020, which is committed to supporting men to fulfil their family responsibilities at different stages of their life and in harmony with their career goals. It allows KfW IPEX-Bank's male employees to access a database with information about achieving a work-life balance, take part in webinars and swap experiences on a regular basis.

Company pension scheme

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, employees are given the option to increase their future company pension benefits through voluntary deferred compensation. KfW IPEX-Bank then tops up this personal employee contribution with a supplementary employer contribution.

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.

Modern staff development

KfW IPEX-Bank's progressive staff development is focused on the early and ongoing updating of professional skills, developing modern management tools and identifying and promoting talent. In pursuit of the goal of maintaining and boosting the performance of staff and management, the bank focused on the following topics in 2020:

Promoting young talent – trainee programmes

A central starting point of our human resources strategy is the training of graduates, who can take part in a 12-month trainee programme at KfW IPEX-Bank. In view of the bank's efforts to expand its business organically, to anchor its position as a specialist bank for the German and European economies and to further pursue the strategic course on which it has embarked in connection with this, the bank continued to recruit a high number of trainees in the reporting year. Talented young graduates with an international outlook can select from five trainee programmes and focus, according to their individual aptitudes and backgrounds, on the areas of structured finance market, risk, collateral management, credit management or controlling units. In all five trainee programmes, the content of the different training modules has been specifically structured 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 into 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.

Future employees

With new working methods as its focus, an internal project on the skills of the future has created transparency around the existing and future core competences and skills that will be needed in the bank's digital working environment. The findings have led to measures in various fields of action that will help KfW IPEX-Bank future-proof its human resources.

Corporate learning: KfW IPEX-Bank Academy

KfW IPEX-Bank places great emphasis on the continuous professional development of its employees. The in-house training catalogue includes over 60 different training courses, some of which are taught in English. In line with coronavirus restrictions on gatherings, KfW IPEX-Bank Academy switched partway through the year from teaching on-site to conducting virtual events. This enabled employees, despite the coronavirus protective measures, to participate in a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from training on credit processes and sales through to communication seminars and separate units for managers. The pandemic has fundamentally altered the requirements, rapidly accelerating the development of digital working. KfW IPEX-Bank has taken the new requirements into account and expanded the training catalogue to include courses dealing with various aspects of virtual working. The entire offering of KfW IPEX-Bank Academy is aimed at maintaining on-the-job professionalism of employees at its already high level or increasing it even further.

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.

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 2020, which from March were all held virtually.

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 2020, KfW IPEX-Bank 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 repeated its independent evaluation of KfW IPEX-Bank and awarded it Top Arbeitgeber Deutschland 2020 (top employer in Germany in 2020) certification.

Works council and representation of disabled employees

Successful human resources policy is based on an active social partnership that 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 regard to all relevant topics. In collaboration with the representatives for disabled employees, the aim is to continuously increase the number of employees with disabilities.

At a glance: Personnel key figures (2020)

Legal notice:

The information contained in this online Annual Report 2020 is based on KfW IPEX-Bank’s Management Report 2020, which you can download here (in German, English version will follow soon). Should this online Annual Report 2020, 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 2020 takes priority.