Employee participation

Employees can actively help shape the Company by participating in the opinion survey. This uniform, Group-wide employee survey regularly gathers information about employee satisfaction. Following the survey, the results are discussed together by supervisors and employees. Complaints and problems are addressed, as are suggestions on how to better organize work. The measures agreed are then implemented before the next survey. The opinion survey was conducted for the seventh time in 2014. A total of 150 locations and companies in 44 countries were included in the survey. More than 440,000 of the over 490,000 employees invited to participate took part, giving a participation rate of 89% (89%). The sentiment rating is a key parameter for the opinion survey, in addition to the level of employee participation. In 2014, this was 79 (79) out of 100.

The “Volkswagen Way” has been a successful tool for involving Volkswagen AG’s workforce in improving the Company’s efficiency since 2007. It aims to both increase competitiveness and safeguard employment. A continuous improvement process aimed at achieving continuous process and structure optimization in the areas of productivity and quality, ergonomics, leadership and teamwork helps to ensure these. As in the previous year, a particular focus for the “Volkswagen Way” in the reporting period was on optimizing overarching workflows. In addition to the “Volkswagen Way”, a uniform Group-wide production system is used for all brands during production.

Employees use their creativity, knowledge and initiative to take responsibility for process and product improvement under the Ideas Management program. Employees in Germany have submitted over two million ideas since 1949 using the former suggestion scheme and today’s Ideas Management program, saving nearly €3.2 billion at the Volkswagen AG and Volkswagen Sachsen GmbH German locations. Ideas management is an important leadership and motivational instrument for line supervisors. It also contributes to improving health and safety in the Volkswagen workplace and to implementing our targets for reducing energy and water consumption, waste, solvents and CO₂ emissions.