The men and women on our staff in 2020

Employees' experiences from the corona­virus crisis are an important source of information for KfW as regards current modernisation projects and initiatives associated with “the future world of work”. To this end, KfW conducted a special survey in cooperation with an independent research institute in 2020, which garnered a high participation rate of 74%.

The survey results indicate that KfW coped very well in recent months despite the additional strain due, among other things, to the KfW Special Programme for corona­virus aid.

• Working capacity remained stable and quality constant at all times.
• The organisation already benefits from a high level of digitalisation of working materials and IT equipment.
• The issues of mobile working and digitalisation have received a strong boost. the desire for much greater flexibility in working location and times in future is a major opportunity for KfW.
• Negative effects (e.g. increased stress) can be observed among employees and managers as regards blurring of boundaries (between work and personal life), heavier workloads and informal exchange (e.g. corridor chats).

How and where people can and want to work these days is an important part of the new world of work. The corona­virus pandemic greatly accelerated this development. Even before the pandemic, KfW was interested in increasing flexibility in the working environment – wherever possible. Mobile working is also intended to continue in the future as a form of work alongside working in the office.

• KfW's level of digitalisation was relatively high even before the pandemic, which meant it could ramp up mobile working without great productivity loss. KfW also digitalised more processes and made a large number of technological improvements to facilitate mobile working in 2020.
• Opportunities were offered including (virtual) training on topics such as leadership at a distance and self-organisation, psychological counselling on blurred boundaries, and even (virtual) exercise sessions for strengthening back and neck muscles.
• A clear framework and reliable guidelines were defined in a staff agreement in December 2020 to increase mobile work in the future. The experience gained from the pandemic will therefore be anchored in company practice for the long term.

As one of the world's leading promotional banks, KfW supports the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aims to be a pioneer in shaping the transition to a better, more climate-friendly and more sustainable world. This also means achieving equal pay for women and men on its own staff.

In order to validate its remuneration system also from an external perspective, KfW Group ran a check on equal pay with the support of the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes) in 2020. The check on equal pay (EG-Check) is an analytical tool for companies to help them identify the causes of unequal pay. The results have already been addressed, and are included in KfW's current Equal Opportunities Plan.

KfW joined PANDA GmbH's “Employers for Equality” programme this year, as one of 12 founding members. Participation in the programme is intended to support the goals set out in the Equal Opportunities Plan 2020-2023 as well as further advance the anchoring and practice of all seven of the charter's diversity dimensions.

• The Employers for Equality programme offers workshops, lectures, conference calls and good practices on the issues of equal opportunities and diversity. These promote dialogue between companies and networking opportunities, and offer information and inspiration.
• All KfW employees can register for the events, not just those professionally involved in the topical areas.

KfW wants to help its employees stay healthy so as to maintain and encourage their motivation, job satisfaction and performance. The way to do this is through structured health management. The focus was on the following activities in 2020:

• An above-average number of flu vaccinations were administered in 2020, with registration coordinated via a newly launched platform.
• Company exercise and health classes primarily took place online where possible due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• A multi-step “Cycling for fitness in winter” campaign was launched in 2020, which is to continue into 2021. Monthly health-related webinars were also offered to give employees tips to incorporate into their daily routine, such as boosting your immune system and developing healthy sleep habits.
• Ideas on preventing mental stress and maintaining good psychosocial health in the context of fragile states were further developed.
• Webinars on dealing with particular family challenges help workers to manage tense work-from-home situations and support parents in coping with their children and teenagers.

KfW continues to strive to expand and optimise its offerings in the area of operational health management.

KfW signed the diversity changer in 2019, thereby committing itself to an open and unprejudiced working environment. It then implemented numerous diversity campaigns in 2020, increasingly aimed at presenting the different dimensions of diversity and in this way laying the foundation for sustainable diversity management at KfW.

• The action plan mainly comprised measures that could be implemented via digital channels due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• It featured, for instance, a series of Intranet articles with facts and figures on the seven diversity dimensions, inspiring video talks, and workshops and group activities.

KfW slightly increased its inclusion rate to 5.8% (2019: 5.7%). A variety of internal awareness-raising measures were implemented:

• Digital workshops were offered to managers to provide information and raise awareness on dealing with people with disabilities. An interactive component put them in contact with people with different types of disabilities, giving them an opportunity to ask questions without any reservations.
• Recruiting created a working group on inclusion aimed at establishing links with networks, clubs, associations, sports groups etc.
• KfW also participates in a talent programme to attract young, qualified students with disabilities to KfW and give them an insight into the company in order to promote inclusion. This programme too is aimed at generating more openness to the issue, as well as raising awareness of KfW as an attractive employer. One example from the programme is the creation of a graduate trainee programme.
• The KfW website has largely been made digitally accessible in accordance with the German Act on Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (Behindertengleichstellungsgesetz – BGG), with progress on such accessibility also being made on the Intranet.

With the “New learning” project, KfW is reviewing its skills acquisition strategy and adapting content, formats and the role of HR to a new framework. The new learning and training offering is more digital, more diverse, more modular and flexible in terms of time and location.

Opportunities to become certified in-house as “scrum master” or “product owner” have been offered in the form of training courses since 2019. Training offerings on aspects of scaled collaboration have supported KfW's agile transformation since 2020/2021. The new “Lead transformation” leadership development programme also focuses on the issues of agility and agile leadership, with an iterative development model.

The “Future skills” project creates transparency regarding the current and future agile skills required in the digital environment, as well as technological and general skills at KfW. Measures targeted at the skills requirements are derived on this basis.

Monthly dialogue continued in 2020 in the Community of Practice – network of agile method users and interested parties – on topics such as the virtual design of agile collaboration, agile scaling frameworks and potential applications of team goals.

The interdisciplinary KfW agile transformation team was created in June 2020 to roll out the next phase of KfW's transformation into an agile company and to align all measures, projects and initiatives contributing to business agility.

One focus of the agile transformation team in 2021 will be development of a company-wide set of collaboration principles. The principles will be aimed at structural promotion of self-organisation opportunities for all employees and related support through active learning based on regular reflection combined with a corresponding concept of leadership.

IT development has been performed almost entirely on the basis of the agile Scrum method since 2020. After primarily being applied in projects so far, the particular focus in 2021 will be on establishing temporally stable agile IT and departmental units using scaled frameworks.

The introduction of digital and collaborative forms of work was underpinned by consultation hours, video tutorials and smart guides. Other digital tools also facilitate virtual collaboration in the daily work routine.