Employee participation

Codetermination and employee participation are important pillars of our human resources strategy. Volkswagen aims to promote high levels of expertise and a strong sense of team spirit. This includes employees’ opinions, assessments and constructive criticism being heard.

With the opinion survey, a uniform, Group-wide poll, the Company regularly gathers information regarding employee satisfaction. Based on the results, we then implement follow-up processes in which proposals for improvement are developed and monitored until implementation is complete. Over 570,000 employees from 156 locations and companies in 48 countries were invited to take part in the survey. The participation rate was 79%. The average result based on all responses that are regularly received through the opinion survey – the sentiment rating – is an important parameter in the opinion survey; in 2017 it stood at 78.3 out of a possible total of 100 index points. The score achieved was thus on a par with the previous year.

Idea management is another important means of boosting employee engagement. Using their creativity, knowledge and initiative, our employees contribute their ideas for improvements to streamline workflows, further enhance ergonomics in the workplace, reduce costs and continuously increase efficiency. Idea management enables employees to participate actively in the planning and organizing of their work and is also underpinned by prizes with monetary incentives.