Diversity & Inclusion

Without diversity, the Volkswagen Group would be at a standstill – it’s no wonder with more than 670,000 employees, around 120 production sites and more than 150 markets worldwide. That’s why “We live diversity” is one of our seven Group principles. This commitment to Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) forms a central foundation for the economic success of our company, and is firmly anchored in both our strategy and the ten-point plan. 

Diversity is an integral part of our DNA. As such it not only drives our cultural transformation, it is also an important factor for economic success. Volkswagen has been setting goals to increase diversity in management with corresponding key figures in the Diversity Index since 2017. The Index is part of our corporate strategy and is collected for the entire Volkswagen Group with its active workforce¹.

In its current version, the Diversity Index addresses the proportion of women in management – consisting of the management level, upper management level and top management level, as well as the internationalization of top management. As a strategic key figure, it is directly relevant to remuneration for the Group’s Board of Management and is used to measure and control the implementation of our ESG goals.

#1 global success program “Diversity Wins @ Volkswagen”

With “Diversity Wins @ Volkswagen”, Diversity Management has implemented a global qualification to attract managers for more lived diversity regardless of brand or location for the first time. The program is aimed at all global leaders, from masters to top managers. The main pillars of “Diversity Wins @ Volkswagen” are mandatory training courses in which the participants develop an understanding of why diversity and inclusion are important for the company, which design approaches and activities can be developed, and what responsibility as a manager means in concrete terms. In total, 83 percent of managers around the world have taken part on the trainings. To make sure the initiative is also successful in the long term, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion have become an integral part of the development program for aspiring managers.

#4 Gender diversity and internationalization: Equal opportunity in career development

Volkswagen is pursuing the goal of increasing the proportion of women at the management levels through various programs. The Compass 2.0 Program offers female talents support with orientation and decision-making for the start of a career in management and is aimed at female production employees. The program focuses on a nine-month mentoring, accompanied by network days, dialog event, seminars and feedback discussions.

Another example is our Impat Program, which is aimed at top talents who are of non-German origin and who are taking on responsibility at the first levels of management in the headquarters of the company in Wolfsburg. Volkswagen also offers managers the option to do job sharing.