voestalpine believes that enhancing employee qualification levels is instrumental to both innovation and quality and thus the company’s success. Numerous measures thus promote employee training and continuing education and simultaneously serve to expand employees’ career opportunities. More than EUR 53 million in total were spent on human resources development in the business year 2019/20. A total of 64.4% of all Group employees took part in training and continuing education programs, and the total volume of training hours was 781,539; this equates to an average of 25.4 hours per trained employee.
Executive training programs
voestalpine relies on the so-called “value:program” it developed for training current and future executives. A total of 198 employees from 26 countries participated in this multi-level leadership program during the business year 2019/20. Of these, 16.7% were women. What makes this program special, aside from the skills training offered by leading international experts and the broad range of the program’s methods, is the intensive collaboration by members of voestalpine’s management—whether as presenters, project managers, or even sparring partners (so to speak)—in exchanges of experience. This mixture of external and internal know-how along with Group-wide interest in ensuring that employees possess advanced qualifications make the value:program extremely successful and unique. Among other things, the participants are required to work on internal projects, giving project mentors insight into the benefits of having international teams from the most divergent corporate units and cultures. As a result, the value:program has focused more intensely on the issue of diversity and promoted its advantages; commensurate training modules will be integrated into the program no later than in the business year 2021/22.
High Mobility Pool
The High Mobility Pool (HMP) program is being reorganized to foster international talent. As part of the program, young college graduates with a few years of professional experience carry out sophisticated project work worldwide. Purposefulness, flexibility, self-directedness, knowledge of management methods, and excellent communication skills are the prerequisites for being successful in this program.
It gives young, talented individuals the opportunity to learn a lot and to use their range of projects to promote international networks within the Group. Following two years of successful international project activity, at the close of the business year 2019/20 six HMP program graduates were offered long-term employment contracts with voestalpine.
Professional academies
In addition to its proven programs for executives and specialists, voestalpine also offers training programs for wage and salaried employees. These programs not only expand these employees’ professional qualifications and expertise, they also boost soft skills such as teamwork, self-reflection, and agility.
Topics such as guiding values and corporate responsibility are explored as well. The voestalpine Group believes that these capabilities and competencies besides high levels of professional expertise are important factors in employees’ successful future advancement.
HR Academy
voestalpine places great value on employee development. The Group offers a wide range of customized programs for various employee groups, including professional academies such as the Sales Academy, the Purchasing Academy, and the voestalpine HR Academy, which was launched in 2016. The training program for HR managers and HR specialists at all Group companies and locations is carried out every two years. So far, it has produced 60 graduates.
The HR Academy aims to support HR managers in their active role as the link between executive and non-executive employees so that all can do their best to contribute to achievement of the company’s goals. This conforms to the way the HR Academy structures the content of its curriculum. Course offerings range from greater familiarity with Group-wide HR tools (e.g., the employee survey, advertising materials for employer branding, onboarding templates, etc.), to practical applications of consulting methods, all the way to advanced topics such as change management, communications, finance for HR, and personality tests. The HR dialogue is an important component of the HR Academy. At this event, Group and division HR managers discuss current and future challenges with the program participants.
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