In the business year 2021/22, the percentage of female executives was 12.9%, thus down slightly from 13.6% the previous business year. One woman has been appointed to a divisional management position since the business year 2013/14.
As part of internal leadership development efforts, great importance is placed on continuing to increase the percentage of female participants. The Group thus takes care to ensure that women are represented at each training level of the Leadership Development Program (“value:program”). New iterations of the value:program were launched in the business year 2021/22 after a hiatus of about 1.5 years on account of the pandemic. Owing to international travel restrictions, however, in the business year 2021/22 only 131 employees from 14 countries were able to participate in this multi-stage executive development program; women accounted for 12.2% of the enrollees.
Overall, the percentage of women in the voestalpine Group in the business year 2021/22 was 15.4% (previous year: 14.8%). There are industry-specific, historical, and cultural reasons for this percentage—which remains low compared with other industries. In the public’s consciousness, the image of a steel and technology Group still conforms to the image of heavy industry, with the result that broad-based recruitment of female employees is a challenging undertaking. Nonetheless, the percentage of women in the voestalpine Group among salaried employees up to the age of 30 is now around 39.7%. Despite all of our efforts, however, women still only account for a mere 8.5% among workers.
None of the Group companies have explicit “female quotas.” Instead, the voestalpine Group strives to raise the percentage of women in the Group at all levels in the long term through appropriate measures. This includes a number of activities, some of which are country specific, e.g., participation in the “Girls’ Day,” the specific advancement of women in technical trades requiring apprenticeships, and/or boosting the hiring of female graduates of technical schools and universities. In addition, the establishment and expansion of in-house child care facilities and/or collaborations with external facilities is being accelerated. Such facilities and collaborations can be found at the Group’s plants in Linz and Leoben/Donawitz, Austria, for instance. As a result of these efforts, by now women are also employed in leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated, technical areas of the company. Women also hold executive positions in the financial, legal, strategic, communications, and human resources departments in a number of Group companies. For example, “Legal and Compliance” in two of the four divisions is headed by women.
As part of the annual Human Resources Report, data on the percentage of women in executive positions is regularly collected and analyzed based on qualifications and training programs for the purpose of monitoring the long-term impact of all measures.
