The company reports on how it complies with nationally and internationally recognised standards relating to employee rights as well as on how it fosters staff involvement in the company and in sustainability management, what goals it has set itself in this regard, what results it has achieved thus far and where it sees risks.
Our business activities are based on a common corporate culture with shared values. The Group's set of values embraces five principles that apply to all employees: integrity, reliability, innovation, results orientation and sustainability. They are all underpinned by the principle of safety - this applies to all HOCHTIEF's work - both operationally and strategically.
HOCHTIEF cherishes a transparent management well advanced over the legal requirements. We align activities with the recommendations of the Government Commission on the German Corporate Governance Code. HOCHTIEF is an active participant ("signatory") of UN Global Compact and follows the "Code of Responsible Conduct for Business".
Every employee is important to us, so we take the legal requirements regarding employee rights very seriously. Respect and fairness characterize the trustful cooperation with us - we expect the same from our business partners and customers. These rules are laid down in our
Code of Conduct and directives. Our Code of Conduct complies with both the ILO core labour standards and the German Corporate Governance Code (DCGK). It is binding for HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft and the Europe division.
Our HOCHTIEF Americas and HOCHTIEF Asia Pacific divisions have incorporated the requirements into their codes of conduct, which means that German standards are also established in our international companies.
The exchange with our employees and their opportunities for co-determination are important to us. This is done either directly through open and constructive dialogue between employees and superiors or through elected stakeholders. Many employees continue to receive support from trade unions, some of which they are members of. In Germany, 97.1 percent of employees are represented by works councils; a European works council is responsible for the European units. Employees in the other subsidiaries are also represented by trade unions: 23.0 percent in the HOCHTIEF Americas division and 65.4 percent in the HOCHTIEF Asia Pacific division.
A critical requirement for all project teams is to be well informed and trained on occupational safety, health, and environmental protection. We involve and sensitize the workforce to ensure everyone understands environmental issues, for example by peronsal training, on-site instruction, and training presentations.
Staff at the OSHEP Center coordinate occupational safety matters at Group level and report directly to the
Executive Board. They remain in regular contact with the divisions’ central liaisons. Other responsible officers in the operating companies are charged with implementing occupational safety guidelines, laws, and standards.
Opportunity and risk situation in the HOCHTIEF Group: Employees
We attach top priority to occupational safety and health protection for our employees. Effective occupational safety guards against project risks, since accidents at work also have a negative impact on profitable project execution. Deficiencies in the area of occupational safety can also harm the company’s reputation. Safety is the foundation underpinning all of our Group’s guiding principles. Project hazard assessments serve to identify safety risks on project sites and in our offices as well as to counter those risks either preventively or with targeted action. The lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) is a non-financial key performance indicator. By 2030, we aim to reduce this figure to 0.9 at Group level. This underscores the importance of safety for HOCHTIEF.
Our focus is on proactively avoiding work accidents and workplace-related illness. Regular action days, intranet and poster campaigns as well as training raise employee awareness of issues surrounding occupational safety, health, and environmental protection.
CR organization
The principle of sustainability is coordinated by the
specialist division Corporate Responsibility. This is laid down in our CR directive, wich defines Group-wide standards. The work of both the CR function and the CR bodies (CR Committee, Sustainability Competence Team) is geared toward the ongoing strategic and operational fine-tuning of sustainability at HOCHTIEF. The executive board is regularly integrated in these works and processes. The importance of sustainability, especially through holistic project management and support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, is communicated to investors and other interest groups by the executive board (see
Letter from the CEO Marcelino Fernández Verdes).
Further information on CR organization at HOCHTIEF can be found under criterion 5 "Responsibility".
Research and development at HOCHTIEFOur research and development work makes a significant contribution to HOCHTIEF's sustainable activities. Our employees develop future-oriented ideas for sustainable solutions centrally, but also at divisional and project level. In addition to the economic benefits, these make a significant contribution to achieving our ecological and social goals.
International activityCompliance - the binding observance of all internal and external rules - plays an important role at HOCHTIEF. As an international construction services provider, HOCHTIEF is active in countries with very different values, political systems and legal systems - and is committed to them.
Binding principles of conduct also apply throughout the Group: All employees of our Group companies are required to act in accordance with the rules laid down in the HOCHTIEF Code of Conduct and to adhere to internal guidelines on compliance-relevant issues. We demand the same from our contractual partners and subcontractors.