Phoenix Solar
Employees
Our key success factor is us
With a sales network throughout Germany and subsidiaries all over the world, the Group's employees are committed to making photovoltaics more competitive and accelerating the process of broad-scale introduction into markets across the globe. Our employees are our most valuable asset. This is why we will be placing employee satisfaction increasingly at the heart of our thought and action in the future as this will enable us to create a more motivating and attractive working environment.
Our strategic human resource planning enables us to meet the future opportunities and challenges – both at a regional and worldwide level – through crafting powerful personnel policies.
Table of Contents
Health care management
We pursue a holistic healthcare concept in our head office in Germany. A healthy diet is encouraged by a free daily supply of apples from the region, water for all staff members and subsidised lunches in our affiliated organic canteen. Our employees can use the company's own gym and participate in keep-fit courses free of charge in the Sulzemoos location. A suitable meal and gym centre solution has been implemented in our Ulm branch. Phoenix Solar cooperates with the AOK, a German public health insurance company, in courses to encourage people to quit smoking. Moreover, especially all employees who work with screens can regularly have their eyes checked.
Pension schemes and accident insurance
We want to secure the retirement of our employees as best we can. This is why we offer our workforce an attractive pension, the so-called "Phoenix-bAV", which takes the form of a direct insurance and a reinsured pension assistance fund. All of our employees are automatically included in a group accident insurance from the first day they join our company onwards. This insurance covers our employees 24/7 at work and in their leisure time wherever they are in the world.
Work-life balance
Finding a harmonious work-life balance is important for the long-term motivation and health of our employees and is also playing an increasingly important role in attracting new colleagues. We have implemented a number of measures to help our employees to achieve this work-life balance. Such measures include flexible working arrangements, health and fitness campaigns, free advice from Familienservice GmbH, a company which can be consulted about childcare, parental leave or if support is needed for people dependent on help and nursing care. We specifically offer childcare for the children of our employees in cooperation with a kindergarten in Sulzemoos and bear the costs of a tax-free kindergarten allowance. We take the best possible account of the personal obligations of our employees by offering flexitime models, including the option of working from home (on an hourly/daily basis) or, if appropriate, fully-fledged home office arrangements. By the same token, managerial positions which have become vacant due to parental leave can be filled on an interim basis for a limited period of time to enable these employees to return to a managerial position.
Training at Phoenix Solar
We owe our success as an employer to our workforce. Their know-how, team spirit and commitment combined with the conviction that they want to play a part in shaping the supply of energy of the future have made Phoenix Solar a leading photovoltaic system integrator. We therefore see it as our mandate to ensure the continuous professional development of our employees and the vocational training of young people. At the end of 2011, Phoenix Solar AG had trained eight school leavers in four different careers. All of the trainees were offered employment by Phoenix Solar. Promoting trainees is particularly important to us, and our head training officer devotes her time not only to our own young professionals but also in the role of an active participant in a number of external committees and associations. We are therefore represented on a several examination committees of the Munich Chamber of Commerce, hold the chair on the examination committee of office clerks of the Chamber of Commerce of Upper Bavaria, have participated in the Bildungsagentur Fuerstenfeld (career organisation) since 2009 and lead a seminar on "Fit for the Examination" in which trainees from other companies can also take part.
Professional development programmes
Phoenix Solar has a lot to offer in the way of human resource development activities. New employees go through a carefully designed induction programme entitled "Welcome Days" (four-day events) and training. In addition, our HR department holds two feedback sessions during the six-month training period which, upon permanent employment, are then replaced by regular employee appraisals with the respective manager. We create incentives for our employees through our performance-oriented remuneration system as well as a wide range of courses and HR development programmes. We also provide support for individual wishes for further training and promote our employees in acquiring additional qualifications. We generally bear all the costs incurred, including tuition fees, for instance, or training costs. Our flexitime models enable our employees to coordinate further training with their work for Phoenix Solar.
Diversity management
Diversity which inspires. Our international commitment means that our workforce is made up of employees of different nationalities with different mother tongues – for us this is diversity and equal opportunity. In harmony with our mission of "Making energy together", we at Phoenix are proud of our employees with their different cultures, experiences and standpoints. Our multi-cultural working environment has long become part of our corporate culture and rules out discrimination. We are nonetheless concerned to sensitise our employees to the correct conduct in our dealings with one another. To this end, we hold courses on the German General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz) at regular intervals throughout the Group.
Alongside an international environment and a balanced age structure within the company, managing diversity effectively also means achieving a balance between male and female colleagues. On the cut-off date at the end of June 2011, the ratio of women to men stood at 34.5 percent. The proportion of women in managerial positions came to 21 percent. At Phoenix Solar, we will continue to place importance on achieving an ideal balance between men and women (gender diversity) and work progressively towards raising the number of women in managerial positions in the future as well. In addition, we are committed to building more flexibility into the framework conditions for women at Phoenix Solar.
We know that social diversity needs to be used constructively to anchor diversity management firmly throughout the Group and to optimise it on an ongoing basis. This is translated into action through the offer we make to our employees of working abroad which also accords with the progressive internationalisation of our company. Ultimately it is the sum total of our employees with all their similarities and differences which helps us to move forward as Phoenix Solar and makes us stronger for the future.
