Responsible human resources policy

Creating value by focusing on the future

Our employees are our most important resource: their skills, their commitment, their hard work and their sense of responsibility determine Aareal Bank Group's economic performance and competitiveness. This means that employee satisfaction and how to achieve it – which in turn is a core indicator of social sustainability – is a top priority throughout the Group.

Our employee development policy aims at ensuring both professional qualifications and soft skills, and why we assist staff in achieving a successful work-life balance and also offer them an enhanced Company Health Management programme.

For us, sustainable management starts with the selection and motivation for our employees, which is why we have internalised the following principles in order to develop a responsible human resources policy.

Aareal Bank Group's key personnel figures for the current year can be found here.

Permanent employment is our preferred choice

Aareal Bank AG usually employs temporary workers only in specific situations and exceptional cases, e.g. if the required competencies are not available internally or temporary capacity bottlenecks have to be bridged at short notice. As a general rule, the Bank aims to employ staff on a permanent basis. This is reflected by the fact that the share of temporary workers in the total number of employees has been below 2 per cent for years.

Fair remuneration systems

Rewarding employees with good remuneration for good performance goes without saying for us. This is why, at Aareal Bank Group, salaries are set in compliance with overarching remuneration policies that are based on the regulatory requirements. The salaries paid to Aareal Bank employees in Germany are governed by collective wage agreements or general works agreements. All employees receive fixed and variable remuneration. The variable remuneration is comprised of two components, which are derived from the Group's performance aRetirement provision and insurance

Retirement provision and insurance

Aareal Bank AG offers its employees the ability to participate in an employer-funded corporate retirement plan. Contributions to capital formation schemes can also be used for this. Employees Group-wide can also make additional pension contributions using a deferred compensation model.

In addition, we offer staff a number of other benefits designed to protect them, such as health insurance for foreign travel and group accident insurance that also covers incidents outside work.

Training and education: individual employee development

We invest continuously in our employees' professional and interpersonal skills. Our goals-driven employee development activities reflect our awareness of how important it is to have highly qualified, motivated staff in an increasingly competitive environment.

• You can find more information at: Aareal: Career development opportunities.

Fostering young talent

Developing qualified and talented young staff is a core aspect of our human resources work. The specialised knowledge required in our business areas makes it necessary to invest continuously and specifically in the qualification of junior staff. For this reason, the recruitment and training of junior staff is an integral part of our sustainable succession planning and our structured knowledge management.

In addition to the trainee programme, our young talent development programme also includes dual study courses. There is also the chance to gain valuable practical experience in different areas as part of an internship or as working students. You can find more information at:

• Trainee programme: Aareal: With a degree or during your studies
• Internship and student trainee programme: Aareal: With a degree or during your studies
• Dual study programme: Aareal: With school-leaving certificate or at school

Co-determination

The management and the Works Council, as the body for employee co-determination, take a cooperative approach to their work together. Employee representatives are regularly informed of current developments. All locations take part in annual works council meetings and regular employee events.

The General Works Councils for Aareal Bank and Aareon Deutschland GmbH each appoint an Economic Committee. The Supervisory Boards for Aareal Bank and Aareon Deutschland are covered by the rules governing co-determination; Aareon employees are also represented on the Aareal Bank Supervisory Board.

In addition to Aareal Bank representatives, the Group Works Council comprises representatives of other German subsidiaries who address issues relating to the Group as a whole.

Gender equality

Aareal Bank attaches great importance to ensuring equal rights for men and women. We comply strictly with the provisions of the General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz), both with regard to staff appointment decisions and with respect to remuneration and to training measures for professional development.

We do not distinguish by gender when it comes to employee pay; apart from individual performance, the only things taken into consideration are factors such as qualifications, professional experience and training. A study conducted by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth analysed Aareal Bank AG's pay structures and confirmed that there are no significant differences in pay between men and women.

Additionally, employee bodies regularly check that qualifications are the decisive criterion used when selecting applicants for positions. Moreover, Aareal Bank Group has an AGG-complaints office under the General Equal Treatment Act. Training on the Act is mandatory and is conducted for all employees.

Diversity

We regard cultural diversity as enriching our corporate culture and as an opportunity for ensuring sustainable business success. Our day-to-day work together is based on the principles of mutual esteem and respectful dealings with one another. We have anchored these principles in our Code of Conduct and underscored their importance by signing the Diversity Charta. Diversity means more than simply tolerance and respect for otherness, for us it is at the time the basis for doing business sustainably. This is also reflected in our Diversity Principles.

• You can find out more at: Aareal: Sustainability and diversity

Work-life balance

Ensuring a healthy work-life balance is a key priority in today's society and is becoming more and more of a knock-out criterion for staff selecting employers. We address this by offering a wide range of options designed to enable individual members of staff to find the right solution for their needs. For example, we offer models for flexible and part-time working as well as long-term working time accounts, as well as the option of mobile working.

In Wiesbaden, Aareal Bank works with a non-profit organisation that operates childcare facilities in the city. We also help employees at locations outside Wiesbaden achieve an optimal work-life balance by assisting them in finding private childcare solutions.

Our comprehensive long-term care offering is another element helping to achieve a better work-life balance. This builds on the ability to take statutory long-term care leave and family caregiver leave, in particular by enabling employees to call on advisory and support services from a third-party provider when close relatives are ill or in need of long-term care. In addition, staff can take part in several different skills training courses designed to improve their work-care balance that are run under the auspices of the Bündnis für Familie (Family Alliance) in Wiesbaden.

Aareon also has its own co-operations and service providers for childcare and care situations as well as for psychosocial issues. At the Mainz site, Aareon also cooperates with another company to offer crèche and kindergarten places in a day-care centre, where kindergarten places are free of charge for Aareon employees.

Alongside these wide-ranging measures to promote a better work-life balance, parent-child offices have been set up at Aareal Bank in Wiesbaden and at various Aareon locations.

• Further details can be found on our career pages under Aareal: Compensation & Benefits.

Health management

Employee health is always a top priority for us. Therefore we have an extensive Company Health Management (BGM) program that helps all employees to remain mentally and physically fit. The BGM focuses primarily on the areas of information, prevention, exercise and ergonomics, nutrition, psychological health and relaxation. Our goal is to enable all staff to select the right offering or activity for them from the range provided.

The health portal run by BAD, our occupational health service, provides staff with basic information on a variety of health-related topics such as ergonomics, nutrition, sport and exercise, balance and prevention. 

In the area of prophylaxis, preventive individual health consultations on various topics, health consultations by the company doctor, skin screenings, influenza vaccinations and colon cancer screening are offered at regular intervals.

Our exercise and ergonomics courses include running groups as well as alternative exercise programs. To facilitate sporting activities before and after work, the bank provides its employees with shower rooms.

We ensure they have access to healthy food by operating our own canteen, which focuses consistently on providing balanced, varied meals. In addition, we provide employees with free mineral water and with the opportunity to purchase healthy snacks during the day. 

One main way in which we attempt to promote employees' psychological health and relaxation is by providing a range of presentations and workshops. Another core component of our psychological health and relaxation offering is the ability for staff to contact a crisis hotline in case of professional or personal problems. This is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

• Further details can be found on our career pages under Aareal: Compensation & Benefits.

Occupational safety

Organising occupational safety throughout the Group is the Management Board's responsibility. 

It does this using an integrated management system and in compliance with the statutory regulations. For us, this means specifically planning and systemically organising occupational health and safety, and consistently integrating it with management tasks.

Regularly reviewing the efficacy of, and continuously improving, our occupational safety management activities are also important. Aareal Bank Group successfully adopts this approach at its headquarters and German locations, and is regularly audited by external supervisory authorities.

Awards

Our continuous and far-reaching measures to promote the satisfaction of our employees are honoured. This is evidenced by a number of external awards and seals - they are both a motivation and an aspiration to further expand and optimise the high standards we set for our own actions in the future. Further information can be found on our website in the Career section.