Responsibility for employees
As a globally active company, Kärcher has an influence on the lives of many people. In our role as an employer and as a family business, we take responsibility for our employees. We take care of their mental and physical well-being and value their work. As part of this, we offer our employees attractive and flexible conditions, exciting jobs, and individual opportunities for development. After all, our employees are the foundation of our success.
"It is the people in our company that make success possible" – Alfred Kärcher
Alfred Kärcher described the special relationship with his employees as follows: "It is the people in our company that make success possible." We still live by this principle today. The commitment of our employees is the basis for innovation and quality at Kärcher.
That's why we take responsibility for providing all employees with a positive working environment that takes their needs into account at each stage of life.
At Kärcher, everyone should be able to develop their own potential – regardless of gender, age, nationality, physical and mental abilities, social background, sexual orientation, religion or ideology. Diversity strengthens our cooperation.
Insight: Our work and projects for employees
Recycle paper, not ideas
The role of the sustainability manager was created to ensure that the Kärcher sites across the world are equally committed to advocating sustainability. Three managers explain the significance of their work and which unique regional challenges they are coping with.
Every opinion counts – employees sharpen sustainability goals
If an issue affects everyone, everyone should also be able to weigh in. At the "Sustainability Breakfast 2020+", employees in Brazil, China and Germany contributed significantly to the definition of strategy up to 2025.
Employee survey 2019
Almost 11,000 employees worldwide took part in the Kärcher employee survey in 2019. The response rate of 87% shows the strong identification of our employees with the company and their interest in further developing Kärcher. The employee survey gives them the opportunity for this.
Overview: Our commitment to employees
Values & culture
"Renew to sustain. Together we make a powerful impact towards a clean world." Our purpose provides our employees with orientation and gives our daily work a deeper meaning. Kärcher employees from all over the world have mapped out this purpose together and are living it through shared activities. We are systematically developing our corporate culture. Cultural elements such as "social and environmental responsibility", our "strong roots", "team spirit", and "global thinking and action" play a decisive role here.
Equal opportunities & diversity
At Kärcher, everyone should be able to develop their own potential – regardless of gender, age, nationality, physical and mental abilities, social background, sexual orientation, or religion and ideology. We are proud of the fact that people from 116 nations work together successfully at Kärcher in more than 80 countries. In order to underpin our commitment to a diverse workforce, we have embedded the issue of diversity and inclusion in our corporate mission statement.
General conditions & satisfaction
We offer our employees a working environment characterized by collaboration and communication, mutual appreciation, trust, and respect. This includes a fair and transparent remuneration system, the option of flexible working time models for a better work-life balance, additional benefits such as a company pension or lifetime working time accounts, our regular employee survey, and globally standardized onboarding. The satisfaction of our employees is expressed in their long-term loyalty to the company.
Health & safety
Healthy employees are the prerequisite for our company's performance. Kärcher takes the health and safety of its employees extremely seriously. All of our sites have local occupational safety organizations in order to implement the respective applicable national regulations on safety at work. The numerous local and central health promotion activities include counseling and prevention services on topics such as ergonomics, addiction, mental health, and reintegration after serious illness.
Training & development
Kärcher's ambition is to attract new, talented professionals and to fully utilize the potential of existing employees. In doing so, we build on our training programs, which have grown over the years, and on a standardized talent management process in conjunction with targeted further training. In this way, we drive the establishment and development of the necessary future competencies – based on the Kärcher competency model. It includes the competencies required for Kärcher within the categories of Culture and Leading, Change and Innovation, Strategic Orientation, Business Alignment, Collaboration, and Skills.
Commitment & participation
Entrepreneurial freedom allows each individual to contribute their skills and creativity responsibly for the benefit of the company. Our employees are full of initiative and energy, and bring their own ideas to the company via our ideas platform or projects. Our employees are also committed outside of work, taking part in social or ecological projects such as the Kärcher Cleanup Day, cleaning the facilities of non-profit organizations, or various donation campaigns as part of our corporate volunteering.
