Women are still underrepresented in STEM areas such as natural science or IT. Companies, educational institutions and parents have to work together to make careers in those fields more appealing to young women.
Diversity arises where individuality is valued. As a signatory to the Diversity Charter, the Otto Group ensures that every employee has the same opportunities as far as possible, and a prejudice-free working environment.
With our Group-wide Diversity Management we work to promote both individuality and diversity in a targeted way and thus to uncover areas of potential wherever these may still be hidden. For instance, our measures in this regard are aimed at the focus groups of women and men, old and young, internationality, and people with disabilities.
We develop Group-wide measures in close cooperation with the Group companies – from Diversity Conferences, through development programmes for female talents, to vocational concepts for retirees. In addition, there are numerous individual commitments in the many Otto Group companies, including networks and cultural initiatives, target-group specific seminars and mentoring programmes.
Systematic Diversity Management makes the variety of activities within the Otto Group transparent. What’s more, the Group companies can also learn from each other thanks to an an overarching Best Practice toolbox.
More women in management positions
Attracting a higher proportion of women in management positions and offering women exciting career prospects has been a relevant issue for us for many years. Therefore, we see the statutory gender quota as an opportunity to further review our progress and drive this crucial change. Accordingly, we set targets for the Otto Group Supervisory Board and Executive Board, as well as goals for the first two management levels.
Petra Scharner-Wolff, Member of the Executive Board, Finance, Controlling and Human Resources on promoting women in STEM jobs
Digitalisation is changing markets fundamentally. In all areas of the economy and therefore also in online retail there is a need for specialists and managers with excellent digital skills. Traditional professional paradigms are being completely supplanted by new ones. Already today we are desperately looking for specialists and managers with a university degree in STEM areas – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – who can take on related tasks in a digitalised world of work. Besides this we are looking for specialists for whom there is no specific degree course yet. There is an acute lack of specialists: the Otto Group, for example, is currently advertising for around 400 new employees in STEM-related professions at its Hamburg headquarters campus.
Showing respect for people, standing up for freedom, living diversity – a challenge for us all. An article on the commitment of the Otto Group at the Hamburg Pride Week and about MORE* – the queer network of the Otto Group
Times have changed radically since the historic stand taken by homosexuals against police oppression in the summer of 1969 on Christopher Street, New York. Today people of all sexual orientations commemorate this uprising in the 1960s with a big ‘Christopher Street Day’ parade in many cities around the world. This day symbolises the liberation of sexual minorities from social exclusion and discrimination. It stands for tolerance, diversity, freedom, self-determination and the overall cultural transformation of our society – and is also an appeal to the many countries in which people still suffer discrimination and are persecuted due to their homosexual orientation.
Especially in times of demographic change and a lack of skilled staff, it’s becoming increasingly important to companies that all their employees are able to develop their full potential – regardless of their gender, age, cultural origin or physical constitution.