In the business year 2012/13, the percentage of female executives (members of the Management Board excepted) was at about 10.1%, thus remaining practically unchanged compared to the previous year. Within the scope of internal leadership development efforts, great importance is being placed on continuing to expand the percentage of female participants. Therefore, the relative resolution by the Management Board stipulates that women must be represented at each level of training/education of the management development system. In the business year 2012/13, there were 22 women of a total of 146 participants. The percentage of women in the management development system has therefore increased from 12.4% in the previous year to 15.1%.
The percentage of women in the voestalpine Group overall in the business year 2012/13 was 12.6%. This percentage is still low compared to other sectors of the economy, and this has industry-specific, historical, and cultural reasons. In the consciousness of the public, the image of a steel and industrial goods company is still the image of heavy industry and, therefore, broad-based recruitment of female employees is a challenging undertaking.
None of the Group companies have explicit “female quotas.” Rather, the voestalpine Group is striving to implement appropriate measures in order to increase the percentage of women in the Group at all levels. This includes a number of activities, some of which are country-specific, such as participation in Girls’ Day, advancement of women in technical professions, and/or increased hiring of female graduates of technical schools and universities. Furthermore, establishment and expansion of in-house child care facilities and collaborations with respective external facilities is being accelerated in order to support women entering or reentering into the workforce. As a result of these efforts, women are now employed in top leadership positions in traditionally male-dominated, technical areas of the Company (e.g., hot-dip galvanizing plants, wire production facilities) and are in executive positions in financial, human resources, and legal departments of various Group companies.
In annual human resources reporting, data on the percentage of women in executive positions is collected and analyzed regularly according to their qualifications and their status in the training programs in order to monitor the sustainability of the implemented measures.
