49
50 broader the definition of tasks and the more qualified the employees the greater a company´s ability to innovate in the future.” Consequently, the Lufthansa Group CAMPUS offers formats for developing individual (leadership) competencies as well as those to support team development and organizational change since the end of 2016. The Lufthansa Group CAMPUS thus takes a role in continuous and high-quality personnel development as well as in a long-term dialogue between employees and managers across the entire company. Shaping the action area “Culture and leadership” was transferred to the Lufthansa School of Business during the reporting year, which at the same time evolved into the Lufthansa Group CAMPUS. Against this background, the alignment has changed from an interdisciplinary education provider to driver of culture changes at the Group.
Human capital development/Diversity:
The Lufthansa Group is one of the biggest employers in Germany with a 3% increase of total employees last year. Out of total 124,306 employees, 56,125 employees work in 85 countries outside of Germany (previous year: 53,732) which makes Lufthansa Group a truly global company. In 2017, the year of Digitalization at Lufthansa, it is their goal to be one of the most attractive employers for “digital natives”. Furthermore, the Company has explicitly defined Diversity as a strategic element that secures and expands economic success. The working force represents 144 nationalities. Additionally, the Lufthansa Group launched the project
“Promoting women in management” during 2016 because the number of female managers in upper-level management positions has changed too little over the last few years, as they state.
Despite increased awareness within the Company, at the moment, 85 percent of the managers are male (Leadership Circle 1-3). They also report clear targets: At the end of 2016, the proportion of women on the Group’s first management level came to 9.7 per cent (target: 10.5 per cent), and on the second management level to 17.3 per cent (target: 17.9 per cent).
Ethics/Human rights:
51 The Lufthansa Group is a member of the UN Global Compact, Transparency International, the German Network for Business Ethics and of institutions that support individual aspects of human rights. In this way, the Group explicitly acknowledges its adherence to the respective standards and commits to aligning their business activities and strategies with the ten principles of the UN that are recognized around the world (including to respect human rights and to fight against corruption). During the reporting year, the Lufthansa Group worked intensively on the topic of human rights. One task was the development of a risk map for the Group that shows the number of employees by geographic region and the companies active locally. In the event of complaints concerning human rights issues, the map helps treating them in decentralized format and with appropriate countermeasures based on current law.
No corruption:
Lufthansa has been a member of Transparency International, an Anti-corruption organization, since 1999. A further basic component of the Lufthansa Compliance Program is the globally implemented and proven ombudsman system, which also allows anonymous information concerning possible breaches of compliance. It serves as an additional preventive measure against economic crimes. Relevant information can be given by employees or by third parties to an ombudsman outside the Company, by telephone, in writing or in person.
Consumers/Suppliers:
Orientation in line with customers’ wishes and needs, includes for example appropriate information about environmental and social effects of products and services. Since 2014 the Lufthansa Group has been working in the project SMILE, a digital innovation with the purpose of making communications with customers along the entire travel chain as personalized as possible and to offer added value in this way. Thanks to SMILE, passengers receive tailor-made flight offers, travel information as well as offers for additional services and options – all in real-time via digital communication channels. Suppliers must take the standards and principles of United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the four core work standards of the International Labor Organization into account.
Corporate citizenship:
52 The resources the Group has made available for various activities for social causes have overall not shown the desired results due to a high degree of division into individual projects. For this reason, the Lufthansa Group has the plan to bundle their corporate citizenship activities. Now, they plan to focus more and more on social and humanitarian issues. That´s why in 2016, the Lufthansa Group took a long, hard look at how to keep developing its social commitment. A prerequisite for this was the transformation of the Help Alliance e.V. employee initiative into a non-profit GmbH (limited liability company) at the beginning of 2017 enabling Lufthansa to concentrate entirely on the core areas of education/enabling and life/health and give even more aid foundations. In 2016, the help alliance supported about 40 projects in development cooperation with a total volume of nearly 1.5 million euros. Help alliance project portfolio comprises numerous education and integration programs for refugees as for example the Düsseldorf-based learning-and-coaching project for children and youths with a migration background and from educationally alienated families. Lufthansa’s humanitarian aid project called Cargo Human Care (CHC) focuses on Kenya and provides direct medical support for poor, ill and destitute people – free of charge and unbureaucratically. Through the help of a pool of 50 German medical doctors with different specializations. All treatments are given at CHC’s own medical center in Nairobi. The center also provides free medical care to needy people from the surrounding area and to 120 orphans living at Mothers’ Mercy Home in Kianjogu,
6.1.2 Commitment level
Lufthansa Group has a proactive reporting profile because they are eager to highlight important figures and facts as well as differentiate between approach and goals of sustainability initiatives. The Group also manages to gain credibility by staying critical towards their own CS strategy. (see example of corporate citizenship in thesis and interview about “promoting women in management”, report p.66)
Commitment level of CS Beginning Elementary Satisfying Sophisticated, Outstanding
Corporate governance
L
Health & Safety
L
Working environment
L
Human Capital/Diversity
L
Ethics/Human Rights
L
53
No corruption
L
Consumers/Suppliers
L
Corporate citizenship
L
Table 8 – The CS strategy of Lufthansa reaches a very satisfying level of commitment
Conclusion:
Lufthansa Group reaches a very satisfying level of commitment towards the social issues of corporate sustainability. Not all activities are more than satisfying but some are outstanding.
Their corporate governance seems eager to comply with several frameworks to create value for the company, but they do not report how they enhance transparency or participation of employees. Their Health and Safety strategy seems proactive and their activities even include the socio-psychological dimension. Lufthansa´s commitment towards a good working environment is also sophisticated as they seek to give non-monetary incentives through qualification and recognize the importance of innovation and change of behavior for a sustainable competitive strategy. Although Germany biggest employee Lufthansa admits to they have not reached its goals yet within Human Capital Development and Diversity, they have sophisticated policies for emancipation of women to improve in this field. Regarding social issues externally, the airline acts proactively when applying human rights and measure how they fight corruption. In both areas, consumers/suppliers and corporate citizenship the firm shows great ambition and outline concrete plans to improve creating value for consumers and communities.