Employee satisfaction

All projects and initiatives of the HR department aim to make the Zeppelin Group a modern employer with the best employees and efficient HR processes. The current objectives focus in particular on maintaining the voluntary resignation rate at a low level and ensuring a consistently high level of seniority. In order to achieve these goals or to be able to successfully implement projects and initiatives, the HR department is organized in local HR departments at each company, which in turn are bundled via the reporting line in the management holding company.

Progress in employee satisfaction

One objective in HR is to maintain the average length of service of at least 9.3 years. Overall, employees are very loyal to the company, which explains the average length of service of 9.6 years (2023).

 By ensuring the loyalty of its employees at an early stage and promoting talented and junior managers, Zeppelin wants to maintain and expand its goal of a long length of service in the company.

Societal and economic trends and challenges continue to influence the world of work. These include demographic change, globalization and digitalization, changing values and lifestyles, and the shortage of skilled workers. These challenges require additional measures to attract and retain employees. One indicator of employee satisfaction is the voluntary resignation rate. In order to adopt a realistic target with regard to the trends and challenges described, the progress of Objective 2 was revised and the objective of keeping the voluntary resignation rate at a maximum of 7.5% by 2025 was adjusted. The voluntary resignation rate in 2023 was 6.6%, which was lower than in the previous year (7.4%).

This shows a heterogeneous picture with great variability across countries, business units, and professional groups. Overall, developments in the Zeppelin Group reflect the long-standing trend towards an employee market with a shortage of skilled workers. In recent years, Zeppelin has introduced a variety of measures to increase employer attractiveness and employee satisfaction in order to achieve the overarching goal. This includes, in particular, the strategic embedding of employer branding in order to continue to position Zeppelin as an attractive employer in the competition for talent and to continue to strengthen the employer brand in the future.

Of the 9,000 or so eligible people who took part, 66% completed the survey in digital form. Meaningful work, good peer relationships, and a high sense of belonging emerged as strengths of the Zeppelin Group. The design of the working environment, processes relating to transformations and cross-group cooperation were shown to be areas requiring some action. After the survey, a comprehensive follow-up process took place with central and decentralized measures, including training and exchange formats for various target groups. The action areas were worked on at team and company level, and the results were also taken into account in strategic processes such as the strategy call. In 2024, the focus will be on the conceptual design of a survey landscape at Zeppelin and on piloting further survey formats such as ‘pulse checks.’

² Target adjustment compared with previous year: Maximum voluntary resignation rate increased from 5.0% to 7.5%

Measures in 2023

Onboarding process

New Zeppelin employees are welcomed as part of the Z WELCOME virtual onboarding program two or three times a year. The German and English language events ensure that the relevant knowledge about the company and the individual strategic business units is conveyed uniformly. A quiz consolidates employees’ learning. In showrooms, various company initiatives are presented in an interactive format and networking made possible. A newly implemented onboarding structure on the Intranet gives new employees quick and straightforward access to all important information for their day-to-day work – from IT and communication channels to Zeppelin’s structure, values and programs. This allows them to gain a comprehensive overview and find their way around the company more quickly.

Training, dual study program and trainee program

The Zeppelin Group is currently providing training in 19 different occupations in Germany and Austria. School leavers can get off to an excellent start in their career by training in a commercial, industrial, technical, or IT profession. Every year, multi-day Welcome Days are held for all new apprentices and dual-study program students. The participants receive all the important information about the Group. The trainees present their prepared content in groups and put their most pressing questions to company management at the end of the event as part of the “Hot Seat with the Management Board” session.

Zeppelin works together with a range of universities to facilitate a dual study program for its young talent in the areas of mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, business administration, accounting, electrical and mechanical engineering. In 2023, 20 dual students learned and worked in various business units of the Zeppelin Group. At an annual networking meeting, all students also have the opportunity to exchange ideas and network across the Group.

To continue to find qualified trainees, Zeppelin undertakes special HR marketing activities, such as participating in trade fairs and school career open days such as Think Big! BAUMA, Vocatium and Nordjob Bau. In addition, Zeppelin expanded its close contacts with schools and had a presence on apprenticeship exchanges.

Z Starter ensures the best chances of being accepted. Z Starter is a pool of up-and-coming staff that takes in all trainees of the Group (German companies) who cannot be given a full time position at their training location, but who would like to remain and continue their career path at Zeppelin. Z Starter is used throughout Germany, and the junior employees receive offers from all German companies.

Zeppelin also offers very good prospects for the target group of young academic career entrants. The Z NEXT trainee program was launched in fall 2019. In 2023, ten trainees in Germany completed the extensive program to start their professional lives. Eleven new trainees were hired. They go through a variety of postings within an 18-month period. This also includes time abroad at an international Group company. In order to prepare the trainees as well as possible for the start of their professional life, they complete various training courses during the program and are also accompanied by internal mentors. Networking meetings are also held regularly. In addition to training, dual study programs, and the trainee program, Zeppelin also offers the opportunity for several months of practical semesters, Bachelor’s and Master’s positions, and positions for student trainees.

Training and qualification

Employees at Zeppelin not only have challenging areas of responsibility and scope for action, but also a Group that shows them a sense of solidarity and secure prospects. In regular conversations, employees receive feedback from their managers on their performance and they discuss professional prospects for development. Various processes to identify potential also assess whether a specialist or management career is available to the employee. This ensures that talented individuals within the Group are identified and that each employee receives sound feedback on their personal development. Specific further development measures are also systematically agreed at these Development Centers. The Zeppelin Development Landscape, which contains four different development programs for specialists and managers, has established the topics of Diversity & Inclusion and Corporate Social Responsibility. In addition, our leadership principles were well implemented in the programs. The global networking of all Zeppelin employees plays an important role in ensuring that we can also provide insights into the business units abroad. For this reason, the respective Zeppelin sites in Germany and abroad are also visited by participants for the in-person modules. In addition to general content on professional development, the management development programs convey Zeppelin’s unique attributes in order to strengthen the Group in the long term through qualified managers.

Mobile working

Maximum flexibility should be maintained, taking into account the activity and operational requirements. This enables the needs-based use of remote working in connection with on-site work, i.e. in the office or at the customer’s premises. As a result, every employee is able to work remotely within the framework of a team agreement and the customer requirements that need to be met.

Work-life balance

Striking a balance between work and private life is a top priority in the Zeppelin Group. The company offers individual solutions that contribute to a better work-life balance and is guided by the following guiding principle: “We want to enable our employees to have a good work/life balance, and in so doing rely on partnership-based give and take.” The Zeppelin Group has deliberately opted for a broad concept of what family can mean, with the aim of catering for all employees, regardless of their private life situation, and taking account of people’s changing requirements during the various phases of their life. Zeppelin has been certified by “audit berufundfamilie” since 2018, with a successful re-audit in 2023. In the context of this certificate, there are various measures, such as the Group agreement on remote working, the Z PARENTS program for parents, the Z FIT health initiative, and the collaboration with the famPLUS family service. The Z PARENTS program is specifically designed to support parents before, during and after parental leave with a view to improving work-life balance. With interactive workshops and network meetings on relevant topics such as energy and time management, fitness in everyday life and free advisory services, interested parties can access exchange information based on their needs. The number of employees who took parental leave is constant. Many of them have now joined our Z PARENTS initiative. Almost 120 employees have joined since it was launched.