Employee attraction and retention
Management approach
For Geberit, it is imperative to acquire and retain the right employees for the company. The Geberit Group sees itself as an attractive employer with an open corporate culture that offers international development opportunities at the interface between the craft, engineering and marketing and sales sectors, see www.geberit.com > Career > What we offer.
Employees are the company’s most important ambassadors, representing it in daily interactions with customers and many other stakeholders. The core corporate and brand values are defined in the Geberit Compass. The Geberit Code of Conduct serves as an essential guide for ethical, environmentally friendly and socially responsible business practices. An effective compliance system ensures ethical and legally compliant conduct, see Corporate culture > Implementation of norms and standards and Corporate culture > Compliance with laws and regulations.
Impacts, risks and opportunities
The quality of working conditions and the availability of education and further training opportunities can have an impact on individual employees, business success and society as a whole. Attracting and retaining employees is therefore a key issue for Geberit.
Attractive working conditions, fair wages, compliance with working hours and work-life balance can have a lasting impact on employee well-being, productivity and innovative strength. Working conditions significantly affect the private lives of employees and their families. As labour shortages become more widespread, attractive and competitive working conditions, including competitive remuneration, are increasingly important for recruiting and retaining employees. Poor working conditions can lead to lower productivity, high employee turnover or increased skills shortages.
The availability of vocational training and development opportunities affects employee satisfaction and their career prospects. As a company, Geberit contributes in many ways to the continuous improvement and availability of professional skills in society and to the creation of qualified jobs through its training and education programmes. Training and skills development also directly enhance the company’s innovative strength and competitiveness. Furthermore, this can help reduce employee turnover and lower recruitment costs in a competitive job market by allowing internal talent to fill positions. A lack of or insufficient training opportunities can reduce product and process quality over time, leading to negative consequences for the company’s innovative strength, productivity and competitiveness.
Management system
Geberit strives to offer jobs of the highest quality. The corporate culture is characterised by a simple, functional organisation as well as a high degree of personal responsibility. In this way, every employee is motivated to exploit their own potential to the full and contribute to the success of the company.
The responsibility for all material aspects related to employee recruitment and retention within the Geberit Group lies with the Head Corporate Human Resources, who reports directly to the CEO.
Working conditions and rights
The right to join forces for common aims and purposes – particularly in the form of unions – is a human right. It is therefore one of the fundamental rights of the employees within the Geberit Group – regardless of the respective national circumstances. Not all countries in which the Group is present have legal regulations governing freedom of association. As a principle of fairness and respect for its employees, Geberit gives this personal right of the employees a higher priority than the economic risk of a strike.
Employees are completely free to join trade unions, associations and similar organisations. No rights with respect to exercising freedom of association or collective bargaining as defined in the ILO core labour standards and the UN Global Compact are subject to restriction at the Geberit Group. Measures such as regular meetings as part of the Geberit Europe Forum support exchanges between our employee representatives.
Working conditions, such as the maximum number of working hours, are governed in accordance with legal requirements on a country-specific basis. Employees enjoy attractive employment conditions, which was confirmed by the employee survey conducted in 2021. The results show that the employees demonstrate an above-average level of both motivation and loyalty. The next global survey will be carried out in 2025. In the meantime, surveys will be carried out on a local basis. For further information, see Business Report > Business and financial review > Financial Year 2024 > Employees.
Training and education
New employees are introduced to the company and its products through various job orientation programmes on joining the company. The programmes range from individually designed introduction talks in various departments to the multi-day Welcome to Geberit course that provides practical knowledge in small groups.
A standard Performance assessment, Development and Compensation process has been in place since 2012. At the end of 2020, a new performance management process (“valYOU”) was successively launched for performance assessment, professional development, succession planning and compensation management. valYOU serves as the standard for all employees at the Geberit Group.
Training apprentices is of great significance for the company. Young people can start their careers in the company with a commercial, industrial or technical apprenticeship. The aim is to impart all the skills that are required for apprentices to pursue their chosen careers in a professional, independent and responsible manner. State-of-the-art digital learning methods are used here. The apprentices are already given the opportunity to get practical insights at other sites during their training. During a six-month assignment at a Geberit site abroad, they work on various projects or support day-to-day business there. Geberit is convinced that experience abroad and the transfer of know-how are an advantage for both young employees and the company alike, see www.geberit.com/career/apprentices.
Partnerships with universities and institutes were further intensified in order to counteract the increasing skills shortage. The local companies are in contact with institutes of technology and universities regarding project-related collaborations to supervise Bachelor and Master theses and to gain students for internships. Geberit is also part of international engineer networks such as UNITECH, which unites renowned European universities, corporate partners and engineering students, see www.geberit.com/career/students-and-graduates.
For further information, see Business Report > Business and financial review > Financial Year 2024 > Employees.
Key figures employment
At the end of 2024, the Geberit Group employed 11,110 staff worldwide. This represents an increase of 163 people or 1.5% compared to the previous year. The increase is due to capacity adjustments in the areas of production and logistics due to the higher volumes compared to the previous year, as well as various growth initiatives in developing markets. At Geberit, there are no workers who are not employees according to the GRI definition – i.e. individuals who are not employees but whose work is controlled by the company. For a detailed breakdown of key workforce figures, see Tables of key figures > Social matters. For more information on apprentices and interns, see Employee attraction and retention > Key figures on education and further training and for information on the engagement of workshops for people with disabilities, see Social responsibility.
Employees work at the company for a long time, averaging 12.2 years of service. The average fluctuation rate (in terms of employees with permanent contracts, without natural departures and long-term leaves of absence) was 6.0% (previous year 7.2%). Including natural departures, it was 7.8% (previous year 9.4%). For key figures on fluctuation by age group, gender and region, see Tables of key figures > Social matters.
Key figures on working conditions
Collective agreements
There are currently 8,888 employees (corresponding to 78% of the workforce) who are covered by collective agreements (e.g. collective labour agreements, wage agreements). In Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine, around 90% of employees are subject to a collective labour or wage agreement. There are no collective agreements with employees in place in the USA. The employment conditions of employees who are not covered by collective agreements are also in line with market standards.
No violations of the guarantee of freedom of association and collective bargaining were identified in the reporting year.
Salaries and social benefits
In 2024, personnel expenses amounted to CHF 786 million (previous year CHF 750 million). In addition, employees were once again able to take part in share participation plans at attractive conditions, see Financials > Financial Statements Geberit Group > Notes > Note 17 and Remuneration Report. In the reporting year, 2,800 employees took part in the employee participation plan. This corresponds to a participation rate of 27.3% (previous year 27.2%). As of 31 December 2024, a total of 4,642 employees were Geberit shareholders.
In principle, full-time and part-time employees are entitled to the same benefits. However, employees with temporary contracts are not always entitled to the same benefits as permanent employees. For example, employees in Switzerland with temporary employment contracts of less than three months are not insured in the pension fund. Employee benefits are aligned with country-specific standards.
Parental leave
Geberit implements the currently applicable legal framework conditions. It also attempts in individual cases to find solutions that are as suitable as possible for the affected person and their team.
100% of all permanently employed women are entitled to paid maternity leave. 141 or 6.0% permanently employed women made use of paid maternity leave in 2024. Of these, 60% or 84 women returned following their parental leave. 100% of them were still employed by the company twelve months after their return to work.
95% of all permanently employed men are entitled to paid paternity leave. In countries like the UK, India and the USA, employment law does not provide for paternity leave. 259 or 3.6% permanently employed men made use of paid paternity leave in 2024. Of these, 95% or 247 men returned to work following their parental leave, and 100% of them were still employed by the company twelve months after their return to work.
Key figures on education and further training
In everyday working life, the personal and professional development of each individual employee is encouraged in a variety of ways. This covers all areas of work, functions and age groups.
95% of all employees took part in appraisal interviews in 2024 at which development opportunities were also identified and discussed. As part of the standard global “valYOU” process on Performance assessment, Development and Compensation, supervisors and employees discuss performance and agree objectives at least once a year.
Internal and external events
In the reporting year, employees across the Group attended on average 14.0 hours of internal and external education and further training (previous year 14.5 hours). For key figures by gender and executive level, see Tables of key figures > Social matters.
Development programmes
As part of the leadership development programme developed with an external training provider, other local initiatives focussing on leadership and development topics were launched at three companies in 2024 with the goal of further strengthening leadership skills and establishing a consistent management culture.
The internal development programmes GROW and LEAD identify talents in the company in order to prepare them for their next career step. The programme includes topics such as strategy, leadership and the management of change processes. Issues investigated as part of project work are geared towards strategic tasks of relevance to Geberit and provide the decision-makers involved with concrete bases for action. In the reporting year, around 100 employees took part in these programmes – including 30 women. The internal development programmes are intended to help fill at least half of all vacant managerial positions with internal candidates. In 2024, this was achieved for 63% of all Group management vacancies (previous year 89%).
The Group has been conducting the Operations Development Programme (ODP) since 2020. It is aimed at talented external and internal junior managers in the area of operations (production and logistics). The aim is to recruit internationally mobile people with a technical background or who have studied engineering and who, in the medium term, should take up a managerial position at the company.
In the reporting year, the company also launched the Sales Development Programme (SDP) in the pilot market Germany. This is aimed at talented prospects in marketing and sales with an economics or technical background. The goal is for participants who successfully complete the programme to be able to take on a management position at one of the sales sites.
Vocational training and internships
In 2024, 283 apprentices (previous year 274) were employed. The transfer rate to a permanent employment relationship was 63% (previous year 65%). Furthermore, 120 internships were made available and 19 Bachelor and Master theses supervised (previous year 124 and 24).
For further information on apprentices and interns, see Employee attraction and retention > Training and education.