Henkel relies on employees whose experience, talents and skills reflect the diversity of its markets and customers. The growing international character of Henkel therefore calls for the establishment of worldwide human resources structures. A major challenge is the creation of a global corporate culture, one which encourages all employees to take individual responsibility for their thoughts and actions.
Due to the opening up and development of new markets, the proportion of Henkel employees outside Germany is more than 80 percent:

We want people of different origins and ages, and with a variety of individual abilities, to work together effectively and happily at our Company. Diversity is therefore an important component of our corporate culture. We strive to identify and eliminate barriers that limit individual development perspectives. In 2006, on the basis of our “diversity cockpit,” we formulated a variety of objectives and programs to promote even greater diversity at Henkel. This cockpit shows a trio of diversity factors – age, gender and internationality – in Henkel’s worldwide management structure.

Balancing family and career is a topical sociopolitical theme in many countries today and is a focal aspect of diversity management. We can only utilize the skills and abilities of our employees to maximum effect if we help them to master the challenges of combining career and family. We are therefore planning to make it even easier for employees to take advantage of flexible working hours, part-time work, and home offices – when this is economically feasible, and taking due account of individual circumstances. We believe that this will strengthen our employees’ bonds to the Company. In order to support our employees in their efforts to coordinate their dedication to their careers and their plans for their private lives, we offer locally organized working groups. Depending on the given situation or local challenge, appropriate targets and solution can be developed.