People are precious to us

DE&I is essential to our identity and culture. We actively encourage different perspectives, put together diverse teams, provide equal opportunity, and insist on real cultural change toward a truly inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity makes us better—better at understanding our markets and customers, at generating business opportunities, and at being innovative. Consequently, we have made DE&I a top strategic issue.

At year-end 2023, women accounted for 39% and non-Germans for 44% of our Global Management Team. Our company’s age structure, including for executives and managers, is well balanced across all age groups. At year-end 2023, our average employee was 42 years old.

Our employees worldwide are our most important asset. Their skills, knowledge, and dedication—as well as their diverse experience and personalities—shape our company and its success. We strive to offer attractive salaries as well as opportunities for development and are committed to providing a modern work environment in which all employees feel appreciated and can realize their full potential.

Where We Stand

Employee satisfaction and benefits

We offer competitive salaries and benefits. The aim is not only to show our appreciation but also to enhance employee retention. The numbers point to our success: The average employee has been with us for 11 years, and our global fluctuation rate is 7.5%.

We also offer a variety of benefits at all our sites, which differ by country. Examples include insurances, housing funds, subsidized public transport, fitness courses, retirement funding, and paid leave.

Our objective is to provide the best possible working conditions. In 2024, we will conduct an employee engagement survey to measure employee satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

Training and Education

We are committed to offering professional development opportunities to all employees throughout their career. We invest in our future workforce by offering apprenticeship programs, a management trainee program for graduates, internships during university programs, work-study schemes, and scholarships. For example, in Germany we employed 97 apprentices and dual students in 2023. Our employees received an average of 3 hours of training by means of eLearning. In addition, we provide third-party and in-person training.

Talent Management

We have been running talent programs for many years. Their purpose is to enable talented employees to take on more responsibility and fill key positions internally. In 2023 employees from our own company were appointed to 86% of our vacant Global Management Team positions, with the majority having previously participated in our talent programs.

Health and safety of our employees are our top priority. We strive to ensure that everyone starts their workday in good health and finishes it without any harm or negative impact. Our certified health and safety (H&S) management systems and comprehensive policies give our organization a strong safety culture. Nevertheless, we continually work to make our operating facilities and offices even safer.

Where we stand

To reach our ultimate target of zero work-related incidents, we have numerous measures in place.

As an interim target on the way to zero incidents we are striving to reduce lost days caused by incidents by at least 20% in 2024. All H&S incidents, including injuries, work-related ill health, process safety incidents, unsafe situations, and near misses, are reported, investigated, and addressed with corrective and preventive actions.

Work-related health hazards are systematically evaluated with the help of a risk assessment. In order to ensure compliance with the legal exposure limits, regular measurements are carried out at the workplaces in the form of air and surface samples. The prevention of platinosis is of particular concern to us. By 2030, we will voluntarily implement an exposure limit of 100 ng/m³ for chloroplatinates. This goes significantly beyond the regulatory limit of 2,000 ng/m³. As a further preventive measure against platinosis, we carry out bio-monitoring on a routine and incident-related basis wherever possible.

We promote a strong H&S culture among our employees through daily routines such as safety talks before each shift. We assign responsible persons for health and safety topics at all levels of our organization—from top management to shop floor.

All employees are trained on H&S topics, according to the conditions of their workplace. Our H&S experts at all sites worldwide have up-to-date qualifications and are readily available to provide guidance on questions, training programs, and educational materials.

At the end of 2023, 95% of our employees were working at a facility with an H&S system, and we continue to strive to increase the number of certified facilities.

 

We are aware of the significant impact our business has on people along our value chain and recognize our responsibility for their welfare. We systematically assess our precious metal suppliers’ social and environmental actions, particularly with regard to protection of human rights, and engage with them to foster improvements.

Where we stand

Human rights due diligence is an integral part of our general due diligence process. Our measures to safeguard human rights include:

• conducting appropriate due diligence processes
• collaborating with mining partners to improve living conditions of workers and communities along our value chain
• monitoring observance of human rights along our value chain
• providing channels for value chain workers and people living in affected communities to raise concerns
• engaging with stakeholders in the industry to further foster a responsible work environment, especially in artisanal and small-scale mining

Our efforts to protect human rights along our value chain are based on recognized international industry standards. We supplement these with our own even more stringent guidelines.

Projects and Examples

Contributing to responsible mining

In 2023, Heraeus Precious Metals joined the Processors Working Group of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA). With that, we have committed to upholding IRMA’s Principles of Engagement, contributing to the finalization of IRMA’s Standard for Responsible Mineral Processing, and encouraging mining suppliers to engage in IRMA through a third-party assessment.

IRMA is independently assessing mine sites globally for their social and environmental performance. Assessment results are made publicly available, increasing transparency and truthfulness regarding impacts and countermeasures taken. All our current PGM mining partners have either undergone an IRMA assessment, are currently in the process, or have committed to a specific timeline to do so.

Promoting mercury-free mining

We are active in projects around the world to promote mercury-free mining. Large amounts of toxic mercury are used in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM), posing a serious threat to people and the environment. A prominent example of our engagement is the collaboration with the Fairtrade Max Havelaar Foundation, a Swiss-based non-governmental organization, and the mining cooperatives of Central de Cooperativas Mineras de San Antonio de Poto de Ananea (CECOMSAP) in Peru. By investing part of the revenue generated through the sales of Fairtrade gold in processing technologies at the mine sites, the use of mercury in Peru has been significantly reduced.