Diversity: creating value by valuing people

Our employees’ wide range of qualifications, experiences and ways of thinking are of great benefit to ERGO. We want to support and promote this diversity and our employees’ potential as an integral part of our corporate culture.

ERGO is a signatory to the “Charta der Vielfalt” (Diversity Charter). Signing this charter represents a commitment to creating a working environment free of prejudice and exclusion, in which employees can experience being valued, regardless of their gender, nationality, religious beliefs, disabilities, age, and sexual orientation or identity. Our Code of Conduct, which applies to all employees at all levels of the Company, underlines our commitment to diversity. The Code requires all employees in Germany and abroad to observe a set of fundamental rules and principles in their behaviour, and includes a ban on all forms of discrimination, as well as regulations for reporting violations.

We place particular emphasis on enabling people with disabilities to take a full and equal part in the world of work and support them in their working lives. We demonstrate this commitment by means of a Group-wide company agreement on inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce and our work, characterised by appreciation and respect for our colleagues, with our representative body for disabled employees.

ERGO takes different stages in the life of its employees into account and supports the development of their individual potential with a broad range of measures since we believe that a diverse workforce contributes significantly to our Company’s overall business success. Our Equal Opportunities Officer represents employees’ and specifically women’s interests within the Company. She also provides advice to HR managers at all locations.

With various measures, our Diversity Management team supports a culture of diversity that is characterised by respect, equal opportunities and a working environment free of prejudice. Our activities – in particular our annually held dialogue formats – are targeted at increasing general awareness in dealing with diversity and supporting a constructive exchange on its different aspects.

Career support for all and specific mentoring

The “Diversity” team has implemented a series of measures intended to sustainably promote women’s career progress within our Company. Since then, the share of women in management positions has steadily increased: At the end of 2022, 39.6 percent of management positions Group-wide were held by women. At ERGO in Germany, the proportion was 29.5 percent. As part of the Groupwide "Ambition 2025", the proportion of women in management is to increase to 40 percent by 2025.

Another important instrument related to women's career advancement in our Company is our mentoring programme, aimed at female employees with the potential to rise to management positions. Participants have the opportunity to work on their personal development with experienced executives, primarily from the Board of Management.

In 2022, ERGO once again received the "top4women" logo. It documents the fact that women are supported in the company and encouraged in their professional development. In each case, the jury praised the commitment to promoting equal opportunities for women and men and the wide range of instruments and models for reconciling work and family life.

Different life phases or sudden upheavals in the family always exert an impact on an individual’s working life. As far as ERGO is concerned, diversity is therefore also about creating options for relieving the pressure in this field of tension. Our family-oriented HR policy is regularly evaluated and documented by the “work and family” audit. The audit process for the certificate of the BerufundFamilie Service ggmbH has shaped our measures to balance the demands of work and family life since 2002.

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ERGO Mentoring Teaser
How women shape careers at ERGO

Women make a decisive contribution to the success of our company.  That is why we are proud of our female managers. With the "Women in Leadership" initiative, we offer insights into the life and development paths of women who can already look back on an impressive career today.

Qualification and awareness

At its headquarters at Düsseldorf in Germany, ERGO organizes an annual Diversity Day for its employees. With various activities we strive to promote awareness of the diversity within the work force as employees learn how ERGO supports individual lifestyles and how to overcome prejudices.

Our customers’ life plans and life courses are also becoming ever more diverse. We believe that only those companies whose workforce is appropriately diversified to appeal to a similarly broad range of customers, perform to their satisfaction and retain their custom will be able to succeed in the market of the future.