The company plans to recruit experts in the fields of digitalisation, e-mobility, smart mobility and vehicle connectivity. Porsche will also focus on recruiting production planners familiar with Factory 4.0 and digital production and will hire more than 100 IT specialists as well. In addition, the newly established company Porsche Digital GmbH will soon be offering 50 jobs to creative individuals in order to integrate the latest technologies into mobility solutions for the premium vehicle segment. Finally, Porsche will increase apprentice numbers from 150 to 220. Porsche offers challenging assignments and a modern working environment in order to attract the most talented individuals. Various programmes such as those for ensuring the compatibility of profession and family life are designed to further the company's attractiveness as an employer.

Porsche AG has doubled its workforce since 2010. The sports car manufacturer employed 26,200 people at the end of June 2016. The company has embarked upon a course of consolidation this year. However, its planning measures also include further continual growth in workforce numbers. This development is being driven by the Mission E model, which will go into production in Zuffenhausen at the end of the decade. However, additional knowledge, as well as a certain number of employees who approach things in a novel way, are also needed for the digital transformation that affects products and services, customers and retail operations, the company and its processes and people and culture.

Porsche has finished near the top of many employer rankings

"One can in fact describe what is going on now as a 'war for talents'", says Andreas Haffner, Member of the Porsche AG Executive Board with responsibility for Human Resources. "We are in direct competition with other automakers and suppliers and IT firms in our global search for talented experts. Money alone is not enough to attract these creative minds. You also need to offer exciting challenges, an inspiring environment, the greatest possible freedom to create and, now more than ever, attractive programmes for the work-life balance. However, with the hiring of more than 1,500 college graduates over the last five years, we have shown that we can offer secure jobs with attractive career opportunities."

Porsche's attractiveness as an employer is demonstrated by the more than 140,000 job applications the company receives each year – 7,500 of them alone for the 220 apprenticeship positions offered. The company boasts a fluctuation rate of only 0.6 per cent and has also finished near the top of many employer rankings. Nevertheless, Haffner believes further potential can be exploited here within the framework of the Porsche Strategy 2025. Activities here will focus on methods such as agile working and a results rather than physical-presence driven culture. The future will also see state-of-the-art production facilities in which robots assist human workers with ergonomically difficult tasks. This approach will also ensure that different generations will be able to continue to work together and exchange knowledge in future. "With the factory for the Mission E, we will usher in a new era with new technologies", Haffner explains. "That's why we're hiring new people – but it's just as important to improve the skills of our current workforce."

The number of technical-industrial apprentices will increase

This begins with training, where high-voltage technology and digital-electronic systems have now become very important. In order to be able to recruit as many highly qualified experts as possible from the company's own ranks for the production of the Mission E, the number of technical-industrial apprentices will increase from 104 to 154 beginning in the 2016 training year.

Female employees like Anika Förster work part time during their parental leave

An increasingly important criterion to choose an employer are the new working time models introduced for the first time in 2013 under the motto "Employment Market of the Future". These models have since established themselves, and although the absolute numbers are still relatively modest, a significant upward trend can be discerned. At the moment, 179 employees utilise the option of working from their homes up to two days per week, while 45 employees have taken temporary leave of up to 12 months. A total of 111 employees (62 of whom are men) now take advantage of a programme that allows them to choose their own working times. These employees generally shorten their working times in order to take care of their children and thus help their spouse or partner pursue their own career. Approximately 100 female employees also worked part time during their parental leave.

Haffner is particularly dedicated to reintegrating employees (both men and women) who are returning from their parental leave. Double careers – i.e. when both partners work – have long since become a reality that corresponds to the wishes of people in all different types of relationships, regardless of their positions in a company's hierarchy. "We want to do our part to make such double careers possible", Haffner explains. "I'm also convinced that this is a key requirement for achieving yet another significant increase in the share of women employees at all levels of the company."

Increasing the share of women in the workforce is a strategic goal

Job-sharing is now carried out at the corporate level as well – an initial model for women managers in the Corporate Finance department has proved quite effective over the last two years. In addition, another two executive management positions will soon be filled by women. In order to ensure such positive developments continue, the share of female technical-industrial apprentices was increased from six per cent to 27 per cent over the last three years. In addition, the number of reserved slots at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University has increased from 34 to 54. The great majority of these additional slots will be allocated to young women pursuing a technical course of study. As a result, women will account for 50 per cent of our students at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in future. Increasing the share of women in our workforce is a strategic goal. Whereas the share of the Porsche workforce accounted for by women totalled 13.5 per cent in 2013, that figure had risen to 15.1 per cent by 2015.

During the same period, the share of women executive managers directly below the Executive Board level increased from 5.8 per cent to 8.0 per cent, while the share of all managers accounted for by women rose from 6.2 per cent to 7.4 per cent. Increasing the share of women managers is one of the stated objectives in the goal agreements for managers. The targets are based on the percentage of women in the respective collective bargaining pay-scale categories, which ensures equal opportunity for men and women.