In our global opinion survey in 2021, a positive response rate of 85% confirmed that we are on the right track as an employer when it comes to diversity and inclusion. 91% of our staff believe that “people are treated with respect here”, 92% agreed with the statement that PUMA provides a work environment free of discrimination, and we reached a positive response rate of 88% for, “I can be myself at PUMA without worrying about how I will be accepted”. We also received external awards for our efforts, such as Europe’s Leader in Diversity for the second year in a row by The Financial Times. This mirrors our efforts to create a diverse, equal and inclusive company culture.

We constantly strive to be an attractive place to work for people of all genders. The male-to-female ratio of our employees was 49/51 in 2021, less than 1% defined themselves as diverse. Of all our employees who work in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) roles, 46% are women.

It is part of our strategy to ensure that this gender balance is also reflected in management positions. We encourage our female employees to take on leadership positions at PUMA. That is why we also used our SHE MOVES US platform for internal communications. We published several interviews in our employee magazine “CATch Up” to highlight the careers of successful women at PUMA and to inspire other colleagues. We joined Catalyst, a global nonprofit organization, to continue our journey and accelerate our progress in building an even more attractive diverse work environment at PUMA.

In 2021, 44% of management positions across the group were held by women.

For 2021 we reached our target of at least 30% female representation on the Supervisory Board and 20% on the Management Board. With 40% women at the second management level, we also achieved our goal for the PUMA Group to have 40% female representation at the second management level below the Management Board. Unfortunately, with 20% female representation at the first management level below the Management Board we did not reach our ambitious target of 30% on PUMA Group level. This is due to the fact that our management team at the first management level below the Management Board has remained stable in recent years and no significant new positions have been created at this level. However, because of the strong development at the second management level below the Management Board, the Management Board of PUMA SE is very confident that the new target for the first management level will be achieved naturally as part of internal succession promotions.

Our new targets to be reached by 2026 are to have at least two women (33%) female representation on the Supervisory Board and for the Management Board to have at least one woman (25%). If the Management Board is composed of four or five members, at least one woman (20%) on the Management Board, and at least two women (33%) on the Management Board if it is composed of six members. At PUMA Group level the target for the share of women for the first management level below the Management Board remains at 30% and for second management level at 40%.

The average age of our employees worldwide is 31. Our employees represent all working age groups.

 

It is very important to us to provide an inclusive work environment where employees with disabilities can fulfill their roles while also developing their potential. Therefore, we adapt workplaces to meet their special needs and offer suitable training. In Germany the interests of employees with disabilities are represented by an elected member of the works council. Depending on the different legal situations in our entities, in some countries it is not permitted to track disability status, as well as the various definitions of a severely disabled employee. Around 1% of our employees informed us about being severely disabled, while the actual number is probably higher.

WELLBEING

At PUMA fostering the wellbeing of our people is a top priority. Therefore we are dedicated to constantly improving the health and wellbeing of our employees by offering a wide range of services and benefits. While the Wellbeing concept started at our headquarters in Herzogenaurach, it has now been embraced by all our PUMA subsidiaries around the world, adapted to local needs and regulations.

Our wellbeing approach focuses on four aspects: Flex, Social, Finance and Athlete. As a sports brand we focus on giving our employees as many opportunities as possible to enjoy their passion for sports. Therefore we offer different courses such as yoga, jumping fitness or krav maga. Apart from our huge variety of courses, we provide free gym access, sports courts for football, basketball and tennis, as well as beach volleyball.

As the COVID-19 pandemic developed at a different pace in different regions of the world, we had to adapt our wellbeing offer when needed, and expanded the number of online options. This included the PUMA Home Academy, which provided helpful resources about nutrition, sports and mental health.

During our “Be Well Weeks”, where we promote a healthy lifestyle, we offered free health checks and nutritional advice and gave our employees the opportunity to try the latest trends in fitness and sport.

FLEXIBLE WORKING CONDITIONS

Being committed to our people’s wellbeing, we offer great working conditions on the fundament of a unique culture. To enable our employees to balance their professional and personal life for whatever reason, we have a multitude of models, such as flexible working hours, mobile office, part-time employment and sabbaticals they can choose from at different stages of their life. In respect of the Covid-19 pandemic, we can respond with maximum flexibility regarding the time and place of our employees' work activities. To adapt to the new circumstances, we have also made our regular working time models even more flexible.

In Germany employees can take advantage of free employee assistant services provided by one of our partners. Offering a parent-child office, a nursing room, daycare spots and summer camps for children during school breaks, our headquarters in Herzogenaurach was awarded the German “Audit Beruf & Familie” (audit work and family) certificate, which we hold since 2015. During the past year we also provided virtual childcare by introducing online classes for children during school holidays to support our employees working from home.

Our goal is to minimize voluntary turnover and to keep the number of employees in permanent employment above 80%. In 2021, 89% of our employees worldwide had a permanent contract and the employment of over 28% of our employees was covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The turnover rate is heavily dependent on the share of the retail business in the respective markets and regions. The employee-initiated turnover rate was 26% (9% for non-retail employees and 38% for retail employees). The total turnover rate was 34% including retail employees. The percentage of employees working part-time was 22% at the end of 2021.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Providing a work environment that keeps our employees healthy and safe is a key priority. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to be a challenge in 2021. We kept our strict hygiene and safety concept, which complied with all applicable health and safety regulations, i.e. distancing rules, installing hand-sanitizer dispensers and a requirement to wear masks. In addition, we are also providing protective gloves and masks, as well as rapid tests for free for all our employees. This way we keep the risk of infection to an absolute minimum.

PUMA motivated and educated all employees to get themselves vaccinated and organized vaccination campaigns in our offices worldwide where possible. We consequently achieved a vaccination rate of over 85% in the majority of our entities, and in some locations even 100%.

In 2021 we updated our global Occupational Health and Safety Policy to underline the importance of this issue. PUMA has a central Health & Safety Committee which operates in our headquarters in Herzogenaurach. This internal committee includes health and safety specialists who conduct frequent health and safety inspections. These are complemented by external inspections by official bodies, such as the German “Berufsgenossenschaft”, for example. In addition, dedicated local Health and Safety experts also operate in all our larger entities. Our Global Director People & Organization is part of our Executive Management Team and frequently updates our Management Board on relevant health and safety matters. During the COVID-19 pandemic our Management Board was informed daily of the latest global health status.

We set ourselves the bonus-related goals of zero fatalities and consistently reducing the average injury rate year by year. In 2021 our goal was to stay below an injury rate of 0.50 according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). As well as conducting safety training courses at all our sites, we also offer online training programs to prepare employees for potential emergency situations, and thus reduce the number of accidents. In 2021 we launched a new digital OHS training course for all our sites, including hygiene and correct behavior during mobile office. Last year we conducted a total of 20,595 hours of safety training. Over the past year 6,355 employees were trained in fire safety and 4,852 in first aid.

On a global scale, 66 occupational accidents which required work to be stopped were recorded in 2021. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), this equates to an injury rate of 0.39 compared to 0.35 in 2020. The (OSHA) injury rate for PUMA SE stood at 0.31 and was at 0.13 in the previous year.

A further indicator of employee engagement and the health of our workforce is the rate of absence due to sickness, which was 1.98% in 2021.

We did not record any fatal accidents and the rate of occupational diseases has been zero at PUMA in the last 10 years, including 2021.

Feedback

Feedback is an essential part of our PUMA culture and internal and external feedback enables us to constantly improve. Since 2009 we regularly conduct global employee opinion surveys to get feedback from our employees on a variety of topics as well as measure their level of engagement. All in all, 12,875 employees took part in our 2021 global survey and used the opportunity to tell us what they think about their workplace and their work life. This represents a participation rate of 86% (2019: 85%). Despite the difficult circumstances caused by COVID-19, we saw an increase of favorable scores in all categories compared to the last survey. We compare our survey results with various market data, including high-performance data, which we outperform in all but one category. High-performance companies are defined as those that outperform the market financially and regularly achieve excellent survey results. This positive feedback encourages us to continue and further strengthen the measures we have implemented. The survey results were communicated at global, local and departmental level and follow-up measures have been defined.

During the year, pulse surveys were also conducted to quickly obtain employee feedback on current issues and thereby gain valuable insights from our employees. Through Workday, all our employees can also ask for or get 360° feedback quickly and easily. In addition, regular industry benchmarking is also carried out, and this is reflected, for example, in our Top Employer certification, our Great Place to Work award, and the “berufundfamilie” audit, as well as other awards we have received.

ENGAGEMENT

It is only with a high level of employee engagement that we can achieve excellent performance and reach our goals. We measure our employee´s engagement through regular global employee opinion surveys and are particularly proud of increasing our employee engagement score to 92% compared to 91% in our last survey. We appreciate the high level of commitment of our employees as well as their loyalty to the brand and aim to keep employee engagement at this high level in the years ahead.

AWARDS

In 2021 we received several awards recognizing the PUMA brand as a global employer. Offering a workplace where our employees can develop, grow and take on new opportunities, is one of our top priorities. Forbes partnered up with market research company Statista to create the World's Best Employers certification. We are proud to be recognized among the Top 25 companies in 2021.

Together with our global efforts, we also received several awards on a regional level.

Being recognized as one of Europe's Leaders in Diversity for the second year in a row by The Financial Times mirrors our efforts to create a diverse, equal and inclusive company culture. Our dedication to provide the best work environment for our employees has also been awarded with receipt of “Top Employer” in sixteen PUMA subsidiaries, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and South Africa, as well as Europe and Asia Pacific as a whole. Our PUMA family in the United States was also listed as one of “America's Best Large Employers” by Forbes and Statista. More than 50,000 American employees working for companies with more than 1,000 employees in the United States were asked to give their vote for this. We also received the “Great Place to Work” award in Argentina for the second year in a row.