Employees

Excellent performance, the success that comes from it and participation in its rewards are at the heart of Volkswagen’s human resources strategy. Only a top team can produce the excellence that is necessary for Volkswagen to become number one in international automotive production. This human resource policy maxim applies worldwide and is of special significance in periods of growth such as the Volkswagen Group has been experiencing for several years.

As of December 31, 2011, the Volkswagen Group including the Chinese joint ventures employed 501,956 people. The number of employees has thus increased by 102,575 or 25.7% year-on-year. Significant factors in this increase, in addition to volume-related growth, were the consolidation of Porsche Holding Salzburg with 20,652 employees and MAN SE with 53,722 employees. The distribution between Group employees in Germany and those abroad shifted slightly in the past year: at the end of 2010, 45.4% of employees still worked in Germany, while on December 31, 2011, this was only 44.8%. To ensure that employees at all sites have the outstanding skills needed in an environment of rapid growth, Volkswagen places strong emphasis on becoming a teaching and learning organization.