We embrace dialog with our stakeholders – we communicate transparently and openly.
We are committed to sustainable and responsible corporate governance: we embrace dialog and create transparency through our actions. Social acceptance and an active, ongoing communication with our stakeholders are the basis of our success.
The Volkswagen Group “Stimmungsbarometer” is an integral part of our readiness to engage in dialog within the company. This voluntary and anonymous staff survey records the mood throughout the Volkswagen Group and is intended to increase employee satisfaction with the help of subsequent processes such as, in particular, the discussion of the results and the implementation of measures derived from them. After the survey, managers and employees elaborate solutions together to enhance employee motivation and talk about how they can be effectively implemented. The Stiummungsbarometer gives Volkswagen Group employees the opportunity to become more closely involved in the company by inputting their own opinions and ideas.
We also offer a wide range of internal communication formats for the exchange of ideas, standpoints and experience within Volkswagen Financial Services. Alongside management conferences for strategy development and the exchange of views among executives, dialog events for strategy communication are a matter of course for us. Fireside chats, informal get-togethers to enable a direct conversation between employees and the board members or the management, are also firmly established. We also actively live the process of dialog through our intranet – because the commentary function on our articles is an important indicator in our eyes that also promotes open and respectful dialog among us.
Nobody's perfect. But we want to get better and better. We have therefore initiated a regular stakeholder survey. Those interviewed include customers, employees, suppliers, federations and associations, media representatives and investors. The key questions we want answered are: what reputation do Volkswagen Financial Services have? How believable are we considered to be? What are the subjects that stakeholders associate with us and what are the expectations placed on us? Another of our key formats to promote dialog is our New Year's Reception. Every January, Volkswagen Financial Services invite representatives from politics, business, science, the federations and associations, clubs and social organizations from the region to take part in a mutual exchange of ideas. The invitation to attend is regularly accepted by around 400 individuals.
Under the motto "Combining theory and practice", Volkswagen Financial Services maintain an intensive exchange with universities, colleges and universities of applied sciences. Several strategic cooperations with academic institutions have resulted from these dialogs – for example with the Chair of Information Systems and Machine Learning (Data Analytics) at the University of Hildesheim. There are also longstanding cooperations with the Technical University of Braunschweig (IT and Finance) and with the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Halle.
As the world's largest automotive financial services provider, Volkswagen Financial Services has its roots in the region around Braunschweig in the south of Lower Saxony, which is a strong centre in the middle of Germany. The cities of Braunschweig, Salzgitter and Wolfsburg as well as the districts of Gifhorn, Goslar, Helmstedt, Peine and Wolfenbüttel form an extraordinary economic, research and cultural region. It is home to over 1.1 million inhabitants. In order to make the region attractive for its inhabitants in the future as well, Volkswagen Financial Services is a shareholder in the "Alliance for the Region" initiative, a regional association of partners from business, science, politics and administration. The common goal is to develop the region into an economically strong and liveable home of the future. Further information can be found at www.die-region.de or www.allianz-fuer-die-region.de.
