Management & facts

Diversity makes us strong
More than 206 000 people work at Deutsche Telekom – and every one of them is unique. This diversity is our strength. For us, diversity means offering our employees numerous opportunities to grow professionally and to develop personally– regardless of their age, ethnic background and nationality, gender and gender identity, mental and physical abilities, religion and world view, sexual orientation or social origin. We are clearly committed to diversity and have a Group-wide approach for upholding that commitment. It is based on our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group Policy (formerly “Diversity Policy”), our six Guiding Principles, our Employee Relations Policy, and our Code of Human Rights & Social Principles policy statement.

In one important step towards a corporate culture of inclusiveness, we published a Transgender Handbook in the reporting year that supports an inclusive workplace. The handbook is suitable for everyone and answers questions such as “What support is available regarding transition, coming out, changes at work?” and “What if discrimination is experienced or witnessed?” At the same time, the handbook also serves as a source of inspiration to all employees who want to learn more about this topic or provide support.

We again participated in the German Diversity Day in 2022. The reporting year marked the 10th anniversary of the German Diversity Day which had been initiated by the Charta der Vielfalt (Diversity Charter) association and this time took place under the slogan “Let’s celebrate diversity.” On this occasion, we live streamed a presentation on the subject of social origin, together with other DAX-listed companies from the Rhine-Ruhr region – along with the subsequent panel discussion. Diversity also played an important role at the Digital X digitalization trade fair in 2022: Among other subjects, several presentations were given on the topic “Gender shift and opportunities for gender equality.”

We have been experiencing many changes since 2020 due to the global pandemic and digitalization – including changes in both the workplace and in society. Consequently, we have completely revised our Diversity Policy and implemented it globally in 2022 as our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Group Policy. It reflects the ambitions that our company has in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), and also expands our focus to include additional dimensions of diversity – such as health conditions and gender identity. We are working hard to ensure that all people receive the same opportunities, regardless of their personal circumstances. in December 2022, we launched the internal campaign “Connected As One” to roll out the Policy. With this campaign, we want to encourage all employees to enter into dialog with their colleagues and become involved in relevant activities and networks.

Right during the process for hiring new colleagues, we emphasize diversity and consider options other than just traditional educational and life paths. Good examples of such options include our entry-level training scheme for disadvantaged young people and our part-time apprenticeship program. Also, students, including students who are single parents, have the option of completing their cooperative study program on a part-time basis. To ensure that all employees can make the best-possible use of their abilities, we support employees’ work-life balance with an extensive work-life portfolio – with options such as family caregiver leave, lifetime work accounts, time off for education, job-sharing, mobile working, and working from home.

Our commitment to diversity also includes our efforts to promote digital participation through our network operations. We take a number of approaches here to make our networks as accessible as possible. As a founding member of the Diversity Charter business initiative, we want to promote diversity outside the company as well as within it. Unfortunately, diversity efforts are unevenly distributed. The impact assessment of our materiality analysis identified a significant risk of discrimination incidents due to origin, sexual orientation, and gender identity in countries in our upstream and downstream value chains. Violations of our Guiding Principles and corporate values can be reported at any time to our anonymous whistleblower portal “TellMe”, to our threat-management unit, and to our Contact Point for Human Rights. We follow up on every tip-off on violations. We have also implemented a comprehensive supplier management system to address these and other risks in our upstream value chain.

Diversity in figures
People from some 125 countries work successfully together at Deutsche Telekom. The average age of our employees was 41.8 years in the reporting year. At the end of 2022, 13.7 percent of employees covered by collective agreements and 17.7 percent of Deutsche Telekom civil servants throughout Germany were working part-time.

All in all in the reporting year, 35.7 percent of our total workforce were women. We have a particularly strong commitment to gender equality, and we have made it a priority for more than two decades. One of our central goals is to increase the share of women in expert and managerial positions; by 2025, we want to have women in at least 30 percent of our leadership positions worldwide. With regard to our legal entities in Germany, we have already achieved this goal on our Supervisory Board (as of Dec. 31, 2022: 42.4 percent) and on the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG (as of Dec. 31, 2022: 37.5 percent). Our middle and upper management positions in Germany are now occupied by women to a degree of 20.8 percent and 24.6 percent, respectively (as of Dec. 31, 2022). Worldwide, the women’s share of our management positions is 28.1 percent (as of Dec. 31, 2022). We have enacted various measures in order to achieve our defined goal of 30 percent.

7.7 percent (as of Dec. 31, 2022) of our employees in Germany are disabled, putting us well over the statutory quota of 5 percent. Almost 2 percent of our apprentices and dual students in Germany are young people with disabilities – that figure, in comparison to the total share of young people with disabilities in our society, shows that we train above-average numbers of young people in this segment as well.

In 2022, our Group Representatives for Persons with Disabilities once again awarded the Inclusion Award within the company for the sixth time. This award honors projects within the company that were carried out in the previous year with the aim of supporting employees with disabilities, and helping to retain them in the company.

Recognition for our performance
In the Gender Diversity Index  of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), we were once again among the “Diversity Champions” in 2022 and achieved a place among the top five DAX companies for the fourth time in a row. The criteria for the honor included the share of women, and the relevant remuneration ratio, on our Board of Management and our Supervisory Board. In addition, we were included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI), with top ratings. The Index tracks the performance of listed companies that have committed themselves to transparency in use of gender-specific indicators. The GEI measures and evaluates gender-equality performance in a total of five areas: Female leadership and talent pipeline; equal pay and gender pay parity; inclusive culture; anti-sexual harassment policies; and pro-women brand. In addition, we were again honored as one of the best companies for women: in an employer study carried out by the magazine Brigitte, looking at aspects such as work-life balance, career advancement, transparency, and gender equality, we were named one of the best companies for women – and received five stars, the highest ranking. In addition, in 2021 – after our first participation in 2013 – we once again took part in the equal pay check of the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency and were awarded the “eg-check” certificate. This certificate documents that the same or equivalent work by men and women is paid in the same amount: salaries at the company are based solely on the type of work being performed. Aspects such as gender, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation do not factor in at all. Other awards for their commitment to diversity in the reporting year were won by the OTE Group (Bronze prize of the Hellenic Responsible Business Awards for its initiative “A better world for everyone, without discrimination” in the category “diversity, integration, equal opportunity”) and by T-Mobile US (Disability:IN award Employer of the Year, Forbes recognition Best Employers for Diversity 2022, Fortune recognition 100 Best Companies to Work For).

The Diversity Charter is an independent business initiative that is supported by around 4 500 companies and institutions in Germany. Its aim is to create a work environment in which diversity among employees, and their many different abilities and talents, is valued. Such an environment opens up opportunities for innovative and creative solutions. Deutsche Telekom is a founding member of the Diversity Charter association. In addition, a number of our national companies are also members of this initiative – including T-Systems ITC Iberia and Magyar Telekom in Hungary.

In the reporting year, we worked together with the Diversity Charter, the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Donors’ Association for the Promotion of Humanities and Sciences in Germany), and representatives of other companies to further develop the Diversity Audit , established in the higher education sector in 2013 under the name “Vielfalt gestalten” (Create diversity) to become the “Diversity Kompass” (Diversity Compass). The aim of this effort is to adapt the audit to the specific requirements and interests of companies. This will enable companies – including Deutsche Telekom – to use the audit in future to review and refine their own measures in the area of diversity. The Diversity Compass was rolled out as a pilot phase in January 2023 in Deutsche Telekom’s Germany operating segment , among other units.

We are aiming to increase the share of women on our Supervisory Board and our Board of Management, and in middle or upper management positions. Specifically, we plan to increase the percentage of women on these levels, worldwide, to 30. We are implementing numerous measures to this end:

• Our opportunities to achieve a good work-life balance through parental leave arrangements, flexible working hours, and childcare services
• The mentoring program Child and Career for managers, junior managers, and expert staff at Deutsche Telekom
• Specifically addressing female talent through cooperative activities and at events
• Filling more management positions with female talents
• Promoting the generation shift between male executives due to leave the company in the near future and female junior staff (mentoring)
• Maintaining or increasing the diversity score, also in transformation processes, especially when filling management positions
• Additional support and networking services, such as training courses and workshops on unconscious bias for employees and executives; exchanges with Employee Resource Groups; and the “Connected As One” communication campaign for the launch of our revised “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” Group Policy.
• The systematic review of the “Employee Lifecycle” to identify and reduce systemic barriers - for example, by asking questions about inclusion in exit interviews.

Together with the heads of our segments, we reached agreement on implementation plans for increasing our women’s quota. Our diverse range of measures has allowed us to continuously increase the share of women in management positions – worldwide, from 12.5 percent in 2010 to 28.1 percent as of December 31, 2022.

At 50 percent, we have already exceeded our 30 percent target for the Group Supervisory Board. We have also been successful with regard to the statutory gender quota for supervisory boards in Germany since January 1, 2016; in this area, at 42.4 percent, we are within the overall average for all legal entities in Germany. With a share of women of 37.5 percent (as of Dec. 31, 2022), the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management also exceeds our own and statutory requirements. However, further efforts are needed to meet the target mentioned above for the remaining management positions on the two levels beneath the Board of Management, in the management of the national companies, and the internal supervisory boards in Germany.

We are also working to increase the number of women participating in dual study programs in technical fields. Although the number of technical study places at universities increased, we have succeeded in maintaining the share of women at around 15 percent in the last five years (as of Dec: 31, 2022).

Networking for success
In Germany, our locally organized women’s networks helps women reach management positions by providing support and counseling, and facilitating interaction with other women. In addition, we joined with Global Digital Women, an international network of women shaping the digital sector, to organize an after-work event on female transformation. Nearly 40 women from different industries attended. During the event, they shared opinions on the potential of digital transformation and provided insights into their own professional journeys.

Promoting female STEM  specialists
With carefully targeted messaging, we are seeking to attract talented women to our company. In particular, we support women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects and careers: As part of our partnership with Femtec, we once again organized an innovation workshop in 2022. Femtec, a cooperative effort being undertaken by major companies, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, leading German technical universities, and ETH Zürich, is aimed at finding young female talent for STEM professions and developing it. During the five-month innovation workshop, 20 international women fellows developed technically innovative and green solutions for intelligent, energy-independent cell sites in Germany and the EU. In addition, we also teamed up with the Femtec Alumnae Network on a pilot project in the reporting year – a six-week further education program on artificial intelligence, leadership, and agile  working. Around 60 IT experts and young female managers took part in the virtual expert sessions.

In 2022, as well, we continued pursuing the goal of achieving 30 percent women in management positions.

In Germany, the percentage of women in middle and upper management increased from 22.7 percent to 23.4 percent in 2021. The figure for the entire Group also increased and now stands at 28.1 percent.

You can find further information in the HR Factbook.

In 2020 we achieved the goal of 30 percent women in management positions. Since November 2020, a third woman has been appointed to the Board of Management. We continue to be at the top of all DAX Groups with a female share of 37.5 percent.

Deutsche Telekom is one of the few DAX Groups where women have been part of the Board of Management for several years now. In addition, more and more women are working in international management teams below the Board of Management level.

You can find further information here and in the HR Factbook.

In the supervisory boards of our fully-consolidated European subsidiaries, the percentage of women totals 32.4 percent (in Germany: 42.2 percent).

You can find further information here and in the HR Factbook.

You can find further information here and in the HR Factbook.

We make targeted efforts to promote diversity among our junior staff. To this end, we analyze and promote the diverse potential of young people. Under certain circumstances, apprentices at Deutsche Telekom can take their training on a part-time basis. Dual students also have the option of completing their cooperative study program on a part-time basis under certain circumstances – if they are single parents, for example. Young people without a school-leaving certificate who have not found apprenticeships yet or do not yet have the maturity to do so can take part in an entry-level training scheme we offer, funded by the Employment Agency (Agentur für Arbeit). The trainini scheme introduces them to suitable professions and helps them prepare for an apprenticeship. In addition, we offered DiscoverMINT@telekom (only available in German), a one-year orientation program, for the first time in 2022. This program targets young people with university entrance qualifications who are still unsure what to do with respect to their further training. In close cooperation with their instructors, participants are supported and coached for twelve months during the program at Deutsche Telekom, experience professional practice, and attend courses and events at the university. The program is intended to help participants to get acquainted with the dual-study STEM  environment and make a sound decision for the next step in their development. We also continue to offer young refugees opportunities to start their careers with entry-level training, the DiscoverMINT program, an apprenticeship, or a dual study program. We generally ensure that all applicants who wish to start a career at Deutsche Telekom, can enjoy a non-discriminatory application process. As of December 31, 2022, 6.2 percent of the apprentices and dual students we employed were of non-German nationality; in total, 54 nations were represented.

In the fall of 2020, the Board of Directors of our national company in the United States adopted a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) for more diversity and inclusion. The MOU was also signed by six major American DE&I advocacy organizations with whom T-Mobile US plans more intensive collaboration. To that end, T-Mobile US has established an External Diversity and Inclusion Council on which each of the organizations that signed the MOU has a seat. Other organizations are also members of the council; a complete list is published on the T-Mobile US website. The council, which has a total of twelve members, advises T-Mobile US with regard to diversity, equity and inclusion issues. In addition, it assists the company in defining relevant priorities and goals and it provides support for implementation of the company’s strategic diversity plan. The council convened for the first time in 2020. As of 2021, its meetings take place on a quarterly to semiannual basis.

In addition to the new council, T-Mobile US also has an internal diversity, equity and Inclusion (D&I) network. Participants meet to address current issues, question prejudices, and learn from each other. Tens of thousands of employees participate in the D&I network. It includes a group for people with disabilities (Accessibility Community), a multicultural group (Multicultural Alliance), an intergenerational network (Multigenerational Network), an LGBTQI* community (Pride), a network for veterans and active military personnel (Veterans & Allies Network), and a women’s network (Women & Allies Network).

T-Mobile US has received a number of awards for its efforts in these areas. In 2022, for example, it received Disability:IN’s Employer of the Year award, as well as the prestigious Forbes honor America’s “Best Employers for Diversity 2022”.