We offer our employees a wide range of specific training and development programs. Important principles for this are defined in our Group Policy on Employee Relations and in our Guiding Principles. For many units at Deutsche Telekom, specific agreements were also reached with the employees’ representatives on the subject of training. The training we offer our employees pays off. In 2022, for example, we were able to fill 33 percent of our open positions with internal candidates. (2021: 51 percent; 2020: 66 percent; 2019: 51 percent)
Training the experts of tomorrow We offer many young people an opportunity to enter the working world. For example, we have a comprehensive range of technical and commercial apprenticeship programs to train our skilled workers of tomorrow. The Group offered around 1 820 training positions in 2022: 1 220 positions for apprenticeships and up to 600 spaces for dual bachelor students. In addition, 100 young people took part in our 12-month DiscoverMINT program, which gives them the chance to get to know the prospects offered by the digital working world and to find orientation with respect to their career path. This makes us one of the largest training providers in Germany. During our training programs, we lay the foundations for digital skills, and thereby enable our apprentices to make a seamless transition into the digital working world.
During our annual CMD+O campus tour, we invite students and recent graduates to enter into dialog with experts at interactive workshops and “tech talks”, and to drive forward exciting digital developments. After two years of virtual-only campus tours, due to the pandemic, we were able to visit a total of 10 universities during the reporting year – and get to know the professionals of tomorrow. We plan to expand our university cooperations further in 2023.
Promoting lifelong learning We promote lifelong learning and support our employees on their individual learning paths. We start by reviewing the skills our employees have now and those they will need in the future. On this basis, we offer our employees tailored training and development programs. These can also include stays abroad or studies parallel to their jobs. For example, Bologna@Telekom gives employees access to part-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. Since its introduction more than ten years ago, over 2 000 employees in Germany have taken advantage of this opportunity.
Education@telekom
… takes a look at the entire educational chain from vocational training – university degree – further development.
Informal learning in the working process
Cooperative Bachelors’ degree courses
Vocational training
Entry-level training scheme
DiscoverMINT@Telekom
Initial career training
Start up!
Theses
Student internship/Flexikum scheme
Courses for students and graduates
Part-time Master’s degree
Part-time Bachelors’ degree
(Academic) further education
Talent development
Expert development
Leadership development
Youlearn
Courses for professionals
Training: Self-managed, digital learning Since 2019, we have been carrying out the “youlearn” initiative, which is aimed at turning Deutsche Telekom into a learning organization. We offer our employees worldwide (excluding T-Mobile US) the ability to largely manage their own training by means of digital offerings and to make learning an integral part of everyday working life. For example, “youlearn” invites employees to take part in voluntary, informal learning challenges. We held our Group-wide “youlearn days” in November 2022 – a global, digital learning event by Deutsche Telekom that concentrates fully on technical and digital skills. After the major success of this event in previous years, we outdid ourselves in 2022: With more than 5,400 registered attendees – 10 percent more than in 2021 – from 29 countries, we set a new record in the reporting year.
Also, we continued to expand our online education and training programs at the global level (excluding T-Mobile US) – most notably, via the Percipio learning platform, which we introduced in 2019. In addition to a desktop solution, the Percipio app lets users access content anytime and anywhere. It offers a wide range of courses, videos, books, and audio books on topics such as leadership, technology and development, and digital transformation, and it conveys the learning content in an entertaining way. Content is offered in 18 languages – with the help of dubbing and subtitling. In 2022, some 179 000 Deutsche Telekom employees were registered on this platform. Via Percipio, our employees can access training materials offered by Coursera, the world’s largest provider of online courses at university level. The courses, on issues such as big data, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, are provided by a network of around 200 universities.
The employees’ initiative Learning from Experts (LEX), which was launched in 2018 and is now successfully established at Deutsche Telekom, provides another example of opportunities for self-managed, self-guided learning. In LEX, experts from the Group share knowledge with their colleagues via a range of different channels. LEX is one of our fastest-growing employee communities. Its LEX sessions, lasting 30 to 60 minutes, are especially popular. More than 5 400 LEX sessions had been held by the end of 2022.
Our employees around the globe spent some 3.8 million hours on training and skills development in 2022. Overall, LEX users completed a total of 3 million hours of online learning in 2022 – and the comparable figure for 2019 was only 1.8 million. In 2022, 85 percent of the training courses available for registration throughout the Group were available online. During the coronavirus pandemic, when large numbers of employees have been working from home, and no classroom courses have been available, this extensive range of online courses has been very helpful in keeping training available to employees.
Boosting leadership skills in the digital age We are also increasing the use of virtual solutions in our leadership development programs. The aim of such programs is to strengthen virtual leadership skills. In 2021, at Deutsche Telekom in Germany, and at the Local Business Units (LBUs) of T-Systems, we introduced WeGrow, a new approach to performance development. This process will help us increase the commitment of each employee through regular feedback, create clarity about tasks and expected results, and strengthen trust-based relationships between managers and employees. In addition, this approach will enable close integration with other HR processes such as skills management, talent management, and succession planning, and it will help us meet our business targets. We used “Compass” career development meetings for the final time for employees covered by collective agreements and for civil servants, on a Germany-wide basis. “Compass” served as a means of providing feedback about performance and skills and of identifying talents. Starting in 2023, we will also apply the “WeGrow” approach for development meetings with these two groups of employees.
Talent management at Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom completely overhauled its approach to talent management in 2022. The aim was to garner a holistic, Group-wide view of talents at Deutsche Telekom. This will enable us to develop centralized talent initiatives for all employees, which are supplemented with local initiatives tailored to the specific requirements of the particular business unit. We view talents across all employee groups: from those covered by collective agreements and those not covered by collective agreements, through to executives. The Group-wide WeGrow performance management forms the basis for identifying talent. This ongoing dialog between manager and employee is focused on further developing employees and identifying talents. To this end, we have developed common, clearly defined and comparable talent criteria – our “4 As” stand for Achievement, Ambition, Attitude, and Ability. Besides previous achievements and existing skills, we therefore also analyze whether employees have the necessary ambition and attitude for inclusion in talent initiatives.
All our initiatives aim to develop suitable talents towards positions that add value to the Group. To this end, we network talents and managers, create transparency regarding our talent pool, and promote direct contact with prospective hiring managers.
The Global Talent Hub is a global talent initiative addressing executives and prospective executives. It includes up to 200 talents with immediate suitability and ambition for an executive position in the company along with – and that was new in the reporting year – up to 100 talents that have already shown early on in their career the potential for reaching executive level and are being accompanied over several career steps. In the reporting year, 20 percent of the executive positions were filled with talents from the Global Talent Hub (excluding T-Mobile US).
Talent management at Telekom Deutschland Telekom Deutschland also promotes talented employees – both in groups covered by and not covered by collective agreements – in a talent program at business segment level. This enables us to ensure a consistent, transparent talent pipeline from the level covered by collective agreements through to the executive level. To this end, we offer three development programs tailored to talents that are at various points in their career: for expert and project roles, in preparation for an initial management function, and for experienced managers to prepare for their next career step. The program also includes increased visibility of talents, tailored training courses for the next career step, and cross-divisional matching rounds that match vacancies with suitable talents. 860 employees covered by and not covered by collective agreements are taking part in the talent programs in the current 2022/23 program cycle.
Our contribution to the SDGs
We offer our employees a wide range of specific training and development programs. Important principles for this are defined in our Group Policy on Employee Relations and in our Guiding Principles. For many units at Deutsche Telekom, specific agreements were also reached with the employees’ representatives on the subject of training. The training we offer our employees pays off. In 2022, for example, we were able to fill 33 percent of our open positions with internal candidates. (2021: 51 percent; 2020: 66 percent; 2019: 51 percent)
Training the experts of tomorrow
We offer many young people an opportunity to enter the working world. For example, we have a comprehensive range of technical and commercial apprenticeship programs to train our skilled workers of tomorrow. The Group offered around 1 820 training positions in 2022: 1 220 positions for apprenticeships and up to 600 spaces for dual bachelor students. In addition, 100 young people took part in our 12-month DiscoverMINT program, which gives them the chance to get to know the prospects offered by the digital working world and to find orientation with respect to their career path. This makes us one of the largest training providers in Germany. During our training programs, we lay the foundations for digital skills, and thereby enable our apprentices to make a seamless transition into the digital working world.
During our annual CMD+O campus tour, we invite students and recent graduates to enter into dialog with experts at interactive workshops and “tech talks”, and to drive forward exciting digital developments. After two years of virtual-only campus tours, due to the pandemic, we were able to visit a total of 10 universities during the reporting year – and get to know the professionals of tomorrow. We plan to expand our university cooperations further in 2023.
Promoting lifelong learning
We promote lifelong learning and support our employees on their individual learning paths. We start by reviewing the skills our employees have now and those they will need in the future. On this basis, we offer our employees tailored training and development programs. These can also include stays abroad or studies parallel to their jobs. For example, Bologna@Telekom gives employees access to part-time bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. Since its introduction more than ten years ago, over 2 000 employees in Germany have taken advantage of this opportunity.
Education@telekom
… takes a look at the entire educational chain from vocational training – university degree – further development.training
and graduates
further education
professionals
Training: Self-managed, digital learning
Since 2019, we have been carrying out the “youlearn” initiative, which is aimed at turning Deutsche Telekom into a learning organization. We offer our employees worldwide (excluding T-Mobile US) the ability to largely manage their own training by means of digital offerings and to make learning an integral part of everyday working life. For example, “youlearn” invites employees to take part in voluntary, informal learning challenges. We held our Group-wide “youlearn days” in November 2022 – a global, digital learning event by Deutsche Telekom that concentrates fully on technical and digital skills. After the major success of this event in previous years, we outdid ourselves in 2022: With more than 5,400 registered attendees – 10 percent more than in 2021 – from 29 countries, we set a new record in the reporting year.
Also, we continued to expand our online education and training programs at the global level (excluding T-Mobile US) – most notably, via the Percipio learning platform, which we introduced in 2019. In addition to a desktop solution, the Percipio app
lets users access content anytime and anywhere. It offers a wide range of courses, videos, books, and audio books on topics such as leadership, technology and development, and digital transformation, and it conveys the learning content in an entertaining way. Content is offered in 18 languages – with the help of dubbing and subtitling. In 2022, some 179 000 Deutsche Telekom employees were registered on this platform. Via Percipio, our employees can access training materials offered by Coursera, the world’s largest provider of online courses at university level. The courses, on issues such as big data, cybersecurity, cloud computing 
, and artificial intelligence, are provided by a network of around 200 universities.
The employees’ initiative Learning from Experts (LEX), which was launched in 2018 and is now successfully established at Deutsche Telekom, provides another example of opportunities for self-managed, self-guided learning. In LEX, experts from the Group share knowledge with their colleagues via a range of different channels. LEX is one of our fastest-growing employee communities. Its LEX sessions, lasting 30 to 60 minutes, are especially popular. More than 5 400 LEX sessions had been held by the end of 2022.
Our employees around the globe spent some 3.8 million hours on training and skills development in 2022. Overall, LEX users completed a total of 3 million hours of online learning in 2022 – and the comparable figure for 2019 was only 1.8 million. In 2022, 85 percent of the training courses available for registration throughout the Group were available online. During the coronavirus pandemic, when large numbers of employees have been working from home, and no classroom courses have been available, this extensive range of online courses has been very helpful in keeping training available to employees.
Boosting leadership skills in the digital age
We are also increasing the use of virtual solutions in our leadership development programs. The aim of such programs is to strengthen virtual leadership skills. In 2021, at Deutsche Telekom in Germany, and at the Local Business Units (LBUs) of T-Systems, we introduced WeGrow, a new approach to performance development. This process will help us increase the commitment of each employee through regular feedback, create clarity about tasks and expected results, and strengthen trust-based relationships between managers and employees. In addition, this approach will enable close integration with other HR processes such as skills management, talent management, and succession planning, and it will help us meet our business targets. We used “Compass” career development meetings for the final time for employees covered by collective agreements and for civil servants, on a Germany-wide basis. “Compass” served as a means of providing feedback about performance and skills and of identifying talents. Starting in 2023, we will also apply the “WeGrow” approach for development meetings with these two groups of employees.
Talent management at Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom completely overhauled its approach to talent management in 2022. The aim was to garner a holistic, Group-wide view of talents at Deutsche Telekom. This will enable us to develop centralized talent initiatives for all employees, which are supplemented with local initiatives tailored to the specific requirements of the particular business unit. We view talents across all employee groups: from those covered by collective agreements and those not covered by collective agreements, through to executives. The Group-wide WeGrow performance management forms the basis for identifying talent. This ongoing dialog between manager and employee is focused on further developing employees and identifying talents. To this end, we have developed common, clearly defined and comparable talent criteria – our “4 As” stand for Achievement, Ambition, Attitude, and Ability. Besides previous achievements and existing skills, we therefore also analyze whether employees have the necessary ambition and attitude for inclusion in talent initiatives.
All our initiatives aim to develop suitable talents towards positions that add value to the Group. To this end, we network talents and managers, create transparency regarding our talent pool, and promote direct contact with prospective hiring managers.
The Global Talent Hub is a global talent initiative addressing executives and prospective executives. It includes up to 200 talents with immediate suitability and ambition for an executive position in the company along with – and that was new in the reporting year – up to 100 talents that have already shown early on in their career the potential for reaching executive level and are being accompanied over several career steps. In the reporting year, 20 percent of the executive positions were filled with talents from the Global Talent Hub (excluding T-Mobile US).
Talent management at Telekom Deutschland
Telekom Deutschland also promotes talented employees – both in groups covered by and not covered by collective agreements – in a talent program at business segment level. This enables us to ensure a consistent, transparent talent pipeline from the level covered by collective agreements through to the executive level. To this end, we offer three development programs tailored to talents that are at various points in their career: for expert and project roles, in preparation for an initial management function, and for experienced managers to prepare for their next career step. The program also includes increased visibility of talents, tailored training courses for the next career step, and cross-divisional matching rounds that match vacancies with suitable talents. 860 employees covered by and not covered by collective agreements are taking part in the talent programs in the current 2022/23 program cycle.