My aim: Human-centered technology

I am convinced that international teams, made up of men and women with different types of experience and professional backgrounds, achieve the best results. For such diverse teams, the keys to success include working joyfully toward a common goal, accepting and understanding different perspectives, and showing respect and empathy for all members of the team.

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‘That’s not for girls!’ – That was the response I got when I went to a meeting of my school’s computer club and asked what game the boys were playing. As it happened, my passion for computers led to many wonderful experiences and friendships – and a career. I wasn’t stopped by that dumb remark, but it’s kind of sad that that the mentality expressed in it was so prevalent. I dream of the day when young girls will never have to hear remarks like that ever again.”

Technology is also women’s business. There are so many talented people out there, and so much of their talent is going to waste. Even though all people have the same kinds of brains, women still find it hard to gain a real foothold in technical professions. Nonetheless, women should stay open to such professions, because they are gateways to fascinating worlds.

We welcome anyone! Deutsche Telekom’s employees are a diverse group – also apart from any aspects of gender identity and sexual orientation. In the interest of upholding and communicating these values, we at MagentaPride are working, throughout the entire Deutsche Telekom Group, to represent the LGBTQI+ community’s interests, promote its visibility, and ensure that it enjoys equal treatment.

Mom, can men become chancellor, too?

Angela Merkel governed for 16 years in Germany. Since 2019, the President of the EU Commission has been a woman – Ursula von der Leyen. And Kamala Harris, a woman, now holds the second-highest office of the United States – that of Vice President. So, has gender equality become a real fact of life?

Companies that reduce discrimination and promote equal opportunity are more successful. This was a finding of the 2020 McKinsey study “Diversity Wins – How Inclusion Matters.” Diverse teams, so the study, achieve results that are better by a factor of up to 36 Percent.

“We won’t stop until everyone is connected.”

Diversity enriches us at Deutsche Telekom; it does wonders for our vitality and viability as an organization. In the interest of making our society better, we promote – and demand – personal and cultural diversity, in all its many facets. This is about diversity in the areas of gender and gender identity; age; ethnic background and nationality; mental and physical abilities; religion and world view; sexual orientation and identity; and social background. Our shared vision of “we won’t stop until everyone is connected” stands for diversity and inclusion – in both our company and our society. The awards that we received for our commitment to diversity in 2022 confirm that we are on the right track in this area. The honors included a 4th place listing on the Boston Consulting Group’s Gender Diversity Index, and a repeat award of the “eg-check” certification of fair remuneration. T-Mobile US received one of the renowned Forbes “Best Employers for Diversity” awards.

Our shared vision of “we won’t stop until everyone is connected” stands for diversity and inclusion – in both our company and our society. The awards that we received for our commitment to diversity in 2022 confirm that we are on the right track in this area. The honors included a 4th place listing on the Boston Consulting Group’s Gender Diversity Index, and a repeat award of the “eg-check” certification of fair remuneration. T-Mobile US received one of the renowned Forbes “Best Employers for Diversity” awards.

30 years of gender equality and diversity at Deutsche Telekom

Some 30 years ago, Deutsche Telekom’s Board of Management approved a special equal-opportunity plan aimed at improving opportunities for women within the company. Ten years later, we adopted a Group works agreement that enshrined Group objectives for equal opportunity/treatment for men and women. And with our Diversity Policy, we have committed ourselves to promoting unconditional equal opportunity. Diversity – meaning an orientation whereby we actively embrace diversity – is now part and parcel of our corporate culture.

1989

Heli Ihlefeld-Bolesch lays the foundation for equality and diversity management at Deutsche Telekom. Following Deutsche Telekom’s demerger from the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication, she becomes head of the Gender Equality department.

About one third of Deutsche Telekom’s employees are women. The Deutsche Telekom Board of Management adopts a concept for the advancement of women, with a view to improving opportunities for women at the company.

We want more women to go into technical professions. With this aim in mind, and in cooperation with the German Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Technology, and the Federal Employment Agency, we launch the Initiative "Women giving new impetus to technology" ("Frauen geben Technik neue Impulse").

In the interest of employees' work-life balance, and their overall job satisfaction, Deutsche Telekom and the German Posts and Telecommunications Trade Union (Deutsche Postgewerkschaft) sign a first collective agreement on "alternating telecommuting."

Nationwide, Deutsche Telekom has a total of 31 equal opportunity commissioners. Working in a voluntary capacity, the commissioners promote equal opportunity in each of the company's organizational units.

“E-Quality” teams, in the company's organizational units, bring together management, works councils, equal opportunity commissioners, and women's representatives for efforts to ensure that the company's concept for the advancement of women is properly implemented.

A "women's promotion prize" is awarded to projects that promote equal opportunity within our company. The large numbers of submitted projects show how many employees nationwide are committed to promoting equal opportunity.

Deutsche Telekom receives the "Total E-Quality" award for the first time, in recognition of its successful, ongoing commitment to gender equality in the workplace.

Do these images come to mind? – Men are active, self-assured and ambitious, while women are understanding, tender, and socially oriented? So, do managers need to "be like men"? No. Our "Fair bringt mehr" ("Fair gets you somewhere") training program helps people eliminate biases.

Deutsche Telekom has a wide and rich range of programs aimed at promoting equal opportunity for women, including efforts in the areas of self-coaching; and training and qualification measures carried out alongside regular employment – such as measures on time- and conflict management, confident behavior and dealing with bullying/harassment.

“Women go online”: Our “Women - Giving Fresh Stimulus for Technology” initiative, working in cooperation with “Brigitte” magazine and various computer schools for women, offers free internet training courses at over 100 locations, all with the aim of enabling women to account for 50 percent of online users.

Our first mentoring program is up and running. Each instance of mentoring entails a two-year professional partnership, between the mentor and the mentee, in which the learning is a two-way street. A network of highly qualified women and high-ranking female managers is established.

2000

Childcare services have to meet the needs of working parents. Deutsche Telekom's first childcare facility opens, in Munich. In it, two groups of Deutsche Telekom employees care for children as young as two years. Additional company childcare services are then phased in on an ongoing basis.

Employees' networks are expressions of living corporate culture. Nationwide, various women's networks are active. The company's network for LGBT employees is founded in 2002.

Dr. Heinz Klinkhammer, Board Member for Human Resources, launches company's "work & life balance" project, which is aimed at helping employees juggle their own professional and private interests with the company's operational requirements.

On a nationwide basis, the company introduces a free service for employees that provides advising on nearby childcare and nursing-care services. The service also offers emergency childcare services.

A Group works agreement on equal treatment and equal opportunity is signed, with the aim of implementing gender mainstreaming and promoting gender equality throughout the Group.

In 2005, Maud Pagel guides the Group's adoption of a Diversity Policy. With the new policy, Deutsche Telekom becomes one of the very first German companies to formally adopt diversity principles. Pagel was also a co-initiator of the the Group's Diversity Charter.

A Family Fund provides support, nationwide, for projects that help improve employees' work-life balance. All company employees are eligible to submit applications, to the Fund, for family-friendly measures.

More and more women are playing key roles at the company and in the policymaking sphere. A total of 900 female leaders, from around the world, meet in Berlin for a Global Summit of Women. Deutsche Telekom sponsors the pertinent Global Women's Leadership Awards.

Under the auspices of CEO René Obermann, the “Heimspiel” (“home game”) network is founded. Its goal is to give fathers in the Group additional leeway to balance work and family responsibilities.

We are honored with the Max Spohr Prize. The prize is awarded to employers who implement diversity management in a comprehensive way – especially by means of instruments for promoting a key dimension, “sexual and gender identity.”

We want to inspire girls to take an interest in professions that are typically seen as being “for men.” On Girls' Day, we invite girls in grades five through ten for open houses in which we present technical professions in the IT and telecommunications industry.

2010

We become the first DAX-30 company to adopt a women's quota. Thomas Sattelberger, Board Member for Human Resources: “The women's quota is helping to get people talking about what leadership really means – and that is good. Uncertainty is the beginning of change.”

René Obermann appoints women to the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management. Claudia Nemat, the first woman on the Board, assumes responsibility for the company's European operations. In the following year, another woman comes aboard, as Board Member for Human Resources.

Women are still underrepresented in STEM* fields. We want to highlight outstanding role models and inspire more women to enter STEM professions. This is why we have begun awarding a Women's STEM Award, for outstanding final papers/theses written by women graduates.
*Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Every day, each of us makes thousands of decisions, most of which are unconscious ones. And many decisions result from bias, which can easily lead to errors. In order to raise awareness about bias, on the part of company employees, we launch a worldwide Group communication campaign on unconscious thought patterns.

In the DAX-30 group of companies, we are a leader in employing people with disabilities. Our new action plan “Inklusion@DT” is aimed at eliminating prejudice and resistance, and at helping to make an inclusive workplace a reality.

Results are what counts for us. In many areas of business, where and when our employees work is not a key issue. With this in mind, we sign a collective agreement on mobile working with ver.di, the United Services Trade Union.

2020

Dominique Leroy is the third woman to join the Deutsche Telekom Board of Management. With her arrival, women now make up 37.5 percent of the Board's members, making us the leader in this category among DAX-30 companies.

Our Board of Management has proclaimed March “Diversity Month.” With this move, we want to send out a common message and raise awareness about solidarity, diversity, and for a Deutsche Telekom that is inclusive and welcoming to all.

"Yuo cna raed thsi, btu the gender* star slsow you down?" Our editorial guide for corporate communication provides tips on how to use gender-neutral language.

Standing up against discrimination: Our employees' network MagentaPride, in cooperation with the PrOut@Work Foundation, launches a Group-wide social media campaign to raise awareness about discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community.

T-Mobile US establishes a Diversity and Inclusion Council that brings together representatives of six major American civil rights organizations. The Council is helping T-Mobile US to design and implement a strategic diversity plan.

Via our initiative #equalesports, we are promoting diversity in the esports and gaming sectors, and encouraging women to participate in recreational and professional esports.

Today

We won’t stop until everyone is connected. This aim also stands for diversity and inclusion. With our revised Diversity Policy, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” we want to promote a “culture of belonging.” In keeping with this orientation, we have produced a Transgender Handbook, with the aim of promoting equal opportunity for trans persons at Deutsche Telekom and increasing their visibility. The handbook is intended both as a resource for trans persons and as a source of inspiration for all employees who wish to learn more about transgender issues. In yet another effort in this area, we have developed a “Diversity Compass,” in cooperation with the Charta der Vielfalt non-profit association, the Stifterverband initiative for education, science and innovation, and representatives of other companies. The Compass guides companies in auditing and refining their measures in the area of diversity.

Connected As One

Connected As One

Our “Connected As One” communication campaign puts our Diversity Policy into practice. All of us – with all of our differences – are a team.

How is artificial intelligence being used today?
In general, AI holds great promise for society and for mankind. For example, it can help us filter useful information out of the great quantities of data that we all produce and collect. With this capability, it can do such things as predicting where an epidemic might break out or a bad storm might suddenly appear.
All of us use AI in our daily lives whenever we do such things as communicating with chatbots, checking content recommendations in our social media feed or considering the films that Netflix – working from our profile – points us to.
Significantly, AI systems’ recommendations in many areas can be considerably more consequential than any great film suggestions could ever be. For example, an AI system might be called on to choose a medical treatment for you, assess your qualifications for a job or determine whether you qualify for a loan.

And in such more-consequential areas, AI systems’ decisions have often been found to discriminate against minorities and groups that already have to contend with discrimination as it is. Needless to say, this is a serious problem.
Artificial intelligence has no consciousness. It makes decisions solely on the basis of data. How then do AI systems wind up discriminating against people?
To understand how this can happen, let’s consider a small example. Suppose we want to develop an AI system that can support personnel recruitment. This means we want a system that can screen and recommend candidates for job openings. We develop the system, only to find that it tends to discriminate against female candidates; in fact, it screens them out in the early stages of the recruitment process. To get to the bottom of this, we need to look at the data our AI system has been trained on. In our example, our imaginary development team looked around for sample data that would be suitable for training purposes. They decided to use CVs submitted by past candidates, along with the HR department’s assessments of those CVs. Because little current data of this kind were available, historical data had to be relied on. And that is precisely where the problem originated. Historical data can often reflect historical societal biases. As we all know, in the past men have often enjoyed preferential consideration in recruitment processes, and they have tended to receive promotions more quickly than women have. A compounding factor is that technology jobs still tend to attract far fewer female applicants than male applicants. In sum, therefore, our training database had two basic problems. The first is that women were underrepresented in it. The second is that it was biased against women in terms of assessments.
So, when it was trained on those data, our AI system picked up a double bias. And if we use the system now, we will be giving those biases – which belong to the past – new life in our present and future.
Have you ever come across AI-based bias?
I work for IBM, and we did indeed see it once in our work. This occurred after we had developed and commercialized a facial recognition system that was suitable for criminal-investigation applications of law enforcement agencies.
In 2018, two female researchers in the U.S. conducted a major independent study of facial recognition systems of various providers. They found that all of the providers’ systems, including that of IBM, were less accurate in recognizing people of color than in recognizing white people. This was so because all the systems had been trained on large image databases that were skewed toward images of white people.
In the U.S., especially, this presented a major problem, because system-inherent racial biases that produce higher misidentification rates for people of color can support racially biased policing and racial discrimination within the criminal justice system.
Acting on the recommendations of its own AI Ethics Board, IBM then decided to pull out of the market for facial recognition technology. At IBM, our feeling was that we could not responsibly sell such software as long as the technology has not matured to the point of being free of racial bias.
What can and must we do to ensure that AI systems meet ethical and responsibility standards?
As we have seen, the most important thing is to train systems on databases that accurately and objectively reflect our own reality.
In addition, ensuring that development teams are diverse helps ensure that distortions and biases in training data are readily identified and eliminated.
At the same time, data are not the only potential source of system biases. Decisions made during development, such as those pertaining to weighting of key attributes, are also a factor to consider. And such decisions, needless to say, are made by humans. This aspect, therefore, also highlights the need for diversity in development teams.
A third, and crucially important, aspect is that of governance and control: We must be able to ensure that our AI systems, including those in productive operation, always conform to our standards and values.
To be able to do so, we of course have to develop ethical standards for AI systems. Fortunately, a great many groups are currently addressing this need. Technology companies, for example, are working on guidelines for their own operations. Scientists and researchers are exploring relevant principles, along with their work on the technical principles applying to AI systems. And policymakers have also joined this conversation. For instance, in early 2021 the EU Commission presented an AI strategy package that included a first proposal for a harmonized AI regulation. That was certainly a big step in the right direction.
Does it make any difference if more women get involved?
I would like to emphasize once again that this issue is not just about women. Yes, it is about them, but it’s also about other groups that are underrepresented in the technology sector and in databases used by technology companies – groups such as people of color. To ensure that our development teams feature the real diversity we need, we have to bring in a diverse range of people, including people from many different social and cultural backgrounds, as well as people with different kinds of professional experience.
And the call to action?
Artificial intelligence is a technology that truly can make our lives and our society better – as long as we develop and apply it in the right ways.
In the discussion about ethical AI, diversity and inclusion are the central values to consider. If we attend to those values properly, AI can even help make our society more just and equitable. The most important thing now is for all of us to work together to set the stage for artificial intelligence systems that are free of bias – and that are fair and just for all of us.

Women at the top!

Upon graduation from high school, girls tend to have better grade averages than boys do. Women are still underrepresented at the top management levels of companies, however. In 2010, we became the first company in the DAX 30 index (comprising 30 of Germany's largest companies) to introduce a women’s quota. With that move, we significantly boosted Germany's impetus for promotion of opportunities for women. Women now make up about one-third of our employees. Our aim has been to reach a 30 percent proportion of women across all of our management positions. We have already greatly exceeded that aim, by reaching 45 percent. As of the end of 2022, women held 28.1 percent of our mid-level and top-level management positions, 50 percent of our Group Supervisory Board positions, and a full 37.5 percent – a higher percentage than at any other DAX‑30 company – of our Board of Management positions.

To achieve our goal, we have implemented a broad range of measures. For example, we now ensure that at least 30 percent of all participants in our leadership development programs, and at least 30 percent of all short-list candidates for our top executive positions, are women. In addition, we offer women special mentoring programs, flexible working hours and a right of return from part-time to full-time work. In 2022, we once again improved our score in the “Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index” (GEI). Deutsche Telekom's good performance in the area of gender equality has been reflected in the GEI, a global, cross-sectoral index, since 2018.

Parental leave with no career breaks

People should be able to take parental leave without having their careers suffer as a result. Our mentoring program for experts and managers helps employees in Germany continue to develop professionally during and after a period of parental leave. Mentees interact closely with an experienced manager and receive professional training in areas such as self-marketing. And the program's aims include increasing the numbers of women in the company's management positions.

Equal pay for equal work

According to the "Global Sports Salaries" survey of the website sportingintelligence.com, women playing in the Women's Bundesliga, Germany's top-division soccer league for female players, earned an average of 37 250 euros in 2018 – while the men playing in the men's Bundesliga (1st Bundesliga) earned an average of 1.4 million euros. While such enormous discrepancies between men's and women's salaries tend to be the exception, , it remains true that many professions do not offer equal pay for men and women, as various 2021/2022 studies of the German Federal Statistical Office and the World Economic Forum found: On average, women's salaries in Germany and the U.S. were about 18 to 20 percent below men's salaries, for comparable qualifications and job descriptions. At Deutsche Telekom, the “equal pay for equal work” principle applies. Salaries at the company are based solely on the type of work being performed.

Aspects such as gender, ethnic background, and sexual orientation do not factor in at all. In 2021, we received the "equal-pay check" ("eg-check") certificate of the German Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency for a second time. The certification process analyzes and highlights men's and women's salaries for work that is comparable or of equal value.

In 2020, the national company Magyar Telekom carried out a complex analysis of the salary discrepancies prevailing within its organization. That effort led to the development of an action plan for reducing salary inequalities, especially those resulting from career gaps of mothers. Also, and since 2020, short lists of candidates for the company's management positions always have to include at least two qualified women.

Work models: Sometimes less is more

Many types of life situations – such as a new baby's arrival, the need to provide care for a loved one, or time-consuming volunteer work – simply leave little space for full-time jobs. Companies seeking to promote diversity in their workforces have to take all kinds of life situations into account – and create work environments conducive to good work-life balances. At Deutsche Telekom, we provide a framework that helps our employees juggle their private and working lives. We offer our employees a range of flexible working-time options, including part-time work with a guaranteed right of return to full-time work, phased retirement, family caregiver leave, leaves of absence, lifetime work accounts, leave without pay, parental leave, caregiver leave, education leave, job sharing, and mobile working and working from home.

Balance, instead of chaos

We also offer a range of other options, in addition to our work models, aimed at promoting equal opportunity and helping our employees find the right balance between their private and working lives.
A few examples:

1Childcare

In Germany and Austria, we offer in-company childcare facilities. In Germany, we also offer our employees free emergency childcare, and special assistance in finding longer-term childcare options. A number of our locations offer parents “parent-and-child offices.”

2Counseling relating to caregiving

Has your mother suddenly started needing care? What if your life partner has had a bad accident and now needs assistance for basic activities of daily living (ADLs)? In such situations, we support our employees in Germany with free counseling and agency services provided by our cooperating partner awo lifebalance GmbH.

3Assistance in finding household help

Housekeeping and gardening services can reduce time pressures and help you juggle your private and working lives. awo lifebalance GmbH offers our employees in Germany agency services for finding competent housekeeping and gardening help. Deutsche Telekom pays the relevant agency costs.

Together we are less alone

Sharing ideas with people facing challenges similar to your own can be a great help. That is why we actively support and promote the many employee networks at Deutsche Telekom. Networks such as MagentaPride, our employees' LGBTQI+ network, for example. It provides support, counseling (on sexual identity issues, for example) and contacts to help services. It also assists our managers and departments in an advisory capacity. MagentaPride's efforts have also included active participation in a project for developing gender-sensitive language standards for Deutsche Telekom. In 2022, in cooperation with our Human Resources department, the network developed our Transgender Handbook. The Handbook is aimed at all of our employees. It describes ways of pushing back against discrimination, and it is helping us strengthen diversity and inclusion in our corporate culture. MagentaPride also organizes "Impulse" events on various topics.

Other examples of such networks at our company include our woman@telekom women's network; our father’s network (Väternetzwerk); our network for international employees in Germany; and our “Stay in contacT” online network, which enables employees to stay in contact with each other during parental leave – for example, with regard to issues as work-life balance and reentry into the workplace. Our national companies, such as Magyar Telekom in Hungary, also offer assistance for employees seeking to reenter working life following periods of parental leave. In T-Mobile US’s network for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, employees meet in order to address current issues, speak out about prejudice and stereotypes, and learn from each other. Tens of thousands of employees – in total, some 36 percent of the company's workforce in the United States – participate in the network. The network 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).

Moving inclusion forward

Every person is a unique individual, and every person has something valuable to contribute to society. More than seven percent of our employees in Germany are disabled. With the help of an action plan, we are promoting inclusion, throughout the Group, in our apprenticeship and qualification programs, and through efforts to ensure that persons with disabilities are able to participate equally in the workplace. As part of this focus, we offer such assistance as individualized counseling, special IT support, modified workplace equipment, and sign language translation. In 2022, our Group Representatives for Persons with Disabilities once again awarded an "Inclusion Award" for pertinent efforts made within the company. The Inclusion Award honors internal company projects for support of employees with disabilities, including support oriented to job retention.

Yes, women are game for gaming

So gaming is just for men? Get outta here! In Germany, women account for 48 percent of all persons who regularly play computer games on a recreational basis (according to the German Games Industry Association's annual report for 2022). The picture is different in the professional sector; estimates indicate that less than five percent of esports professionals are women. We want to change that. Women should have every – and equal – opportunity to pursue their passions, and to do so without any fear of being marginalized or discriminated against. As part of our efforts on behalf of equal opportunity in esports and throughout the entire gaming sector, and in cooperation with the esports organization SK Gaming and the “esports player foundation”, we have launched the initiative #equalesports. Via this initiative, we want to work together to provide a secure space for the female and non-binary gaming community, and to set a good example on behalf of diversity within the gaming scene. The initiative's activities to date have included building the first women's professional team for the game League of Legends and supporting talented young female players in developing to a world-class level.

The Equal eSports Festival – ushering in a new generation

The second Equal eSports Festival, which took place in September 2022, once again publicly affirmed the importance of equal opportunity and tolerance in esports. Visitors at that event – either on location in Cologne or via Twitch live stream – enjoyed inspiring workshops, engrossing panel discussions and show matches featuring world-class players.

No room for hate speech

On the internet, we can connect with just about anyone. Unfortunately, the internet is increasingly being used for fomenting division, and for marginalizing and humiliating people. All too often, cyberspace is home to hate speech, cyberbullying and social media outrage. No one – famous or not – is completely safe, and the numbers of victims are mounting. Deutsche Telekom is working to prevent and combat online hate speech. We're doing so at our own initiative, in awareness of our social responsibility. We're doing everything we can to promote standards of responsible behavior in cyberspace – and we won't be satisfied until everyone can participate without fear of victimization.
More on the topic of digital democracy.

No tolerance for discrimination

No person is completely free of biases. Our biases influence our perception, value judgements and actions. And they often do so without our awareness. A remark that we blurt out without thinking can hurt someone. This is because thoughtless remarks can reflect prejudices that work to discriminate and marginalize. Via an internal communication campaign, we are helping to make our employees aware of how unconscious biases secretly influence our decisions – and of how biases can be overcome.

We have no tolerance for discrimination, whether intentional or unintentional. Unfortunately, our employees often face discrimination, threats of violence, bullying and sexual harassment – in the office, on our hotlines, in our Telekom Shops and during customer appointments. Our Threat Management team immediately – and confidentially – looks into all such cases. Where necessary, the team will cooperate with a network of external specialists, including employee representatives, the police, and staff of women's shelters. All employees are free to contact the Threat Management team directly as necessary.