Deutsche Telekom wants to achieve a significant increase in the quota of women who hold specialist and management positions in the Group. It is a known fact that companies with a diverse management structure respond more successfully to future demographic and economic developments.
Deutsche Telekom was the first Dax 30 company to introduce a quota for the proportion of women in appointments to positions and management programs. The percentage of women in management positions has developed positively overall since then, rising to 28.1% across the Group in 2022. Since 2010, we have also raised the quota of women on our supervisory boards. It is 45 percent (nine out of 20 members are women) and therefore significantly higher than the 30 percent targeted by the German government. In 2020, the proportion of women on the Board of Management has risen to three out of eight.
With the introduction of the German Act on Equal Participation of Women and Men in Executive Positions in the Private and the Public Sector (Gesetz für die gleichberechtigte Teilhabe von Frauen und Männern an Führungspositionen in der Privatwirtschaft und im öffentlichen Dienst), Deutsche Telekom AG has set targets for itself and other Group companies to achieve 30 percent of women on the Supervisory Board, the Board of Management/Managing Board, and in the two management levels directly below the Board of Management/Managing Board. As a listed company with equal co-determination, Deutsche Telekom AG is already under the legal obligation to ensure a minimum quota of 30 percent women and 30 percent men on its Supervisory Board. This goal has already been achieved at Deutsche Telekom.
This, together with the Board of Management decision to introduce a women's quota, is a visible expression of the move Deutsche Telekom is making toward a new corporate culture. In order to achieve this target, we are managing our program to implement the women’s quota systematically through target values along the entire talent pipeline. In the future, for example, at least 30 percent of participants in executive development programs will be women.
On top of this, the company has introduced a recruitment guideline valid throughout the Group, whereby at least 30 percent of candidates shortlisted for any top position must be women. This requires human resources advisory services and head hunters to propose more women for such posts.
Other action areas in the company are:
- Transparency of selection and appointment processes
- Transparency of HR development
- Systematic controlling and monitoring of target specifications
- Personalized options for returning after parental leave or time out
The quota has found particularly strong resonance in our home market, triggering a broad debate both within and outside of our company. Since introduction of the women’s quota we have already achieved our first successes. We have succeeded in recruiting large numbers of women, especially for top management positions and key HR development programs.
The systematic development of female talent in management positions also marks the expansion of Deutsche Telekom’s work-life balance program. The company is, for example, extending its parental leave models, flexible working time models and childcare offers.
