Siemens Sets Benchmark in Ownership Culture

Siemens Sets Benchmark in Ownership Culture
Siemens

80 percent of all Siemens employees worldwide are now also shareholders of the company. In total, around 300,000 of the company's 377,000 employees worldwide hold Siemens shares.

The company had aimed to have about 200,000 employee shareholders by 2020. This target has now already been exceeded by a clear margin. In January 2018, the number of employees holding shares in the company was still just 186,000.

The comparatively sharp rise is due to a payout from Siemens Profit Sharing, which was established in 2015 in order to enable all eligible employees below management to participate in the company's success. The programme enables employees to receive free shares following particularly successful fiscal years.

Participation requires no personal investment on the part of the employees. A total of €400 million had been paid into the Profit Sharing Pool since 2015. For the first time, this sum has now been distributed to the eligible employees in 102 countries, primarily in the form of free shares.

"We want to enable all our employees to participate directly in Siemens' success and sustainable development. By allowing all Siemens employees company-wide to participate in the company's success, we're setting standards for sustainable management in this area, too. I'm happy and proud that more than 300,000 employees are now also co-owners of our company," said Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens.

In addition to Profit Sharing, Siemens' global Share Matching Program forms the core of the company's equity culture and is one of the world's largest employee equity programs. This share plan has been implemented in annual tranches since 2008.