Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 67
Staff numbers of the Group holding companies rose by
17 to 219 in the past fiscal year (prior year: 202). The largest
increase was recorded at ALTANA Management Services
GmbH, with 10 additional employees.
The functional structure of the workforce did not alter
significantly in the 2020 fiscal year. With 51 % or 3,305
people (previous year: 3,329), most of the employees continued
to work in production. The research and development
workforce increased by 44 to 1,218 in 2020 (previous
year: 1,174). The number of employees in marketing and
sales also rose, by a total of 45, during 2020. In the year under
review, 915 people were employed in administration
(previous year: 927).
In 2020, there were only minor shifts in the regional
structure compared to the previous year. With 4,203 employees
(previous year: 4,122), the European Group compa-
nies continued to employ by far the largest number of people.
Employees by region
1 2
3
22.4 %
13.2 %
64.4 %
Dec. 31,
2019
Dec. 31,
2020
Δ %
1 Europe 4,122 4,203 2
thereof Germany 3,353 3,376 1
2 Americas 1,496 1,461 - 2
thereof U.S. 1,232 1,193 - 3
3 Asia 858 865 1
thereof China 539 539 0
Total 6,476 6,529 1
3,376 (previous year: 3,353) were employed in Germany
at the end of the year, the majority of them at ECKART’s
and BYK’s largest production sites, in Hartenstein and
Wesel, respectively. The number of employees in the Americas
decreased slightly by 35 from 1,496 in the previous year
to 1,461 at the end of 2020, with the reduction primarily
recorded in North American companies. The number of
people working for Asian Group companies increased slightly
from 858 in the previous year to 865.
At the end of the 2020 fiscal year, 1,721 women and
4,808 men were employed at ALTANA. 90 % of all employees
had an unlimited and 10 % a limited employment
contract. This ratio was virtually the same for both genders.
At the end of 2020, 75 % of the female employees were
working full-time and 25 % part-time. 98 % of the male
employees worked full-time. Apart from its own employ-
ees, 140 people from employment agencies worked for the
ALTANA Group on December 31, 2020.
ALTANA continues to compete internationally for specialists
and managers. Like all companies in the chemical
industry, in the years to come the ALTANA Group, particularly
in Europe, will enter a phase that due to the demographic
development has made precision succession planning indispensable.
As a result, talent management and human-
resource development have played a key role for a few years
now in ALTANA’s agenda for the future (Keep Changing
Agenda). The aims are to mobilize people at ALTANA, to increase
diversity at all levels, to further develop our leader-
ship culture, and in doing so to strengthen our entrepreneurial
thinking and action.
To achieve these goals, we examined and revised existing
personnel tools in 2020 and embedded them in a uniform,
overarching, and standardized process. The focus was
on the conceptual design and further development of the
so-called “Talent Cycle.” This process encompasses employee
support from recruitment to talent identification and development
to career and succession planning. Key elements are