Boehringer Ingelheim Corporate social responsibility: We care for our people

Our vision "Value through Innovation"

Our way of working together

From the mid-1990s, our corporate culture has built on our vision Value through Innovation (VTI), which has given direction to all our activities. An annual VTI Day brings our organisations together to celebrate our achievements in line with our vision and encourages and inspires our employees to participate in realising it in practical ways.

Achieving success - individually and collectively

Value through Innovation has guided and will continue to guide our way of working together. It helps us build on our strength and make the most of our distinctive character, enabling us individually and collectively to achieve great success.

"Lead & Learn"

In 2005, Lead & Learn was introduced to outline ways in which we can enhance our culture of working together to realise and deliver Value through Innovation. The core concept of Lead & Learn builds on encouraging increased questioning and seizing opportunities while fostering a culture of shared leadership and learning.

Polling our people worldwide

For the first time in Boehringer Ingelheim’s 122-year history, all employees were invited in an internal global opinion survey to share their views and experiences with the company on how they work together, where they perceive our strengths and where they see scope for change and improvement. This internally designed and executed survey, “Your View on Our Culture”, set out to gain valuable insights into where we stand regarding the company’s core values. These are anchored in our Leitbild (guiding principles), our code of conduct and the corporate vision spelled out in our Value through Innovation and Lead & Learn initiatives, our common view of the way we work together.

International teams representing the diversity of our employees

VTI teams that fairly represent the diversity of our employees, together with our line management, have commenced their challenge to explore and realise complementary new ways to support our aspired cultural development throughout the corporation.

"Perspektive Demographie"

To seize the opportunities arising from changing demographics and shifting workforce structures in various parts of the world, Boehringer Ingelheim also enhances our people’s capabilities with a multi-dimensional, long-term approach. Analysis and discussions of workforce trends and their potential implications are increasingly integrated into our management practices. Efforts and programmes are introduced and developed which continue to foster life-long learning, diversity management, enhancement of work-life balance, the maintenance and enhancement of physical, mental and social well-being, as well as prompting own initiatives in this context. Furthermore, a dedicated task force, "Perspektive Demographie", elaborates, recommends and initiates additional activities and approaches to support this endeavour.

Last update: 11.04.2008