DISCLOSURE 103-1: EXPLANATION OF THE MATERIAL TOPIC AND ITS BOUNDARY
As a multinational, Sika is still able to act as rapidly as a medium-sized enterprise and respond to business opportunities with high implementation speeds. To ensure that this remains the case, employee know-how must be kept in sync with current trends and market demands. In the year under review, Sika spent a total of CHF 6.4 million (previous year: CHF 12.3 million) on employee development.

DISCLOSURE 103-2: THE MANAGEMENT APPROACH AND ITS COMPONENTS
Customer First, Courage for Innovation, Sustainability & Integrity, Empowerment & Respect and Manage for Results are the defining elements of Sika’s corporate culture. These values and principles serve as a compass in all countries where Sika operates and are adhered to by all employees around the globe. Thus, the Group’s culture of trust, transparency, and openness has a firm global foundation that is lived by each employee every day.

SPECIFIC ACTIONS

  • Management Development: Sika’s performance and talent management system has been the mainstay of management development activities for many years. Designed to identify and develop managers’ skills, it facilitates systematic employee succession planning in the respective organisations, while promoting company growth by continually pinpointing new talent. Potential managers are developed at different levels, either through continuous training initiated by the respective national organisation or provided by the Sika Business School.
  • Sika Business School: 65% of all Sika Business School courses are sales oriented. To promote the development of sales skills within the company, sales and marketing training was expanded to include these new courses: Foundation For Sales, Making The Sale, Pricing For Sales, and Key Account Sales.  Sika also delivers several additional ad hoc trainings in specific areas such as compliance, legal, operations, sustainability, and procurement. Many training courses on Sika products and their applications have been moved to a virtual or digital learning format. The company’s expertise in advising customers both remotely and in person has been further developed.
  • London Business School: For continuing education of its over 170 Senior Managers, Sika partnered with the London Business School to deliver a three-day programme on strategy and leadership called “Building Together For Our Future.” Five programmes were delivered, attended by 110 Senior Managers
  • Curricula include project assignments reflecting current everyday business situations. Members of Group Management and other line managers are involved in development activities to ensure that training remains relevant to practical needs. Product-based and application-based knowledge is delivered by academies whose course content and organisation are defined by target market managers. With the focus on practical applications for Sika products, these training programmes promote customer advisory skills. 
  • Training Programmes: Training activities for each Sika employee are determined on the basis of the evaluation by the line manager. Each employee should attend at least one training course per year (internal or external). All non-management functions are evaluated and managed by their line managers and Human Resources to identify training and development needs.

 

DISCLOSURE 103-3: EVALUATION OF THE MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Sika evaluates its management approach through:

  • Monitoring: Sika monitors its performance regarding training and education on a regular basis.

 

Furthermore, Sika monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of its management approach according to target achievement.