With almost 25,000 employees globally, Sika regards training and education as an important instrument in retaining and grooming its workforce. The company is proud of its large share of longtime associates and recognises the need to keep these valued associates up-to-date in terms of their knowledge and abilities.
Sika therefore runs a broad range of internal and external training programmes and its own training academies, e.g. for operations, sustainability, sales and marketing, and technical faculties. Sika collaborates with universities to access up-to-date knowledge. In 2020, we continued our co-operation with various business schools and universities, where we provided training for talented employees with the potential to assume Senior Management positions.
The aim is to provide at least ten hours of training per year for each employee. In 2020, this figure stood at 10.1 hours (previous year: 11.4 hours). The focus is on external as well as in-house training opportunities. Sika as knowledge and learning organisation has significantly expanded its online portfolio with more than 500 programmes available for employees. In 2020, this represents 14,000 hours dedicated to compliance training, professional skill building and leadership development. The digital learning trend is rapidly accelerating with the pandemic and the implementation of Sika’s global Learning Management System, now live in all Sika countries. Effectively, Digital has been a been a major transformation driver, enhancing collaboration, innovation and learning across the organisation. 33 courses were offered in the year under review and attended by 500 participants. All programmes were delivered virtually.