CASE STUDY

Background

[Inclusion & Diversity] are key contributors to our corporate success. In 2005, Deutsche Telekom was the first

international company based in Germany to have a group-wide diversity policy covering all six core dimensions:

gender, age, origin/culture, religion, sexual orientation and disability). And in 2010 we became the first DAX 30

company to voluntarily undertake a 30% female quota for leadership positions.

What did you want to achieve?

We want to go further in 2020 with a renewed strategy and management commitment for bringing more gender,

age, cultural identity, personality and skills diversity into our leadership teams.

What did you do?

We implemented various formats to fight Unconscious Bias (including online workshops and e-learning) and hosted

the 10th German Diverse City conference in our Bonn Headquarters. We also created opportunities for increasing

women in our leadership (a 30% commitment) and in general (30% in our talent programme, 40% in our trainee

programme). Developing guidelines on making presentations inclusive for employees with special needs, increasing

the number of video transmissions with sign language and providing barrier-free workplaces are a few examples of

how we support our colleagues with disabilities. Our newly revised offers cover all professional and personal aspects

to drive cross-border mobility. And we have designed our onboarding offers to better integrate international

executives relocating to Germany. Our Reverse Mentoring programme connects members of our top Business

Leadership Team with young trainees to share new ways of digital collaboration. We are also supporting and

leveraging self-organised diversity communities in and beyond Germany. Around 250 employees participated in the

Christopher Street Day 2019 in Cologne to represent and support LGBTQ+ rights and topics in our company

What have you learned?

We have learned that key factors for success include strong top leadership commitment, legal and structural changes

and a holistic approach that encompasses the whole employee lifecycle. Widespread communication and marketing

campaigning, strategic industry partnerships and membership of relevant advocacy groups have all proved essential

for increasing I&D. Last but not least, the growing interest and investment of our employees to drive diversity

further via networks and communities have been critical to our success

Questions

The case states: We have learned that key factors for success include strong top leadership commitment, legal and structural changes and a holistic approach that encompasses the whole employee lifecycle. Based on this, please explain how diversity can be addressed at all functions

of the management process (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling) and explain how diversity impacts efforts at each of these functions.