Another aspect of sustainability is assuming responsibility for our employees and for society as a whole. This is becoming even more important given the continuously aging workforce. Our answer to these challenges is our demographic project, ‘Today for Tomorrow’. It provides the right working conditions that allow younger people to age healthily and their elder colleagues to strategically contribute their particular strengths.
One example: the production line for the dashboards of the BMW i3, which can also accommodate workers with performance restrictions and older colleagues and provide them with a socially sustainable workplace. Together, a team of managers, workers, doctors and physiotherapists recorded the working conditions and simulated an ideal production process. Workstations were designed based on their findings.
But we also focus on health and prevention issues to keep up our employees’ personal capacities. As a result, we now have a wide range of highly effective individual activities – such as joint-protecting wooden floors, ergonomic seats and swivel lattice boxes. In order to prevent physical problems in the long term, workers are being taught corrective exercises.
Our commitment has also been recognized by external parties: In 2014, the demographic project ‘Today for Tomorrow’ in cockpit production was presented with the HR Excellence Award. The consistently age-appropriate design of the component production convinced the independent jury of experts as the best and most innovative HR project in the category of ‘Equal Career Opportunities’.
