The Messer Team
Messer’s mission statement enshrines customer and employee orientation, responsible action, corporate responsibility as well as open communication, trust, and respect. Messer is aware of its responsibility to respect human rights and working conditions.
The Messer Code of Conduct sets out binding principles of behavior for all employees worldwide. The Code of Conduct is part of the Messer Compliance Management System (Messer CMS) and emphasizes Messer’s sustainable understanding of values for living integrity.
As a member of the Charta der Vielfalt (Charter of Diversity), Messer complies with the national and international provisions for human rights and the general ethical principles against child and forced labor. The respect for human rights and the maintenance of fair working conditions form the basis of our corporate philosophy and business processes. Messer believes that every employee is entitled to fair treatment, courtesy, and respect. Thus, we expect every employee to treat all persons in a respectful, fair, friendly, and professional manner.
The basis of human rights diligence at Messer is our commitment to respect human rights. With this policy statement, we are making a strong and binding commitment to human rights and working conditions as set out in internationally recognized frameworks:
- The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact
- The Labor Standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO)
- The International Bill of Human Rights (UN)
We support our employees, customers, and suppliers in complying with human rights principles and maintain an ongoing dialog with them on important human rights issues.
Messer is committed to diversity and equal opportunities for its workforce. Our future-oriented and sustainable human resources policy ensures a level playing field for professional success, respects cultural differences and promotes interaction with each other. For Messer, diversity is the basis for innovation and sustainable corporate success; mutual trust and respect are the corporate values that form the basis of our corporate culture and are deeply rooted in it.
Our salaries are based on function, market, performance, training, experience, and length of service as well as, where applicable, collective bargaining agreements or comparable wage agreements and inflation compensation. Gender equality is a matter of course. Our vision for diversity and inclusion is to create an environment where all employees accept, respect and value the differences of multiple identities and truly welcomes the diverse ideas and perspectives of individuals. In doing so, we shape an open and creative company culture, providing every individual an equal opportunity to thrive.
We define diversity as the presence of differences and representation of multiple identities such as age, race, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, religion, caste, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities, talents, and other individual differences.
We define inclusion as the assurance that the thoughts, ideas, and perspectives of all individuals’ matter. When there is inclusion, our people, our teams, and our company are truly inviting to all, creating engagement, and belonging.
The aim of our diversity management is to create a prejudice-free and appreciative working environment, irrespective of employees’ gender, nationality, ethnic or social origin, religion, caste, ideology, disability, age, sexual orientation, or sexual identity. Interdisciplinary teams at our Messer SE & Co. KGaA headquarters are responsible for the strategic integration of diversity and inclusion. Across Messer, representatives and ambassadors in each national company help to promote diversity and inclusion through targeted initiatives and concrete measures.
At Messer Americas, People Excellence is part of our operational strategy, which is about creating an environment that attracts and retains our highly skilled workforce, motivating and enabling each colleague to reach their highest potential and advancement in their careers. Together diversity and inclusion are one of the elements of our People Excellence strategy. To accelerate our endeavors, Messer Americas has D&I Ambassadors in each country and a joint D&I Council comprised of leaders from across the region. The leadership team launched a comprehensive program comprised of three key pillars: education, engagement, and process.
The proportion of women in the 1st and 2nd management levels is expected to rise in the long run, and the goal is to increase this measure by establishing mixed management teams with at least a thirty percent share of women by 2030.
In order to achieve this goal, within the Corporate Office of Messer SE & Co. KGaA, activities have been developed that are intended to lead the way for the Messer companies in the future. First of all, a women’s network called “Women Network@Messer” was set up to give interested women the opportunity to participate and share their experience in the workplace. Under professional guidance, “Power Teams” were formed to exchange ideas and provide support on a regular basis to make it easier to overcome professional and personal challenges. Accompanying targeted training opportunities on topics such as personal excellence, work/non-work balance and inclusion were offered to the entire workforce at the headquarters. A mentoring program for women was launched in 2023.
The average length of service of our employees in 2023 was 10.1 years, as it was in the previous year. Of the employees at Messer, 18 percent are represented by workers’ representatives. 39.7 percent of all employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
Employee appraisal and satisfaction reviews were conducted with 55.3 percent of all employees in 2023. In 2023, more than 4,400 employees in the Americas participated in the regional Viewpoint survey and the results demonstrated significant improvement in several categories including the areas of learning and development as well as diversity and inclusion.
Messer is committed to the education and training of junior employees, who are seen as an important investment in the competitiveness and performance of our company. In 2023, Messer’s vocational training ratio increased slightly from 1.4 to 1.5 percent.
Open dialog and internal know-how transfer are important to us. That is why we promote supra-regional and intercultural networks.
We were able to network even more closely at an international specialist level and at the same time attract more participants to the virtual international town hall meetings that have been held regularly since 2022. In total, there were 43,186 participations in location meetings or network meetings for strategic integration or knowledge transfer and in town hall meetings, compared to 33,033 in 2022.
To improve internal international communication, Messer introduced an app internationally in 2021, which simplifies global exchange between the organizations and their teams. In order to simplify dialog with the Executive Board and bundle the strategic information, the Executive Management Board has been communicating in the app with its own stream since 2023.