The success of SMA is closely related to the performance and commitment of our employees. For this reason, we take care that the work environment is exciting and challenging, with a feel-good factor. That we succeed, show the good results of the annual competition "Great Place to Work". For example 2011 SMA came off as winner in the German "Great Place to Work" competition in the category for big companies with more than 5,000 employees.
Our corporate culture is founded on cooperative and collaborative management. Fairness, trust, partnership and mutual respect are the most important constituent parts of this concept. Each employee is encouraged to act independently and make his or her own decisions. The keys to these objectives are open communication on all levels and involvement in the company objectives. Cooperative management at SMA also includes financial participation. Ever since the founding of the company, all employees have received a bonus based on the company performance on top of their annual salary.
Employee satisfaction is an important concern of the company; it is after all a factor which contributes to the positive perception of SMA as an employer. With the aim of supporting employees in resolving the conflict between work and personal life, SMA has introduced numerous schemes. For instance, the SMA Family Service gives advice and support on questions concerning parental leave, return to working life, or vacation day-care for kids. The company also offers its employees flexible working time models, for instance, by using lifetime working hours accounts, and gives them freedom to structure their work individually.
We are aware of our social responsibility towards young people in this structurally fragile region. As co-founders of the competence network "Local Energy Technologies" (deENet) in Kassel (Germany), we support the network's objective of creating career opportunities in the renewable energy sector for around 20,000 people in the region by 2020. At the end of 2010, for example, there were 333 trainees in 15 occupations at SMA. A large proportion of the trainees are hired by the company. They still haven't finished learning, though, because SMA is a learning organization. This can be seen from the further training courses on offer. Quite apart from external courses, SMA has an in-house training schedule comprising many workshops and seminars, and all employees are encouraged to spend around five days per year on further training.
SMA's company health management program is aimed at continuously working to improve the working conditions and the health-related behavior of the employees. It is a managerial and interdisciplinary task, covering activities which contribute to maintaining, improving or rehabilitating the health of the company staff. In the company health management forums, specialists from various departments as well as Works Council, managers and the Managing Board work together to determine requirements and to derive and implement targeted health-care measures.
