Audi receives Industrial Inclusion Prize
- February 20, 2017
- Posted by: Simon Wait
- Category: Industry News
Audi AG has been awarded the 2016 Industrial Inclusion Prize in the large company category for the ‘exemplary integration of people with physical disabilities’.
At its plants in Germany in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm, the company employs 3,100 people with disabilities, or 5.8% of the workforce. Together with the University of St Gallen, Audi has carried out a comprehensive scientific evaluation of its integration process and has derived further specific steps to be taken.
‘Each individual employee contributes to the company’s success,’ stated Audi’s board of management member for human resources, Thomas Sigi. ‘We see it as essential to deploy our employees where they can best apply their strengths.’
He believes this is especially important with regard to inclusion: ‘People with physical disabilities give us a new, unfamiliar perspective and strengthen the creative potential of their teams,’ emphasised Sigi. ‘This diversity is enriching and is part of the diversity culture that we encourage at Audi.’
A joint study carried out by Audi and the University of St Gallen has confirmed the success of its integration concept: mixed teams with disabled and non‑disabled employees generate more ideas and work more creatively than homogeneous teams.
The Industrial Inclusion Prize is regarded as Germany’s most important award for integration and inclusion issues. The initiators of the prize include the Confederation of German Employer Associations, the Federal Employment Agency, the Diversity Charter and Unternehmensforum (an association of companies for the promotion of inclusion at work).
