09/02/2024 | Press release

Rheinmetall has succeeded in obtaining ISO certification in the HR area, which has previously only been awarded to a few DAX-listed companies. Transparency and comparability in companies are becoming increasingly important for their own employees, applicants and internal and external stakeholders. However, data relating to employees is often not yet standardised and therefore difficult to compare. Rheinmetall has now successfully passed the ISO certification "Human Capital Reporting / DIN ISO 30414" and was awarded the certificate in December 2023.

Marco Kleiner, Dr Heiko Mauterer and Katharina Güldenberg from the management consultancy 4C Group AG presented the certificate to Thorben Reinhardt, Senior Vice President HR Projects & Solutions, and Anna Holzknecht, Head of HR Analytics, at the Rheinmetall Academy in Düsseldorf.

The voluntary certification, created in 2018, is the only globally valid guideline with a clear focus on "Human Capital Reporting" and creates a benchmark for HR key figures for the first time.
 

Security through standards

"We know that Rheinmetall employees are the foundation of the Rheinmetall Group's success. I am therefore delighted that we can now also demonstrate standardised reporting in the HR area. This enables us to offer our employees in particular guidelines and security in their work processes," says Peter Sebastian Krause, Chief Human Resources Officer of Rheinmetall AG.
 

ISO certification as a commitment

"Rheinmetall made a big commitment with the decision to carry out this ISO certification," explains Thorben Reinhardt. "Not only are the existing key figures measured against the ISO 30414 requirements, but any gaps that may exist must also be closed." As part of the certification process, an episode of the career podcast "R(h)einhört" was also published with content on HR key figures and HR work at Rheinmetall.

With its HR reporting, Rheinmetall can not only inform interest groups, but also achieve company-wide comparability of HR key figures. In addition, reliable and indicator-based recommendations for action can be derived for the management of the workforce. Rheinmetall is thus building up a standardised data basis that enables key figure-specific trend analyses within the organisation over time.
 

ESG relevance

The ISO standard also contributes to Rheinmetall's ESG strategy - this primarily concerns the "S", but also the "G" in ESG (Environmental - Social - Governance). In this context, insights into human resources issues are becoming increasingly relevant for investors.

"With the certification, Rheinmetall has created a solid basis and taken a major step towards ESG-compliant reporting. In many ESG discussions, HR key figures were previously underrepresented, but this is changing drastically with the new legally prescribed ESG guidelines," explains Anna Holzknecht.
 

More standards, more transparency

Rheinmetall also took the step towards certification in order to standardise its own HR reports and thus make them comparable both internally and externally. Even before the certification process, Rheinmetall published many of the required key figures in the annual ESG Factbook and in the annual report. The certification gives the Group the opportunity to make such insights even more transparent. Future HR reporting will be even more specific, detailed and meaningful as a result of the certification.

The successful certification clearly shows that Rheinmetall was already well positioned in HR reporting and reflected many of the key figures included in "Social" in ESG.