Corporate culture and inclusion: valuing diversity and respecting needs

We are committed to ensuring that all people are offered fair opportunities and are committed to inclusion. Our value-based corporate culture is characterized by diversity, equity, and inclusion. It not only influences how we work, but also the satisfaction of our employees and our business success.

We present these topics in detail in the audited Sustainability Statement in the Annual Report 2024 and in the HR Factbook 2024.

Lived values: facts and figures 2024

We want to offer all our employees the opportunity to develop professionally and develop individually – regardless of age, nationality and ethnic origin, gender and gender identity, physical and mental abilities, religion and ideology, sexual orientation or social background. Our employees are involved in various communities for the aforementioned diversity dimensions and thus actively shape our corporate culture. At the same time, we also serve the various legal requirements that we encounter in the area of equal treatment.

The following key figures from the reporting year show where we stand in terms of corporate culture and inclusion:

Our corporate culture and the key figures mentioned above illustrate our commitment to diversity, equal opportunity and participation. In addition, we want to ensure that our employees also find support in their private lives. We offer them relief so that they can stay healthy and productive and develop individually.

Reconciling work and private life

With flexible working models, we want to make it easier for our employees to reconcile work and private life and help to prevent possible symptoms of overload. Our regulations are diverse and cannot be presented in full for the entire Group at this point. In Germany, the focus is on the following measures:

Promotion of part-time and partial retirement

We enable our employees to reduce their number of hours, unless there are operational reasons to the contrary. You can return to your original weekly working hours at any time. Trainees and dual students can also be trained part-time or complete their studies under certain conditions. Partial retirement is possible after the age of 55.

You can find out more about partial retirement in our

HR Factbook 2024

Mobile working

Mobile working is established at Deutsche Telekom. Our employees in Germany, but also in other European countries, can arrange their work flexibly at their location. In Germany, the regulations on mobile working are anchored in collective agreements. Since January 2024, our employees in Germany have also had the opportunity to work remotely from other EU countries for up to 20 days a year.

Time off from work

With a lifetime working time account, most employees in Germany can save up a credit balance and use it for a sabbatical, an earlier exit from working life or the top-up of a part-time salary. At the end of 2024, around 16,700 employees and 600 managers were using the model. In addition, our employees in Germany can take unpaid leave from work (at short notice), e.g., to raise or care for children, care for relatives or to carry out a paid job with another employer.

With the employee-financed “Buy Vacation” model, all employees in Germany have had the option of financing additional days off through their salary since January 2024. In contrast to the lifetime working time account, it is more flexible, because there are neither application deadlines nor savings periods. More than 1,000 employees applied for the model in the reporting year.

To study or do a doctorate, employees in Germany can take up to four years of so-called educational leave. During this time, the employment relationship is suspended and no remuneration is paid.

Holistic support for families and challenges using Germany as an example

As a family-friendly employer, we take the everyday requirements of our employees seriously and want to support them in mastering them with a wide range of offers.

• Childcare: In addition to company-owned daycare centers, employees at many Deutsche Telekom locations can use parent-child offices, e.g. if regular childcare is canceled. In addition, we support our employees all year round in their search for childcare options, even for the holiday periods. As part of this, Deutsche Telekom is offering additional holiday offers during the summer holidays. If, for example, regular care is cancelled, emergency care can be organized at short notice.
• Parental leave: Through the “Stay in contact” network, which is anchored in Germany, employees on parental leave have the opportunity to stay in touch with the company and also receive support in re-entering working life. Our “Fathers’ network” promotes the open exchange of experiences between fathers. In addition, we offer (expectant) mothers and fathers in our company the option of being digitally accompanied on their parental leave journey with a specially designed app. Support in balancing the work-life cycle is also provided by the counselling and mediation services on care, support and household-related services.
• Inclusive working environment: In order to equip the working environment of our employees in a way that is accessible to the disabled and also inclusive, we promote physical and digital accessibility with various measures, e.g., by providing technical aids.
• Programs for better work-life balance: We offer various training courses and workshops that are specially tailored to employees in the early family phase. In the reporting year, for example, we once again implemented the mentoring program “Careers with children”. In addition, we have provided learning opportunities such as the lecture “Parent couples between kitchen table and laptop” as well as lectures on the topic of menopause.

• Support in dealing with professional and private challenges: For concerns from everyday professional and personal life, our employees are supported by the Employee and Management Advisory Service (MFB) throughout the Group. For example, our employees can turn to MFB’s external experts in the event of stress at work, private changes, but also problems in the partnership, in the family or with children.
• Family Fund and Social Fund: In Germany, we also support our employees with financial resources: As a start-up aid, the Family Fund supports employee projects that make it easier to reconcile work and private life – such as specially established childcare services, parent coaching or courses for family caregivers. Employees in an economic emergency can receive support from the Social Fund. We also subsidize recreational measures for children with severe disabilities.
• Betreuungswerk: We support our employees in Germany in emergency situations and in regeneration. They can turn to the care center in the event of family deaths, serious illness, social emergencies or natural disasters, for example. For example, we offer courses for women with cancer. We also provide help for the children of employees who are students.
• ErholungsWerk: The ErholungsWerk offers inexpensive holidays in attractive European holiday regions, e.g., in one of the 16 own holiday resorts.

You can find out more about our workplace health promotion measures in our audited

Sustainability Statement in the Annual Report 2024

Looking ahead

For 30 years, our values have formed the basis of a corporate culture in which we want to empower everyone to reach their full potential. Our brand, the “T”, stands for connection and cohesion – both externally and internally, today and tomorrow.