oerlikon

We at Oerlikon believe that true innovation can only be accomplished by people who trust in our company. To ensure the wellbeing of all our people, Oerlikon invests considerable human and financial resources to create a safe work environment and a healthy work climate.

Organizational change

In the course of the takeover and integration process of the Saurer Group Oerlikon gave exemple for the high expectations to its own integrity through fair, open and timely dialogue. Oerlikon has found the ideal partner in Saurer for designing its expansion strategy and creating sustainable value. With a highly efficient organization and a unique position on the market, there are no better preconditions for continued growth ensuring the jobs of our employees.

As the Annual Report goes into print, the assigned integration team including Saurer and Oerlikon will be fully occupied handling this complex integration process. The integration is to be completed with a final integration of all employees in the new SAP system by 2008. The management recognizes that the situation must be handled openly and fully transparent towards all employees, in order to avoid uncertainty.

A practical implication is the intensified transcending activities among our locations - worldwide. The exchange of ideas and the development of common goals contribute to a closer collaboration and mutual understanding.This is facilitated by job rotation, regionally and internationally.

Work-life balance

Work-life balance is the management of the relationship between the period of time an employee spends on the job and its spare time. An important aspect is employee attraction and retention. Oerlikon employs highly skilled people, with plenty of talent and expertise, and is looking for more every day. Such employees are wanted on a competitive market, allowing them to be particular about their choice of employer. Consequently, next to competitive salaries and benefit packages Oerlikon offers flexible working hours and part-time employment. When the basic conditions fit, the prospect for a positive work environment increases, clearing the road for creativity and innovation.

Diversity and equal opportunity

At Oerlikon, employees from 48 nationalities and as many cultures unite under the umbrella "One Culture". With such a diverse team Oerlikon is confident in being well-represented in all ends of the world, keeping up the pace with its international customers' needs.

Being an international company with more than 170 locations around the globe, Oerlikon believes in the strength of locality. The majority of the employees, including management, are locally hired reflecting the demography of the market. By developing technologies and educating employees locally Oerlikon keeps the know-how close to its core. A regular exchange of know-how between the different segments improves the cooperation and supports the utilization of synergies. The Asia Support Team initiated by Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum is one example thereof. Experts from China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea have come together to form a technical support team for the Asian market. During a five-week intensive training in Cologne the experts had the possibility to exchange and extend know-how.

Technology-driven companies such as Oerlikon traditionally have a strong engineering culture, rendering an imbalance in the male-female ratio. Knowing that a diverse team often displays a higher level of creativity, Oerlikon recognizes the need for improvement. Therefore, increasing efforts are made, e.g. in the recruitment processes, to boost the numbers of female employees in technical positions.

Non-discrimination

As a responsible employer active in a global, multicultural environment Oerlikon is sensitive to the problem of discrimination. Therefore, Oerlikon has implemented a corporate-wide policy on non-discrimination incorporating the UN Guidelines. No form of discrimination on the basis of ethnical heritage, skin color, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability is tolerated.

Health and safety

Oerlikon is committed to an integrated management system, covering health and safety standards. All Oerlikon units and affiliated companies define goals for major health and safety issues.

The 2006 corporate health and safety objective was to increase the health and safety at the workplace. The business units installed awareness programs and offered on-site first aid and general safety courses focusing on e.g. cardiac attacks. As a result, several business units acquired defibrillators, whereas its responsible handling was part of the on-site safety trainings.

The main objective for 2007 will be the harmonization of all EHS (Environmental Health and Safety) management systems worldwide. With the acquisition of Saurer, Oerlikon will benefit from additional EHS know-how, which will be necessary to consolidate these sometimes hardly compatible systems.

Future generations

Oerlikon is convinced that the main challenges our society faces today are to reduce the world's energy demand, its dependency on non-renewable energy sources, and tackle global warming. With sharply rising energy prices that e.g. account for up to 20 percent of operating cost for spinning mills, energy efficiency has become an important purchasing factor. Oerlikon Saurer Textile took up this challenge and improves energy and resource efficiencies of its products and services. When buying e-save® certified products, customers can realize energy savings of over 15 percent on average, and generate cost savings while reducing their impact on climate change.

Even though energy and resource efficiency is the cheapest, fastest, and most environmentally friendly way to meet future energy demands, on the supply side research needs to focus on technologies capitalizing the use of renewable and pollution free energy sources at competitive costs.

Oerlikon Solar is well-positioned at the forefront of seminal photovoltaic research, giving it the unique prospect of commercializing photovoltaic energy at reasonable cost. Oerlikon's PEVCD technology allows Oerlikon to deposit thin films from a gas to a solid state on some substrate, which substantially lowers the amount of silicone required for cell design, leading to lower production cost. Although the efficiency of thin-film solar cells are generally lower compared to wafer-based ones, the achieved 30- percent efficiency increase combined with the higher resource efficiency significantly lowers the price of solar energy in terms of cost per watt of electrical output. By further improving the production processes a 20- percent cost reduction at triennial intervals is within reach.

Oerlikon does not only provide energyefficient products and state-of-the art solar technology to its customers. With joining the UN Global Compact, Oerlikon actively endorses the so-called precautionary approach (principle 15 of the Rio Declaration) requiring a systematic reduction of the environmental footprint. Oerlikon puts this commitment into practice by continuously improving its products, services and manufacturing processes. A first milestone for the new management in 2006 was the ISO 14001 Group certification, which is a clear statement to further improvements of Oerlikon's environmental performance. Optimizing waste management systems of the worldwide business units was Oerlikon's 2006 corporate environmental objective. Employee awareness programs targeted at waste cutbacks and separation, have resulted in a lower environmental impact. Moreover, the disposal of hazardous waste will be in the spotlight in 2007, whereas intensified safety inspections will trigger the safe handling of hazardous materials.