Sustainability concept
Digitalisation pioneer
Sustainability is of increasing importance to society. This is a far-reaching topic that goes beyond the environment and requires considerable consideration in companies. At vitagroup, we are well aware of its relevance and believe we have a social responsibility as a company to act sustainably. For over 20 years, vitagroup has been ahead of its time as a digitalisation pioneer in pursuit of the goal of better, more efficient, and highly personalised healthcare for an ageing society.
The pandemic has accelerated the pace of digitalisation in Germany and shown that digital progress in healthcare has the capacity to improve health and quality of life. That is why at vitagroup we are examining how processes can be redesigned and digitalised further and have committed to this, with innovative and sustainable corporate management as the basis for our actions. We have expanded our corporate strategy to include ecological, social, and environmental criteria that reflect our strong ecological and social engagement in strategic and operational fields of activity. The key elements are presented in more detail below.
Economic responsibility
vitagroup’s vision and objectives
The shortage of doctors, demographic change, and progressive digital transformation are posing real challenges to healthcare, an area of increasing complexity in Germany. There will be more change in the healthcare industry in the next five years than there has been in the preceding 25. Technology and medical data will take us in new directions.
Transformation is proceeding apace, and with it comes increased complexity. By using our specialist expertise to harness the power of technology to benefit people, we are building bridges to a new era of health and laying the foundations for better healthcare for our customers and patients. vitagroup solutions and services are already making a decisive contribution to this.
Ecological, social, and environmental criteria
At vitagroup, we use various means to ensure the company acts in a sustainable way on a daily basis and we advise and inform employees of the need for them to consider their own actions as well. The measures below are just an example of the firm steps we have taken across all of our structures and processes.
Ecological and environmental criteria
Resource and energy management
We make efficient use of resources and energy and reduce consumption where possible.
Hardware provided to all employees is centrally monitored and maintained by our IT department for energy and resource efficiency.
Since some vitagroup employees regularly work from home, we need fewer desks and less office space. We use our facilities flexibly and seek to maximise energy and resource efficiency.
vitagroup employees work in modern rented office buildings that are designed to be energy-efficient (e.g. through the use of energy-saving lighting, insulated windows, and ventilation systems).
We have digitalised most of our analogue processes to save resources (e.g. paper and office materials, basement and archive space, postage costs).
We use an external data centre that deploys the latest technology to reduce resource and energy consumption to the bare minimum. This consolidation of the IT infrastructure reduces the number of physical servers needed, which means we also keep our electricity, cooling, and space requirements lower.
Mobility
We promote environmentally friendly mobility in a number of ways.
The option of working from home reduces business and commuter traffic, which means lower raw material consumption and less pollution.
All vitagroup offices are centrally located and easily accessible by public transport so that employees, customers, and partners can choose to travel green.
Subsidised bike to work and public transport schemes make these options more attractive for employees and encourage them to come to the office by bike or public transport.
Many meetings work well online. vitagroup employees connect digitally across all locations with their team and with customers and partners in an effort to minimise business travel. For essential business trips, journeys are taken by train whenever possible.
Very few of our employees have company cars. Instead, we offer field staff the option of a contractually agreed mobility allowance that leaves them free to choose their mode of transport.
Social criteria
The vitagroup team consists of over 300 employees from different disciplines and cultures. The breakdown is approximately 60% women and 40% men. Our employees’ commitment and motivation is critical to the success of vitagroup as a whole. That is why we consider it only right and necessary that we take social responsibility for the health and long-term well-being of employees and promote work-life balance.
Employee health
We run a multitude of health promotion initiatives that are monitored using central processes and by our quality management team. Through workplace health screening and site inspections as well as safety officers, first responders, and fire protection assistants, we ensure that vitagroup provides a safe working environment for all staff.
We also offer online fitness programmes for employees and motivate them to take on small challenges that help them to prioritise their health. Take, for example, our 2022 fitness challenge. All vitagroup employees were encouraged on a voluntary basis to walk, run, cycle or swim as much as possible over a specific period of time in order to integrate more exercise into their everyday lives again after the pandemic. We donated to a tree-planting initiative in return for their good efforts – making this a win-win for nature and our employees.
We also provide all employees at our offices with drinks such as water and tea, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables that are certified organic and have been grown in the region.
Social engagement
Hans-Werner Hector (Dr. h.c.), the main shareholder of vitagroup and a co-founder of SAP, has created the framework for both the vitagroup group of companies (https://www.vitagroup.ag/en (opens in new tab)) and the foundations (https://www.hector-stiftung.de (opens in new tab)) to pursue extensive social engagement in Germany over many years. These efforts support kindergartens, children’s academies, sports clubs, schools, universities and other institutions, as well as medical research in areas such as cancer, AIDS, and nutrition.
To take one example: when a project was completed, vitagroup seized the opportunity to pass on unused tablets to young people who are shaping the future. We were able to support three schools in the Rhein-Neckar district with these donated tablets. Such devices provide children with many opportunities for digital learning. For instance, tablets can be used by refugee children from Ukraine to learn German. At the same time, companies can help to conserve resources by ensuring that devices that are no longer needed have a meaningful second life elsewhere.
vitagroup also partners locally with organisations such as Lebenshilfe Chemnitz, which cleans such devices and manages the logistics, contributing in a significant way to inclusion. In 2023, vitagroup ran a fundraiser among all employees in support of Dachverband Clowns in der Medizin und Pflege Deutschland e. V. This umbrella organisation networks non-profit associations across Germany that organise visits from specially trained clowns to hospitals, retirement homes, and therapeutic facilities.
Work-life balance
Work-life balance is a key consideration for vitagroup, and we offer the necessary flexibility and understanding.
- Flexible working time models help our employees to manage their workday according to their own particular situation through part-time employment, honour-based time tracking, and remote working.
- All employees who wish to take time off to pursue family responsibilities can take advantage of parental leave arrangements, holiday leave and sabbaticals according to their needs without jeopardising their career opportunities.
- Thanks to our open corporate culture that is understanding and supportive of family obligations, employees and managers can discuss and agree individual solutions when the need arises.