Preventive healthcare and
occupational safety

Healthcare management at Volkswagen is much more than classic preventive healthcare and occupational safety. The comprehensive healthcare management system that is in place at Volkswagen also covers aspects of work organization, ergonomics, leadership and prospects for all individuals.

The “CheckUp”, a free, comprehensive medical examination, was made available to all employees at Audi in 2006 and at Volkswagen in 2010. This tool helps to maintain and improve employees’ health, fitness and performance. The high level of diagnostic quality is widely acknowledged by employees: nearly 61,000 Volkswagen check-ups and almost 60,000 Audi check-ups have been performed to date.

Now that the check-ups have been established at the German locations, associated internal and external prevention and training programs are now being systematically expanded. In addition, the large-scale rollout of the Volkswagen CheckUp was continued at the international locations. Existing screening programs were adapted to meet the Group-wide standard represented by the CheckUp, for example at ŠKODA AUTO a.s. in 2013. More than 15,000 ŠKODA check-ups have already been performed since then.

At the same time, Volkswagen uses improvements along the entire product development process to guarantee that the quality of workplaces and the strains on employees that arise as a result of production are already taken into account in the planning and design stages of vehicle models. The common objective is to combine ergonomically state-of-the-art workplaces and innovative work processes, using a mix of science and practical experience. The deployment of occupational assistants on the production lines means that employees are able to receive advice and guidance directly at their workplace about how to implement their workflows more ergonomically.

In the course of our management development programs, line supervisors are taught to give stronger consideration in their leadership practices to the link between leadership and employee health. We have also implemented compulsory training modules on occupational safety for all prospective managers since the beginning of 2012. In the same way, the training components for prospective master-level craftsmen were standardized in 2013.

Using the Group occupational safety management system, all Group companies covered by it analyzed their existing occupational safety organizations and processes. The results are available throughout the Group in a central database system. This includes the systematic communication of examples of good practice identified in the Volkswagen Group.