Social

Occupational safety and health protection

Our principle of occupational safety is "zero tolerance for accidents". We are pursuing a preventive approach. Our top priority is always to avoid any injuries and to minimize possible risks. Every accident at work is therefore examined in order to identify and permanently eliminate potential risks in our technical and organizational processes. Occupational safety and health protection are the responsibility of our managers. Our goal is for every employee to understand and support our goals and measures in the area of occupational safety and health protection as part of their job. In spring 2023, this also included hygiene concepts based on the recommendations of the federal and state governments and the Robert Koch Institute for combating pandemics.

"Safety First!" - that's what the Occupational Health and Safety Committee ensures

The members of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee (OHSC), consisting of a management representative, two members of the works council, the company doctor, the safety experts and the safety officer, meet every quarter. This group of participants is supplemented in the OHSC meetings by members of the severely disabled representative, representatives of the human resources and compliance departments and facility management.

It is our aim to train our employees at least once a year in occupational health and safety issues. Current aspects from working areas are included in the instructions.

Two internal safety experts, together with the company doctor, are responsible for advising the company management, the executives, the works council and the employees.

The companies first aid service at the German locations is currently supported by a total of 108 first aiders.

Employee Health and Safety

The number of days lost from work was 29 in 2023 (2022: 41). There were 4 accidents on business trips in 2023 (2022: 5) and a total of 17 injuries with entries in the first aid manual (2022: 9). As in previous years, we, fortunately, had no deaths to report in 2023.

At AIXTRON, around 26% of our workforce works in production and around 34% in research & development. These are workplaces where the environment must meet the highest safety standards and every move — even unconscious ones — must be made safely and smoothly. For this reason, we attach great importance to regular training and optimal occupational safety equipment.

A company integration management system after prolonged illness and reintegration assistance after accidents are not just legal obligation for us. They are part of our corporate culture and are crucial for maintaining the ability to work and employability of our employees at all locations. In the reporting period, no penalties or fines were imposed on AIXTRON due to violations of occupational health and safety regulations.

^{* LTIFR = Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate; Number of accidents at work (excluding accidents on way to/from work) resulting in lost time of more than one working day in relation to the number of hours actually worked in the reporting period, normalized to two hundred thousand working hours.}

^{** Number of reportable accidents / hours worked, normalized to two hundred thousand hours worked.}

^{*** Days lost from work as a result of occupational diseases and accidents at work (excluding accidents on the way to and from work).}

Health protection is a management issue

The health and well-being of our employees are our top priority. As preventive measures as part of health management, we offer our employees e.g. regular and ongoing occupational medical examinations as well as flu vaccinations.

We are aware that good working conditions, a collegial and constructive environment, and a cooperative management style have an important influence on the well-being and health of our employees. For this reason, we attach great importance to a cooperative and constructive feedback culture.

Our employees are encouraged by our managers to take responsibility for themselves and their colleagues. In addition, we allow our employees the greatest possible flexibility in work planning to reconcile private life and work - as far as operational requirements allow.

Diversity and equal opportunities

We see diversity as a real opportunity: Because only through equal opportunities can we develop our full innovative power and strengthen our competitiveness. In the future, we aim to continuously increase the proportion of female employees in our company, e.g. through targeted recruitment in the area of apprenticeships, the expansion of our collaboration with local universities, trade fair visits and communication on our social media channels. In addition, we plan to increase diversity at our senior management level in a targeted manner.

As of December 31, 2023, 81% of male and 19% of female employees were employed. Our diversity in terms of cooperation between employees from different cultures is already very strong: In 2023, 1,147 employees (2022: 940) from around 61 (2022: 50) nations were working for AIXTRON worldwide.

Flexible working day, employee recruitment & retention

Age structure at AIXTRON by region 2023

The age structure of our employees at AIXTRON by region for fiscal year 2023 is as follows:

Transparent communication

In order to ensure good cooperation, we attach great importance to open and cooperative communication. This also includes regular and transparent information for the entire workforce. Quarterly, the Management Board informs all colleagues worldwide in digital employee meetings about business development, customer requests, market developments or new company agreements. In addition, all relevant information is published promptly in the appropriate media. We regularly provide information about current topics and developments in the company via our new intranet.

Flexible working models and time off

Today's working world places a variety of demands on employees and their families. Therefore, we strive, whenever possible, to reconcile the private and family needs of our employees with economic interests.

Our employees have been taking advantage of the flexible working hours for many years. With the help of individual time accounts, every employee can arrange their working hours individually in coordination with operational and personal needs and largely determine them themselves. We also offer our employees individually tailored part-time jobs. In 2023, there were a total of 104 part-time employees (2022: 71), of whom 39 were women (2022: 33) and 65 were men (2022: 38).

Flexible working models for the time after the pandemic

With a view to the time after the pandemic, a company agreement was passed in 2022 that generally allows employees to work mobile to an extent of up to 80% of the standard working time. The respective framework depends individually on the type of activity as well as the area and department. For this reason, individual maximum quotas were agreed in order to take account of the respective operational needs.

At our global locations, we also encourage people to take advantage of the regulations that apply there in the same way as they do for parental leave: In Europe, for example, a total of 22 employees took parental leave (2022: 25). In the Asia/USA regions, the offer was not used in 2023 (2022: 1). We are pleased that 19 of the 22 employees returned to work after their parental leave during the reporting year (2022: 19).

Since 2012 we have been supporting a local daycare center (TP Hasen) to support AIXTRON employees and parents at the Herzogenrath site in their search for a daycare center close to the workplace.

Temporary work and fixed-term contracts

Due to the great importance of special knowledge and expertise, AIXTRON has a strong interest in retaining its employees in the company in the long term. At the same time, AIXTRON products are sometimes subject to strong fluctuations in demand. In order to be able to react flexibly to these fluctuations, we also use fixed-term contracts or work together with established engineering service providers and temporary employment agencies.

At the German locations, we have concluded a works agreement for such cases. In addition, we are committed worldwide to the principle of “equal pay” and compliance with the principle of equal treatment for temporary workers and permanent staff after 15 months of employment.

For example, likewise with our employees, temporary workers receive meal allowances for using our cafeteria and can also take advantage of training programs offered by our AIXTRON Academy. Temporary workers are equally welcome at company events such as employee and workers meetings as well as summer or Christmas parties.

In 2023, AIXTRON employed an annual average of 103 temporary workers (2022: 82). Of these, 94 (2022: 73) temporary workers worked for us in Germany, 7 in England (2022: 8)

and 2 in Asia (2022: 1). Of the 1,147 employees, 1,045 (2022: 830) had a permanent contract. The number of fixed-term contracts in the reporting year totaled 102 employees (2022: 110), which corresponds to a share of almost 9% (2022: 12%) of the total

workforce. Of these, 28 were women (2022: 19) and 74 were men (2022: 91).

Inflation premium and salary level

In view of the inflation trend and rising energy costs, AIXTRON has decided to fully utilize the legal framework of EUR 3,000 of the German government's relief package for its employees. In December 2023, all (full-time) employees therefore received the second part of inflation compensation bonus of EUR 1,500 — tax- and duty-free (The first bonus was paid in December 2022 in the amount of EUR 1,500, part-time employees received the amount on a pro rata basis). This is intended to help our employees cope better with the rising cost of living.

In 2023, the average salary level of AIXTRON employees across the Group was examined for the first time in comparison with the applicable minimum wages in the individual countries. This shows that, on average, 3.6 times the minimum wage was paid across the Group in 2023.

Attracting and retaining highly qualified employees

AIXTRON operates in a rapidly changing economic environment and relies on highly qualified and committed specialists and managers. Being an attractive employer is important to us in order to attract and retain the best talent and employees.

In the reporting year 2023, the number of employees was strongly increased — a consistent consequence of AIXTRON's continuing good order situation. We were able to add a total of 207 employees (2022: 238) (balance: additions minus departures) — 37 of them women and 170 men. In the same period, the overall fluctuation rate was very low at 10.2% (2022: 7.3%).

We attach great importance to transparency and equality in our selection and hiring process. As a rule, we offer new colleagues permanent employment contracts. We claim to comply at all times with national legal requirements for the protection of employee rights, internal company agreements and prescribed statutory notification periods.

Important elements of our employer presence include both our presence on career- relevant social media channels and our careers page. Employees are selected on the basis of a concrete requirements profile according to professional and personal qualifications as well as the respective experience.

^{Age structure of newly hired AIXTRON employees}

It is very important to us that new employees are familiarized quickly and well with our processes and integrated into the circle of colleagues. To this end, we use a structured on-boarding process that is individually designed for the new employee and his or her role.

^{Departures by age group and turnover rate in relation to the total number of employees per region. In the reporting year 2023, the total fluctuation for the AIXTRON Group was 10.2% (2022: 7.3%).}

AIXTRON supports young scientists

As a partner of the European doctoral network program QUANTIMONY, we support the training of young academics and at the same time research into the future field of quantum technologies with the use of the chemical element antimony (Sb). The EU funding program QUANTIMONY ("Innovative Training Network in Quantum Semiconductor Technologies Exploiting Antimony") is an innovative network for doctoral training and offers 14 young researchers high-level training.

The network consists of eleven international research teams and is supported by 13 partner organizations from Europe as well as the USA, Taiwan and Brazil.

With the help of QUANTIMONY, antimony (Sb) compounds are expected to make their way into mass production — using MOCVD technology and for use in computers, memories, telecommunications, automobiles, robotics and many other applications. These go beyond existing applications in aerospace. Quantum technologies based on antimony are an important future field and the potential applications are very promising.

Furthermore, we regularly support the training of students for bachelor's and master's theses in the laboratories of AIXTRON SE in cooperation with universities - as we did in 2023.

^{Project not part of the auditor's review}

For more information on personnel selection, please refer to the section "Employees" in the chapter "Business model" in the Group management report.

Personnel development, training and continuing education

Lifelong learning, the further training of our employees and their expertise in specialist areas provide us with the prerequisites for maintaining our leading position in the long term. That is why we attach great importance to supporting our employees competently and in a spirit of partnership, promoting them individually and challenging them with future-oriented projects. Continuous alignment with the company's needs plays just as important a role as the employees' responsibility for shaping the company.

We offer our employees (AIXTRON SE) a wide range of continuous training measures as part of our personnel development program. This also includes individual training measures. The core component of this is the company's own AIXTRON Academy, which offers general training courses on topics such as project management, negotiation skills and time and self-management, as well as specialized content. Specialist training courses are also organized in cooperation with external providers.

We also promote the development of managers and employees through coaching programs and management training. We also increasingly support dialogue between employees, e.g. through our "Change Swarm". This is an employee initiative that organizes network meetings, develops current measures for the organization and actively obtains feedback from employees.

In our annual employee appraisals, development and training needs as well as the personal interests and needs of employees are recorded.

In 2023, AIXTRON invested an average of over EUR 583 (2022: EUR 568) per employee in personnel development and training. On average, each employee received over 32.0 hours of training per year in 2023 (2022: 32.8).

Securing our young talent with training

We see it not only as our social obligation but also as the basis for the continued success of our company to train young people in technical and commercial professions as well as in dual study programs. In this way, we give young people the chance to prove themselves, develop their strengths with us, and make a contribution. We are proud that AIXTRON trainees are repeatedly recognized for outstanding performance by the Aachen Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

In fiscal 2023, we employed a total of 81 trainees and students (2022: 53). It is important to us to offer young people prospects after they have completed their training.

For this reason, all trainees and dual students who wished to remain with the company were taken on in recent years. To this end, a corresponding agreement was reached with the works council at the Herzogenrath site.

Company suggestion scheme

New ideas and wishes often arise in the thoroughly structured and planned everyday processes, some of which are not implemented or shared throughout the company. However, as we want to make these usable and valuable for everyone, we established a globally standardized company suggestion scheme as part of the innovation management process in 2015.

We encourage our employees to submit their ideas for process improvements, cost savings, product enhancements, or the like. This year, a total of 101 suggestions were submitted and 35 of these were accepted. Although these figures are below the 2022 level, the latter include ideas within a specific, topic-related call. Since its introduction, the number of improvement suggestions submitted has been at a gratifyingly high level. Since 2015, the submitted and accepted suggestions have been remunerated.

Regional and social engagement

We see our company as part of society and in this sense, we also want to fulfill our social responsibility. For this reason, we have been sponsoring social projects for many years and supporting the voluntary work of our employees at the annual company run. In addition, we give schoolchildren and students the opportunity to gain professional orientation by gaining an insight into our company.

Promotion of science, education and professional development

Supporting young people in science, education and career development is important to us. Since 2017, we have therefore maintained long-term school cooperation with Aachen's Einhard Gymnasium. We also offer schoolchildren and students the opportunity to gain insight into the various professional fields of our technology company through lectures, company tours, or internships. As a sponsoring member of the Industry and Economy Working Group of the German Physical Society, we have thus been offering the "Day on Site" for many years, for example. 

Cooperation with the Aachen Einhard High School

Since 2017, AIXTRON and Einhard-Gymnasium in Aachen have been involved in a learning partnership as part of the KURS initiative (Cooperation Network for Companies in the Region and Schools). As part of this "learning partnership", schools have the opportunity to give their students a tangible demonstration of business using the concrete example of a partner company. At the same time, companies have the opportunity to present themselves as employers and "good neighbors".

For example, as part of "career exploration days" and "Girls' and Boys' Day", the students were given the opportunity to have a personal exchange with our trainees during a company visit. Reports on their experiences with career guidance were exchanged and the topic of training and related career opportunities at AIXTRON were discussed. In addition, dual training and study programs were presented as an alternative to university studies, and a selection process was simulated as part of an assessment center. At the regular "Berufsstraße" event, we also explain in detail the various apprenticeships at AIXTRON to school students and are available to answer their individual questions.

Cooperation with the German Physical Society in the "Day on Site" programme

Since 2007, AIXTRON has participated in the German Physical Society's (DPG) "Day on Site" laboratory visit programme. As part of this programme, students and doctoral candidates from all over Germany have the opportunity to obtain first-hand information about the professional field of physicists. Lectures on the various "disciplines" of the physicist's activities in an industrial environment, as well as a company tour through the laboratories of AIXTRON SE are part of the programme. This year's edition of the "Day on Site" took place at AIXTRON on 31 May 2023 with 12 registrations.

Forth „AIXTRON Global Virtual Run“

In the past reporting year 2023, our “AIXTRON Global Virtual Run” (AGVR) took place for the forth time. Once again, more than 250 colleagues from Germany, the UK, the USA, Malaysia, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China took part. Participants could choose between jogging, walking and cycling. In 2023, AIXTRON employees covered round about 1,665 kilometers walking and running (2022: more than 1,500 kilometer) and 2,480 kilometer by bike (2022: 2,190 kilometers) as a team.

The annual "Global Virtual Run" was first launched in 2020 - partly in response to the Corona pandemic. This was because it allowed employees to do something sporty together. This was regardless of where they happened to be in the world, without having to come together in one place. The focus of the "Virtual Run" is on the "we feeling": A kind of competition does develop. But it's less about which individuals achieve the best times, and more about how much the AIXTRON team can achieve together.

We have been taking part in the annual Aachen company run since 2011 and have once again taken part in the Chariots of Fire relay race in Cambridge. We support our employees' motivation to do something for their health and pay the entry fees, which are then donated to charitable organisations in the region.