People
The Volkswagen Group is one of the world’s largest private employers and seeks to fulfill the responsibility this entails with its human resources policy. As of December 31, 2025, the Volkswagen Group including the Chinese joint ventures employed a total of 662,942 (679,472) people and 602,659 (614,082) people excluding the Chinese joint ventures. This represents a year-on-year decrease of 2.4%. The ratio of our total workforce in Germany to those abroad remained largely stable over the past year, with 284,032 (293,338) employees working in Germany at the end of 2025.
EMPLOYEES BY MARKET
In percent, as of December 31, 2025
Group People Strategy and principles of the human resources policy
The Volkswagen Group has defined empowering and supporting employees for the transformation as a focus topic in its Group strategy. The Group People Strategy plays a key role in this context for our three brand groups Core, Progressive and Sport Luxury, and movin forward the key approaches of the human resources policy that are critical for success.
In our Group People Strategy we have identified a variety of elements with the aim of comprehensively addressing our employees’ and the Company’s needs and expectations, thereby enabling the best possible performance in terms of the Company’s success.
“Me” (Me@Volkswagen): We aim to systematically improve the employee experience and ensure that all employees enjoy optimal conditions for the fulfillment of their responsibilities.
“My team” (Teams@Volkswagen): As our transformation takes shape, the way in which teams in the Volkswagen Group collaborate is fundamentally changing. Teamwork is shaped by hybrid, digital and agile forms of collaboration.
“All of us at Volkswagen” (All of us@Volkswagen): The seven Volkswagen Group Essentials set out in the Code of Conduct define the shared underlying values across all of the Group’s brands and companies: We take on responsibility for the environment and society; We are honest and speak up when something is wrong; We break new ground; We live diversity; We are proud of the work we do; We not me; We keep our word.
“Volkswagen in society” (We@Volkswagen and the world around us): We are aware that without long-term social legitimacy at our locations and in our markets, we will not be able to continue our business model in times of accelerated changes in values – this applies from an economic, environmental and social perspective. We view our employees as Volkswagen Group ambassadors, representing our values in society.
Our broad range of transformation topics, such as digitalization and e-mobility, have us on a long-term pathway of transformation and continuous renewal. It is important to us to keep checking whether we are keeping to the course we have set out and are achieving our goals. In this context, the continued operationalization of the Group Strategy, encompasses a comprehensive revision of the strategic key performance indicators underpinning the Group People Strategy.
- Engagement index: Three questions from the newly introduced myVOICE employee survey are used to determine the engagement index, which measures the engagement, motivation and commitment of employees along with the attractiveness of Volkswagen as an employer. The survey was conducted for the first time in four entities at the end of 2025 and will be rolled out at further companies from 2026 onwards. For 2025 and 2026, the engagement index in the context of the Group People Strategy will initially be reported as an actual figure that will form the basis for the targets set after 2027. Then, the engagement index will serve as a strategic key performance indicator for the Group People Strategy. The “internal employer attractiveness” KPI, which was based on the Stimmungsbarometer (opinion survey) last conducted in 2023, has been discontinued.
- Diversity index: We have defined targets for the percentage of women in management and the international composition of our top management in order to promote diversity and equal opportunities. These two figures have been combined in the diversity index, which continues to serve as a strategic KPI. More information on this target can be found in the section entitled “Targets related to equal treatment and equal opportunities” in the “Employees and Non-Employees” chapter of the sustainability report and in the remuneration report.
- Status of implementation of strategic HR planning: As part of the overhaul of the Group Strategy, this metric will no longer be used as a KPI after 2025.
- Number of training hours per employee: The strategic KPI that records the average number of training hours per employee per year is currently being revised and, as a result, has been suspended for the reporting years 2025 and 2026. During this period, the KPI will not be reported as a strategic KPI in either the Group Strategy or regenerate+. More information on this can be found in the section entitled “Target related to training and skills development” under “Employees and Non-Employees” in the sustainability report.
“People” action area in the Group’s TOP 10 program
In addition to the long-term management of our strategic targets in the Group People Strategy, we also run an annual TOP 10 program for Human Resources to support achievement of targets throughout the year, with active contributions from our Group companies in its implementation. Human Resources was represented in the Group’s TOP 10 program in the reporting year with the top target “People”. Volkswagen considers customer orientation, entrepreneurship and team spirit as the basis of its future success. The Group aims to become more competitive internationally by optimizing processes and enhancing efficiency. Volkswagen strives to be a socially responsible employer for a high performance team by offering innovative training and professional development along with sophisticated management programs and attractive remuneration and participation models. In the TOP 10 program for 2025, the Human Resources department translated this aspiration into ten key focus areas. These included global management of labor costs and systematic promotion of diversity in addition to a new conceptual framework for fostering talent and targeted offerings to promote individual health and resilience. Within these key focus areas, the Group-wide implementation of efficiency programs for selected brands and restructuring of parts of the management structure were also monitored in the reporting year. In the context of the efficiency programs, Volkswagen AG continues the comprehensive severance program, which supports a socially responsible reduction of the workforce along the demographic curve and will continue to be available in 2026 within the remaining budget.
Training and professional development
Due to the transformation in the automotive industry, we are facing the greatest process of change in both expertise and culture in the history of our Company. We are committed to securing the employability of our entire workforce in the long term. We invest extensively in training, which helps to ensure secure employment prospects at Volkswagen for our employees even when requirements change. In 2025, the focus continued to be on creating and expanding a program of digital training. We continue to implement and integrate the Success Factors HR system and the learning platform Degreed as a learning ecosystem for digital learning and self-directed training. In this way, we create a common framework for the training of all employees in the Volkswagen Group, provided and coordinated by the Volkswagen Group Academy. More information on Degreed can be found in the section entitled “Creation and expansion of digital training” in the “Employees and Non-Employees” chapter.
The core components of training at Volkswagen are vocational training and cooperative education (dual study programs combining university studies with on-the-job training). At the end of 2025, the Volkswagen Group had trained 17,124 (17,201) young people. We have introduced the principle of dual vocational training at many of the Group’s international locations over the past few years and are continuously working on improvements. Even after their vocational training has been completed, young people at the start of their careers are encouraged to continue their professional development with our Company.
We in the Human Resources department are contributing to the forward-looking transformation of the Volkswagen Group with our training and professional development offerings, socially responsible reduction of the workforce and targeted management of current focus topics through the TOP 10 program.