Adidas embarks on global hiring spree

Source: Adidas

The majority of the new employees, more than 900 people, will be deployed in the Adidas retail stores, but the manufacturer and retailer is also filling more than 500 positions in the areas of digital, IT and data & analytics. Adidas will continue to hire in the area of sustainability, having already doubled the number of jobs in this area last year. In addition, the company is awarding more than 50 positions for apprenticeships or dual studies in Germany.

In total, Adidas employs around 62,000 people, of which around 7,700 are in Germany. Around 5,300 employees work at the company headquarters in Herzogenaurach.

Source: Adidas

Company culture

Adidas paints a picture of what work-life at Adidas can look like at its HQ: "Ride your bike to work in the morning, watch the German national football team train, work out with the team in the company gym during your lunch break, and gamble against a Real Madrid star on the Playstation in the afternoon."

The brand notes that even if such a working day is an exception, sport plays a special role for many of its employees worldwide.

The company headquarters in Herzogenaurach is called "World of Sports", and the extensive campus is home to numerous sports facilities such as a gym, a soccer pitch, beach volleyball courts, a tennis court, a basketball court, a padel tennis court, and a bouldering and climbing facility, which can be used individually or as part of numerous courses and events.

Source: Adidas

Flexible working time models facilitate their use. There are also a variety of opportunities to play sports at the company’s other sites.

But the culture at Adidas is not only characterised by sports. There is also the less formal way of dealing with people. People are on first-name terms, even across hierarchical levels, and the style of dress is casual to sporty. The average age of the employees is 32.

Another feature is the pronounced internationality. Employees from more than 100 countries work at the company headquarters in Herzogenaurach, with less than 60% coming from Germany.

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Adidas points out that diverse teams enrich the work environment and achieve better results, and so the company is working specifically to increase diversity. One important aspect is increasing the proportion of women in leadership positions. The goal is to have women in leadership positions at Adidas exceed 40% by 2025. By the end of 2020, the company was at 35%

Adidas executive board member, responsible for human resources, people and culture, Amanda Rajkumar, says, "We want to set standards as an employer. Adidas is an employer like no other, and we go above and beyond every day to create an attractive working environment for our employees."