Attracting Key Talent Information

Market conditions in 2022 were similar to those in 2021, and adidas continued to compete for highly sought-after talent in a changing business landscape. In 2022, we hired 8.7% fewer employees than in 2021. adidas remains a leading company to work for, with our ‘employer of choice’ status continuing to receive global recognition in 2022 as we topped our category in Forbes’ ‘World’s Best Employers’ list for the second year in succession and placed 16th overall (2021:14th). We also remained on Universum’s ‘World’s Most Attractive Employers’ rankings in 2022 for business and IT students worldwide. In addition, our Tech, Digital, and Data & Analytics hiring team was named ‘TA Team of the Year’ in 2022 by HRO Today Forum EMEA for our innovative hiring strategies. Lastly, in Greater China, we celebrated two accolades sponsored by 51job, Inc. that we have received for the first time: the ‘100 Excellence Employer of China Award’ and the ‘Excellence in Talent Attraction & Retention Award’ for our commitment to identifying talent strategy, early talent attraction and development.

To support our talent pipeline, we executed several programmatic interventions in 2022:

• ‘Unlimited’ program: After achieving success in North America, the adidas ‘Unlimited’ program expanded into EMEA in the second quarter of 2022. ‘Unlimited’ provides support and opportunities for retail staff who want to pursue a career in our corporate structure. North America continued the program with its fifth recruitment cycle, while EMEA completed its first cycle with employees who started their new roles in September 2022.
• Undergraduate and MBA internship programs: In 2022, we employed 305 interns globally (2021: 105). Students were provided with a three- to six-month work and developmental opportunity within adidas, accompanied by robust internship programming elements that included professional development, mentorship, and networking events. Our goal is to ensure we retain top-performing interns and have them become full-time employees.
• Recruitment experience enhancements: In 2022, adidas kicked off ‘Program Diamond’ to promote continuous improvement in our hiring approach. The goal is to ensure a smooth transition from hire to onboarding, focused on optimizing automation in the hiring process and elevating the candidate and employee experience. As part of this initiative, we piloted a new onboarding experience to create a greater sense of community among new joiners at our headquarters in Herzogenaurach.