Instilling a Mindset of continous Learning Information

We continue to promote a high-performance culture by developing our employees. We offer a wide range of learning and development opportunities, including online learning resources and interactive learning experiences that provide personal and professional growth opportunities for our workforce. Our investments in digital learning and development opportunities, such as LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Circus Street, and Arizona State University, offer equitable access to learning content and just-in-time upskilling and/or reskilling. In 2022, more than 59,000 employees worldwide invested a total of 1,175,000 hours in training courses and workshops – an average of 19.7 hours.

The key pillars of our extended learning and development offerings are informal learning and mentoring. Our informal learning is supported by platforms where employees can network and connect across the organization based on shared learning goals and/or interests. When participating in our informal learning offerings, more than 90% of employees said it made them feel more connected to the people and culture at adidas and would recommend the program to others.

In addition to our 'Board Mentoring Circle,’ which ran until June 2022, we also continued to partner with former track and field athlete Edwin C. Moses on a mentoring experience for selected employees to help elevate their ability to reinforce and support our cultural aspirations. Participants comprised a small and diverse cohort of high-potential leaders across North America.

Rewarding individual and team performance

The key focus of our rewards strategy is to attract, retain, and motivate individuals through remuneration and benefits that are inclusive, fit for purpose, and competitive in the marketplace – thus enabling us to achieve our strategic objectives. To promote a high-performance culture, it is essential that we focus on performance management to ensure fair and equitable reward and recognition. 

• Performance management: #MYBEST is our global performance development approach and a key enabler of our high-performance culture. During the fourth quarter of 2021 and throughout 2022, we initiated a review of #MYBEST to include our new values and to explore the future of performance at adidas. In 2022, we sharpened our focus and simplified our approach: #MYBEST now has three elements to encourage regular high-quality conversations between employee and line manager, and to ensure goals are set and reviewed quarterly. A formal performance evaluation takes place twice a year, with employee development being the focus of every monthly ‘Touch Base’ conversation. We continue to work on making the performance evaluation and potential assessment processes more equitable and to further develop our line managers’ capabilities to engage in meaningful performance standard conversations. As we implement the new values into #MYBEST in 2023, we will focus on the adoption of these values and how they are lived.
• Total compensation management: Compensation at adidas has a dual focus of ensuring employees are compensated fairly and equitably for the role they perform, while also creating a culture of rewarding performance. The adidas total compensation management philosophy enables educated compensation decisions based on external market reference and internal equity. It also takes into account the skills, experience, and responsibility of each individual. Our variable compensation programs engage and motivate employees by reflecting their activities’ input, while driving a culture of high-performance. To do this, adidas offers the following variable compensation plans:
  • Short-Term Incentive programs,
  • Profit participation programs,
  • Long-Term Incentive Plan (‘LTIP’) for senior management.
• Benefits: At adidas, employee benefits take the form of monetary or non-monetary programs that supplement wages or salaries on a discretionary or non-discretionary basis. Programs can be offered globally, regionally, or locally and can be statutory or supplemental. They comply with legislation or local market practice and are based on benchmark data.
• Cross-border employment: adidas invests in international relocation to fill local skill gaps, enable knowledge transfer, develop talent for a more diverse workforce, enable location strategy, and enforce our learning culture. Our aim is to support the success of our business through a relocation of talent that will both enhance the employee experience and align with our business purpose.
• Stock Purchase Plan: Participation in the Stock Purchase Plan is open to employees in Germany, the US, the Netherlands, and Greater China (China mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong). This amounts to almost half our global workforce (excluding Retail). A total of 4,468 employees participated in the program in 2022 (2021: 5,230).