Corporate Governance

The objective of corporate governance is the management and supervision of the company with the aim of a responsible and sustained creation of value. It is crucial here that the Executive Board and Supervisory Board work closely and efficiently together, that shareholders’ interests are respected and that corporate communications are open and transparent. 

Corporate Governance Code

The current version of the German Corporate Governance Code is available here:

German CG Code

NEW WORK SE sets great store on the corporate governance regulations and is committed to ensuring the transparent, responsible management and supervision of the company. The joint Declarations of Conformity from the New Work SE Management Board and Supervisory Board as laid down in Section 161 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) regarding the German Corporate Governance Code (Deutscher Corporate Governance Kodex) are available below as a PDF file for download.

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Articles of Association of New Work SE

Download the Articles of Association of New Work SE now as a PDF.

Articles of Association of New Work SE (PDF)

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Remuneration Report

Download the Remuneration Reports of New Work SE now as a PDF.

  • 2022
  • 2021

Remuneration Report 2022 (PDF)

Independent Auditors Report 2022 (German only, PDF)

Remuneration Report 2021 (PDF)

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Code of Conduct 

Our Code of Conduct is our guideline in our daily work so we act with integrity and to safeguard our company.

Code of Conduct New Work SE (PDF)

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Declarations of Conformity

Here you can download the Declarations of Conformity to date.

  • 2023
  • 2019
  • 2018
  • 2017
  • 2016
  • 2015
  • 2014
  • 2013
  • 2012
  • 2011
  • 2010

Declaration of Conformity, March 2023 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, March 2019 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, March 2018 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, March 2017 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2016 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2015 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, June 2014 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2014 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, June 2013 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2013 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2012 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2011 (PDF)

Declaration of Conformity, February 2010 (PDF)

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE DECLARATION

Corporate Governance Declaration in Accordance with Section 289f of the German Commercial Code (HGB)

DECLARATION BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD AND SUPERVISORY BOARD OF NEW WORK SE ON THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE “COMMISSION OF THE GERMAN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE CODE” PURSUANT TO SECTION 161 OF THE GERMAN STOCK CORPORATION ACT (AKTG)

The Executive Board and Supervisory Board herewith declare that since the last declaration of compliance was submitted, New Work SE has complied and will comply with the recommendations of the “German Corporate Governance Code” (“the Code”) in the version published in the Federal Gazette on 28 April 2022, with the following exceptions: 

 

D.4 Supervisory Board working methods – Cooperation between the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board – Supervisory Board committees: formation of a nomination committee  

In derogation to the recommendation in D.5 of the Code, the Supervisory Board did not form a permanent nomination committee as it considers such not to be of any benefit in terms of increasing the efficiency of the Supervisory Board’s work. The Supervisory Board therefore considers it more useful to form a nomination committee for the Company as and when necessary. The Supervisory Board therefore considers it more useful to form a Nomination Committee for the Company as and when necessary. In any case, the Supervisory Board prefers to involve the entire Supervisory Board in a timely manner when it comes to key decisions such as nominating and appointing Executive Board and Supervisory Board members.

 

G.17 Remuneration of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board – Remuneration of the Supervisory Board: remuneration of the Vice Chair

The Vice Chair of the Supervisory Board is not considered individually with regard to compensation of Supervisory Board members. As there has been little need for representation in the past, and since the received basic remuneration is commensurate, both the Executive Board and Supervisory Board consider separate remuneration to be unnecessary.

Cooperation between the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board
The Company holds the view that good and transparent corporate governance forms an integral part of its commercial success. The Executive Board and the Supervisory board place particular emphasis on a close, trusting and efficient working relationship with one another. Open communication and active and ongoing risk management are also fundamental requirements in this regard while orderly accounting and auditing are key aspects for corporate management aimed at ensuring sustained corporate success.

New Work SE’s Executive Board and Supervisory Board conduct their activities according to applicable law, the Company’s Articles of Incorporation, and the Company’s internal rules of procedure. With a few disclosed exceptions, New Work SE and its bodies follow the recommendations of the German Corporate Governance Code. In accordance with the law on equal participation of men and women in executive positions that came into effect in Germany on 1 May 2015, the Supervisory Board decided in March 2020 to strive for 16.6% female participation in executive positions. This figure has already been exceeded. In addition, the Supervisory Board has also stipulated female participation of 20% for the Executive Board. This figure has already been met. The Executive Board agreed to strive for 22% female participation at upper management level. At present, this target has been reached. For the second level below the Executive Board, the Executive Board agreed to strive for 30% female participation. At present, this figure has been exceeded.

 

Executive Board

The New Work SE Executive Board is led by an internationally experienced management team, and is currently made up of five members. 

The Supervisory Board has imposed an age limit on the Executive Board, meaning that Executive Board contracts expire on the same month as reaching the state pension age at the latest. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board maintain a constant dialogue to plan long-term succession. This enables timely preparation for any necessary replacement or candidate requirements. In line with this requirement, the Supervisory Board screens for suitable candidates. 

The Executive Board is responsible for managing the Company, defining its strategic alignment, and pursuing the aim of increasing the Company’s value in the long term. Despite being responsible for individual areas of the business, each member of the Executive Board is fundamentally responsible for general management of the Company in accordance with the internal rules of procedure approved by the Supervisory Board. The members of the Executive Board inform one another with regard to all of the Company’s main dealings and activities. The Executive Board provides the Supervisory Board with regular, prompt and comprehensive reports, in writing and also orally, concerning the development of the Company, business activities, financing and investment plans, and personnel planning. The Executive Board has not formed any committees. It takes decisions in line with the internal rules of procedure, unanimously whenever possible, otherwise based on a simple majority of the votes cast. The Executive Board must first obtain prior consent from the Supervisory Board before performing a number of activities. 

The Executive Board is aware of the high degree of responsibility it bears vis-à-vis employees, members of the New Work platforms, and the general public, and undertakes its activities with great care. 

 

Supervisory Board

The Supervisory Board currently consists of six members elected at the Annual General Meeting and only consists of shareholder representatives. Given the Company’s ownership structure, the Supervisory Board considers three independent members of the Supervisory Board to be commensurate, and this stipulation is already met with Ms Weber, Dr Meier and Dr Lübcke as appointed Supervisory Board members.

The Supervisory Board conducts its business and monitors the Executive Board’s work with great care and to the best of its knowledge and judgment. As well as general reporting duties and obligations to monitor and advise the Executive Board as prescribed by law and the Company’s Articles of Incorporation, the Supervisory Board is also heavily involved in New Work SE’s strategic and organisational decision-making processes. The Supervisory Board has approved internal rules of procedure which bindingly govern the work of the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board as well as their work with one another. The Supervisory Board’s internal rules of procedure stipulate that meetings are to be held once per quarter, but can be held more often as and when necessary. The Chair of the Supervisory Board also maintains regular contact with the CEO between meetings in order to discuss any fundamental or urgent business.  

The Supervisory Board has formed a three-person audit committee from among its members. Ms Weber is the Chair of the audit committee, which also comprises Dr Meier and Dr Lübcke. 

The audit committee is responsible for issues related to financial reporting, risk management, the internal management system and compliance. It monitors the financial reporting process and discusses the quarterly reports with the Executive Board prior to their publication. The audit committee also performs mandatory auditor independence checks, appoints an auditor, defines the main aspects of the audit, and agrees a fee with the auditor. The audit committee puts forward a proposal to the Supervisory Board for the latter’s auditor appointment proposal to be put to the Annual General Meeting. It also prepares the Supervisory Board’s decision with regard to the approval of the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and profit appropriation.

The Supervisory Board has also formed a three-person product and technology committee from among its members. Mr Schmetz is the Chair of the product and technology committee, which also comprises Dr Hermann, Mr Weiss and Dr Meier. 

The product and technology committee has an advisory role and handles general questions related to products and market conditions, technical organisation, cost structures and working methods within a technological environment, and also evaluates current software and hardware trends.
The Supervisory Board currently has no other permanent committees. The Supervisory Board holds the view that it is more effective and makes more sense to form additional committees as and when necessary. 

The Supervisory Board and its committees are subject to annual self-appraisal to review performance of its duties. To this end, surveys are conducted systematically to question each Supervisory Board member individually about all of the key areas in the remit of the Supervisory Board and its committees. The results of the surveys are then collated and discussed in aggregate in the respective group. Suggestions to boost effectiveness are also discussed and put into practice where applicable. Where deemed necessary, external consultants may be commissioned to help with this.  

 

Transparency and information

New Work SE maintains an Investor Relations website for all shareholders and interested parties, containing detailed information on the Company in English and German. Annual and interim reports are published here immediately after being released. The financial calendar for the Company can also be found here, as well as current and old Declarations of Compliance according to Section 161 of the German Stock Corporate Act (AktG), Information on Directors’ Dealings, and information related to the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG). Shareholders can also retrieve information on the price movement of the New Work SE share on the website. Besides the conventional communication channels, the Investor Relations department at New Work SE also set up a separate Twitter account to communicate all investor-related information about New Work SE. It includes regular updates for shareholders about the current share price trend and key corporate information. New Work SE shareholders and interested parties can learn more via the following Twitter channel: NEW_WORK_SE_IR

 

Risk management

The Executive Board and Supervisory Board believe that good, long-term Corporate Governance also includes an active and continuous risk management policy. Permanent monitoring and management of risk is one of the key duties of every public company. For this purpose, New Work SE has implemented an early recognition system in line with legal requirements and continuously develops it within the context of current market and company developments. The Group auditors inspected the functionality and appropriateness of the system, and confirmed. A complete risk report for FY 2022 can be found in the Annual Report.

 

Data protection and IT safety

Users of New Work services provide the Company with a great deal of personal data. In doing so, they trust that their data is processed and used for the intended purposes and in line with applicable law. As a result, New Work SE has high expectations of its own systems, particularly when it comes to meeting the data protection requirements of users, inspectors and data protection authorities.

New Work SE is committed to upholding the strict German and European data protection regulations, and provides a series of security measures in its services for all customers to prevent various security risks. New Work SE commissions selected third parties to process data on its behalf. In addition, New Work SE has assembled a team of employees within the Company to monitor the Company’s adherence to data protection regulations. Changes to data protection regulations are identified immediately, measures for monitoring and adhering to these regulations are analysed and modified whenever necessary. The Company inspects new platform features before they are launched for possible privacy concerns. These features are only approved once all applicable data protection regulations can be definitively met.

The Company strives to uphold these high standards, and submits to regular inspections from independent external institutes in order to cast a light into the various technical aspects of the platform.

 

Hamburg, March 2023

The Executive Board

Aktuell

Directors' Dealings

WHISTLEBLOWING TOOL

Report a potential compliance breach via our whistleblowing tool

Please note that our whistleblowing tool is not designed for submitting complaints about features and services. To lodge a complaint about a feature or service, please get in touch with your contact person or our customer support team.

The NEW WORK Integrity Line Channel is an online whistleblowing tool that is available to anyone, including employees and business partners, around the clock and accessible from anywhere.

The whistleblowing tool lets you report and seek guidance on potential compliance breaches, either anonymously or using your name. Potential breaches can include unfair and deceptive business practices, violations of the code of conduct applicable to New Work SE and its affiliates, as well as non-compliance with internal policies or applicable law.

To ensure that visiting the whistleblowing tool can’t be tracked, we only provide the web address below rather than a link to the website.

https://xing.integrityline.org/index.php

Please copy and paste this link into the address bar of your browser.

When visiting the whistleblowing tool homepage, you’ll find details of what will happen when you report a potential compliance breach.

We consider it paramount to uphold law and order. That’s why we expect our staff and business partners to act within the bounds of the law while also following internal policies.

To this end, we kindly ask you to report any untoward situations and inappropriate conduct you may come across. 

Please note the following when reporting a potential conduct breach:

  1. It’s much easier for us to investigate anything you report if we can contact you about it. You can get in touch by using our whistleblowing tool as described above.
  2. Please provide us with as much information as possible, such as names, times, places, customer numbers, invoices, and supplier numbers. Ideally, you should also submit screenshots in support of your message. General and vague statements make it hard for us to establish the facts of a given situation and avoid any potential misunderstandings.
  3. We would like to jointly prevent rumors about people or business partners that may subsequently turn out to be false. Therefore, please give us the opportunity to process your report and do not share your information with the public.

We expect you to use the whistleblowing tool responsibly. It must not be used to try and denounce companies or individuals, and it is not designed for submitting complaints of a general nature.

You've got questions?

Feel free to contact me!

Patrick Möller

VP Investor Relations