Employees

Personal commitment, professional expertise, and a high degree of identification are the key to our employees’ professional success and the basis of our Company’s positive development. In order to ensure this for the long term, we challenge and encourage our employees by providing a range of measures and offers. As of December 31, 2008, we employed 21,766 staff (previous year: 21,101) – 17,865 in the Consumer business segment and 3,901 in the tesa business segment. The number of vocational training positions and trainees worldwide was 528 (previous year: 539).  see Chart 26

Consumer

The target of our Human Resources activities is to assist the implementation of the Consumer Business Strategy within the Company by providing advisory, organizational, and process-oriented support. Over and above the development and training of all employees Human Resources focuses on investing in a targeted manner in the identification of managerial talent as well as in the development and promotion of leadership skills. We lay the foundations for increasing employee commitment and motivation even further via a transparent compensation and bonus system. In order to fulfill this task as optimally as possible in the future, too, we realigned the Human Resources department during the past fiscal year. The new organization systematically reflects our corporate structure and symbolizes the changes taking place throughout the Company. It enables Human Resources managers to be closer to operations in the business segments and supports them in their changed task profiles and structures better, faster, and more efficiently. Since April 2008, all functions have been assigned “Business Partners” who will be involved in key processes from the outset. They will also ensure a closer cooperation between local HR managers and Group headquarters. In cooperation with the Business Partners, the “Centers of Excellence” will devise and implement the strategic global Human Resources topics.

To continue on our course for success, we depend on qualified employees and applicants who will continue to drive forward the implementation of our Consumer Business Strategy with their expertise, good ideas, and a winner's mentality. Since the end of 2008, Beiersdorf has been meeting the fierce competition for qualified staff with a global strategy to set ourselves apart from our competitors and to strengthen our image as an attractive global employer. We have taken the following measures as part of our “Employer Branding” project:

We have developed an international positioning for Beiersdorf as an employer,

we have put together a portfolio of activities to improve Beiersdorf’s recognition and attractiveness as an employer, and

we have developed a globally uniform communication concept and materials.

 
In addition to the systematic alignment of all internal Human Resources processes with the newly defined employer brand, one of the main goals of the “Employer Branding Strategy” is to expand university recruiting activities.

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