Employees

It is the goal of our company to ensure that it produces long-term growth in sales and earnings.

Our human resource strategy focuses on two key aspects: on human resource management, which includes employee recruitment, retention and development, and on occupational safety and health management. Our objective is to attract the very best employees, to support them in accordance with their drive and abilities, and to strengthen their long-term connection to our company. By taking this approach, we strive to be the employer of choice among current and future employees.

Employee engagement

A key instrument to determine the engagement of the workforce and their loyalty to the company is our global employee survey. We conduct it regularly in the countries in which METRO Cash & Carry operates, both at the service companies and at METRO AG. During the reporting period, the survey took place for the eighth time, this time with the motto “Your opinion. Our dialogue.” Around 98,500 employees in the company units surveyed participated, corresponding to a rate of 88 per cent. Since the last survey, the level of engagement – which indicates the degree of solidarity, pride in the company, loyalty and motivation – rose by 3 percentage points to 75 per cent. Thus the level is significantly (17 percentage points) higher than Aon Hewitt’s Global Retail Benchmark. This positive development can be attributed, on the one hand, to an intensive follow-up process: managers receive detailed insight into the survey results and discuss these together with their teams to develop suitable measures to raise the level of engagement. On the other hand, we established group-wide initiatives that we use to increasingly promote a focus on innovative ideas and encourage the appreciation and recognition of our staff. A comparative study, which was prepared in collaboration with Aon Hewitt, reveals that employee engagement has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and thus for the first time demonstrates the business impact of the level of engagement.

Development of staff numbers

During the reporting period, METRO GROUP employed an average of 203,773 (2013/14: 209,398) full-time equivalents. This is a decrease of 2.7 per cent from the same period of the previous year. The majority of our employees work outside of our home market of Germany. In Western Europe (excluding Germany), Eastern Europe and Asia/Africa, we had 132,958 full-time equivalents, 4.0 per cent less than during the same period of the previous year. This decline is primarily due to the sale of Real’s Eastern European business and METRO Cash & Carry’s withdrawal from Denmark, Greece and Vietnam. In Germany, the number of full-time equivalents fell slightly by 0.2 per cent to 70,815.

Development of personnel expenses

Our personnel expenses increased by 0.9 per cent to €6.5 billion compared with the same period of the previous year (2013/14: €6.4 billion). Of that amount, €5.3 billion (2013/14: €5.2 billion) was attributable to wages and salaries, including income taxes and employee contributions to social insurance programmes. The rest was attributable to social welfare contributions, pension expenses and employee benefits.

For more information, see the Annual Report 2014/15.

Development of employee numbers by country and segment

by headcount as of closing date of 30/9