Employees

It is the goal of our company to ensure that it produces long-term growth in sales and earnings. To achieve this goal, we need dedicated employees who bring our strategy to life in their everyday work and create added value for our customers. One thing is certain: METRO GROUP can only grow if we support our employees. 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, METRO Voice. We conduct it regularly in the countries in which METRO Cash & Carry operates, both at the service companies and at METRO AG. Under the slogan "Your opinion. Our dialogue", about 106,000 employees were invited to participate in the survey during the reporting period. 88 per cent of employees at the participating company units took part in the survey. The level of engagement – which indicates the degree of solidarity, pride in the company, loyalty and motivation – reached the 75 per cent mark again during the reporting period and as such markedly exceeds the score of Aon Hewitt’s Global Retail Benchmark (60 per cent). 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.

Development of staff numbers

During the reporting period, METRO GROUP employed an average of 196,540 (2014/15: 203,773) full-time equivalents. This is a decrease of 3.5 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, we had 125,705 full-time equivalents, 5.5 per cent less than during the same period of the previous year. This decline is primarily due to METRO Cash & Carry’s withdrawal from Vietnam. In Germany, the number of full-time equivalents increased slightly to 70,835 (2014/15: 70,815).

Development of personnel expenses

Our personnel expenses increased by 0.1 per cent to €6.5 billion compared with the same period of the previous year (2014/15: €6.5 billion). Of that amount, €5.3 billion (2014/15: €5.3 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.

Development of employee numbers by countries and segments

by headcount as of closing date of 30/9