team spirit - Bankier.pl

“Today we expect our bank employees – whether customer-facing staff, back-office employees or executive
managers – to know much more than just products: they are supposed to understand the market, take
entrepreneurial initiative, be familiar with such concepts as full costing, risk-related costs and cost of
capital, and be conversant with bank processes. Above all, they should know and understand their
customers. The task of human resources management is to provide our employees with training for their
various functions and to motivate them so that they take pleasure in their work.”
At the end of 2005, the number of employees in Austria (BA-
CA AG including subsidiaries supporting the bank’s core business)
totalled 9,839 (full-time equivalents). This means that we
have achieved the staffing target set in 2003. Since the merger
of Bank Austria and Creditanstalt, staff numbers have been
reduced by 36 % or 5,599 FTEs through socially acceptable
measures (1996 pro-forma staffing level: 15,438 FTEs).
In the course of 2005, human resources work for CEE was
allocated to the individual departments within the Human
Resources division in order to strengthen Group thinking and
the exchange of know-how between Austria and CEE. For a
young group of companies operating in high-growth and
mature markets, growing together and developing a team
spirit are essential to business performance. Based on the
results of an internal study, we defined steps with our subsidiaries
to enhance staff commitment with a view to operating
even more successfully in the market.
In 2005 we successfully completed the integration in Serbia,
i.e. the merger between Eksimbanka and HVB Serbia and
Montenegro. Human Resources was a partner in the integration
and the process of filling management positions. The
acquisition of a majority interest in Banca Tiriac was a milestone
in Romania. Human Resources accompanied the due
diligence process in its well-tested manner and also made an
important contribution to the integration and selection
process.
UniCredit’s acquisition of HVB changed the main emphasis in
the year under review. In Austria and CEE, in preparation for
the upcoming integration processes, we carried out a further
management assessment in which the Group’s common values
were taken into consideration. Human Resources is currently a
partner in the feedback discussions and in agreeing the next
steps to be taken. The aim is to carry out a regular organisational
review in order to further develop management performance.
This, in turn, strengthens commitment and the
Group’s performance.
Erich Hampel, Chairman of the Managing Board of Bank Austria Creditanstalt,
also responsible for Human Resources
The number of staff at our consolidated banking subsidiaries
in CEE increased by about 10 %, due primarily to acquisitions.
We continued to pay attention to increasing efficiency to free
up resources for expansion in retail banking business. Productivity
rose significantly, measured against both business expansion
and revenue growth.
In future, personnel work in CEE will focus on the integration
projects in the various countries and especially on helping to
build the common Group. As in the past, we will be guided by
our basic principles, which are the same as those of UniCredit:
objectivity and performance orientation, best practice and
diversity. The common values of the new, truly European banking
group were formulated in an Integrity Charter; they are
binding and were made available to all units of UniCredit
Group. They guide our conduct in dealing with customers,
employees and investors and define our role as good corporate
citizens in our countries: fairness, respect, freedom, transparency,
reciprocity and trust.
In order to more effectively address the tasks and demands
described above, the Human Resources division changed its
own structure as from 1 July 2005. All strategic topics were
concentrated in the new HR Strategy & Policies department
Staffing levels at year-end 2005
Total: 31,792 full-time equivalent
BA-CA AG 23%
Poland 32%
Subsidiaries which
support the core
banking business 8%
Other subsidiaries 7%
CEE subsidiaries 30%
Human Resources 101