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Personnel structure<br />
On average the <strong>Group</strong> employed 168,797 persons<br />
(excluding apprentices) in 1996. Translated<br />
into full-timers, this was equivalent to a<br />
workforce of 134,565, of whom 69.6 percent<br />
were women. The average length of service<br />
with the company was 8.1 years, the average<br />
age 36.6 years.<br />
The proportion of full-timers within the <strong>Group</strong>’s<br />
workforce came to approx. 55 percent. Parttime<br />
employment rose as flexible working hour<br />
schemes were further improved. This meant<br />
that in all <strong>Group</strong> companies adjustment to the<br />
changed store opening hours in Germany was<br />
ensured in a way that met the needs of customers<br />
as well as the interests of employees.<br />
Wage policies<br />
In Germany, personnel and pay policy-makers<br />
faced the special challenge of responding to<br />
legislative initiatives in 1996.<br />
Even more than amendments to paid sick leave<br />
legislation, deregulation of shop opening hours<br />
proved to be an acid test for the efficiency of<br />
62<br />
retail trade organizations, which had to create<br />
the necessary preconditions for this initiative.<br />
It is not least thanks to the dedicated efforts of<br />
the <strong>Group</strong>’s pay-negotiating experts that – with<br />
the exception of the Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg–Western<br />
Pomerania wage-bargaining<br />
regions – workable pay settlements were agreed.<br />
In the two regions cited, pay agreements were<br />
not concluded at the level of the respective employer/employee<br />
organizations, with company<br />
pay agreements being agreed instead.<br />
At the same time, the divisions laid the foundations<br />
for comprehensive extension of shop<br />
opening hours in Germany from November 1,<br />
1996. Special emphasis was laid on meeting<br />
fluctuations in customer traffic through flexible<br />
staff deployment and attractive working hour<br />
schemes without affecting costs as far as possible<br />
and on continuing to offer good service.<br />
In division companies with their own pay agreements,<br />
the respective wage-rate systems were<br />
consistently further developed in the direction<br />
of greater flexibility, increased use of performance<br />
incentives and creation of tailor-made<br />
structures.
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