Annual Report 2002 (pdf, 1319K) - WestLB

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Bringing People Together — Speed,
Competence and Creativity Ensure Client
Satisfaction at WestLB AG.
Looking ahead to the elimination of institutional
liability and guarantor liability in 2005, WestLB
has prescribed itself a rigorous cost-cutting
programme, which includes a reduction in
headcount by 1,500 throughout the Group. With
the help of innovative personnel management
tools we are supporting the necessary process
of workplace reduction in the Bank. We stepped
up the pace of implementation during the
year under review, bringing forward the target
completion date from the end of 2004 to the
end of 2003. On the basis of a personnel concept
which was developed in close consultation with
the representatives of the employees, we reduced
our workforce by 686 in 2002. The savings were
achieved in a socially-acceptable manner using
a variety of state-of-the-art personnel instruments,
including agreements on part-time working,
measures to promote occupational mobility,
the transfer of employees within the Group and
early retirement schemes. The response to these
offers by employees has been encouraging. At
the beginning of 2003, a further 200 jobs were
cut as a result of agreements which came into
effect at the beginning of the year. Moreover,
593 employees left the Group on January 1, 2003
following the sale of the WPS Bank.
The total number of employees in the Banking
Group declined by 7.2% to 8,779 in 2002.
Personnel expenses in the WestLB Group fell by
10.0% to € 1,218 million (2001: € 1,354 million).
First-Class Training Opportunities
The employees of WestLB are faced with a
unique challenge as a result of the required
restructuring measures within the Bank. In order
to help them meet this challenge, we offer them
support in the form of a three-tier programme
entitled Managing the Transition as part of our
training programme for 2003, which contains
modules on advice, training and systems/
tools. Through change, project and process
management, we support the business groups
with special packages of measures ranging from
workshops to training seminars and project
management. These are supplemented by
one-to-one counselling and coaching.
Training at WestLB has taken on a new
dimension. The e-learning application
BEST@WestLB has been ready for a global
roll-out in the Bank since December 2002. Last
year training modules on investment banking
and global financial markets were successfully
completed. Further product training modules
will be added in 2003.