Management Report
9.2 Employees
| Employee Data | [Table 3.36] |
|---|
| | Dec. 31, 2009 | Dec. 31, 2010 |
| | FTE | FTE |
| Employees by region | | |
| Europe | 54,600 | 54,300 |
| North America | 16,600 | 16,400 |
| Asia/Pacific | 23,000 | 24,600 |
| Latin America/Middle East/Africa | 16,800 | 16,100 |
| Employees by corporate function | | |
| Production | 48,400 | 47,200 |
| Marketing and distribution | 40,200 | 41,100 |
| Research and development | 12,800 | 13,200 |
| General administration | 9,600 | 9,900 |
| Total | 111,000 | 111,400 |
| trainees | 2,700 | 2,600 |
|
% |
% |
| Percentage of women in the Group Leadership Circle | 5.5 | 6.5 |
| Number of nationalities in the Group Leadership Circle | 22 | 21 |
| Proportion of full-time employees with contractually agreed working time not exceeding 48 hours per week |
100 |
100 |
| Proportion of employees with health insurance | 95 | 94 |
| Proportion of employees eligible for a company pension plan or company-financed retirement benefits |
74 |
73 |
| Proportion of employees covered by collective agreements on pay and conditions | 56 | 55 |
2009 figures restated
The number of employees on either permanent or fixed-term contracts is stated in full-time equivalents, with part-time employees included on a pro-rata basis in line with their contractual working hours. By contrast to the previous year, the figures in the above table include fixed-term employees but not trainees.
|
Employee data
On December 31, 2010, the Bayer Group had 111,400 employees worldwide (2009: 111,000). Thus headcount remained virtually steady in 2010 (+0.4%). In Germany we had 36,200 employees (2009: 36,000), who made up 32.5% of the Group workforce. HealthCare had 55,700 employees (2009: 55,800), CropScience 20,700 (2009: 20,500), and MaterialScience 14,700 (2009: 14,600). The remaining 20,300 (2009: 20,100) employees worked mainly for the service companies. This figure also includes the 700 (2009: 700) employees of Bayer AG. There were an additional 2,600 (2009: 2,700) trainees on the closing date who are not included in the Group total.
Personnel expenses rose in 2010 by 4.2% to €8,099 million (2009: €7,776 million), chiefly as a result of currency effects and regular salary increases.
Employee compensation and benefits
Compensation in the Bayer Group is based on a globally standardized system that ensures transparent and performance-oriented remuneration and incentives for all employees. Regular benchmarking against competitors helps in setting base salaries in line with the demands and responsibilities of each position. These are supplemented by attractive performance-related compensation components and extensive ancillary benefits.
For example, more than €500 million is earmarked for variable bonus awards to employees for the year 2010 under the Group-wide short-term incentive (STI) program alone. Included in our extensive range of ancillary benefits in many countries are various stock participation programs that enable employees to purchase Bayer stock at a discount, giving them a further opportunity to share in the company’s economic success. Since 2005 we have offered senior and middle managers throughout the Group uniform stock-based compensation programs known as “Aspire” (see Note
[26.6] to the consolidated financial statements) that are based on ambitious earnings targets and – in the case of Group Leadership Circle members – require an appropriate personal investment in Bayer stock.
Engaged and loyal employees
Employee engagement drives the implementation of Bayer’s strategy. Continuously promoting and developing the motivation and skills of our employees is thus a fundamental objective of our human resources policy. We gained valuable information and ideas in this area from our first ever global employee survey, which was carried out in 2010. In their responses to this anonymous poll, nearly 70% of employees in all countries and all areas of the company shared with us their perceptions of the strategy, culture and working conditions within the enterprise.
The survey results show that the overwhelming majority of the employees – well over 80% – feel close ties to Bayer and consider the company to be an attractive employer overall. Almost 85% of employees are highly motivated and particularly committed to the company’s success. These results are confirmed by the low rate of voluntary terminations. At the main Group companies in Germany, this rate was just 0.4%. The Group-wide attrition rate, which also includes retirements and other reasons for people leaving our employment, was about 9% in 2010. We will take specific action in areas where the employees’ responses to the survey revealed scope for improvement.
This action will be based on the Bayer Group’s revised values and leadership principles, now expressed by the new succinct acronym “LIFE.” The goal is to more firmly anchor and apply company policies in everyday business. LIFE stands for Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility and Efficiency.
Responsible human resources policies
Sustainability and social responsibility are also integral to our company policy – and more than 80% of our employees worldwide confirm this. Nearly all Group employees either have statutory health insurance or can obtain health insurance through the company, and 73% have access to a company pension plan. Involving the employee representatives is part of what partnership and responsibility mean to us as a company. The working conditions for 55% (2009: 56%) of our employees are governed by collective or company agreements. In China, for example, the employees of our Group companies have already elected union representation at six sites, with three more to follow shortly. Most of the Group-wide job cuts announced in November 2010 will be implemented so as to minimize social hardship. In Germany, which remains the company’s largest base of operations with 36,200 employees, dismissals for operational reasons are prohibited through the end of 2012 under an agreement with the employee representatives.
Diversity and internationalism
As a global enterprise, it is Bayer’s aim to have as diverse and as international a workforce as possible. For example, a total of 21 nations are represented in the Group Leadership Circle, the company’s most senior management level. Nearly 70% of these executives are native to the countries in which they work. A further focus of our efforts to achieve greater employee diversity is on increasing the proportion of female employees, especially in management positions, over the long term. In 2010, 35% of Bayer Group employees worldwide were women. The Group Management Board has set a medium-term target for increasing the proportion of women in leadership positions. Accordingly, we aim to raise the proportion of female executives in the Group as a whole toward 30% by 2015.
| Bayer Group Workforce Structure 2010 | [Table 3.37] |
|---|
| | Women | Men | Total |
| Non-payscale employees including managerial staff | 10,200 | 22,100 | 32,300 |
| Skilled employees | 29,100 | 50,000 | 79,100 |
| Total | 39,300 | 72,100 | 111,400 |
| Trainees | 800 | 1,800 | 2,600 |
Vocational training and recruiting
Diversity, international career opportunities, a modern work environment and social commitment make Bayer an attractive employer throughout the world. This enabled us to attract a total of over 4,000 specialists and managers with academic qualifications as new employees in 2010. In India alone, we recruited more than 750 university graduates, in Germany about 700 and in the United States over 350. To alert high school graduates and students to career opportunities at Bayer from an early stage, we expanded our university recruiting activities in 2010 to include corporate presentations on social networking sites. These communication activities were supplemented by the more than 2,700 challenging occupational internships that we awarded to students of various disciplines in the reporting period.
Apart from the hiring of university graduates, our own training programs for young people are among the most important measures we undertake to guard against a possible shortage of specialists resulting from demographic change. Once again in 2010, more than 900 young people began training courses in a total of over 20 occupations at our German sites.
Continuing education and knowledge retention
We are responding in a number of ways to the challenge posed by demographic change in many industrialized countries. We provide extensive continuing education programs to enhance employees’ knowledge and adapt it to changing requirements. In 2010 we set up the Bayer Senior Experts Network (BaySEN), an initiative designed to harness retired managers’ many years of experience for the company’s benefit and pass it on to the next generation.
Another focus of our measures to address the demographic trend is the steady expansion of occupational health management. With employees now tending to retire later than in the past, we offer a range of programs in many countries to promote and maintain the health and employability of our people. For example, under the collective bargaining agreement on life worktime and demographic change, we now offer non-managerial employees in Germany a thorough medical check-up and enable people with jobs that are especially demanding to significantly reduce their working hours in the years prior to retirement.