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Our Contribution: The Value of Partnership
Chief Executive Officer, Sonopress Western Europe
“Our employees’ initiatives and ideas are part of our company’s ongoing process of optimization. Their ideas for improvement and their commitment lead to suggestions for our ideas management. In 2005, one employee’s suggestion for simplifying processes in DVD production was remunerated with the highest reward in Bertelsmann’s history: €70,000. The German Institute for Business Management has commended us for the high level of employee participation in our in-house suggestion scheme.”
Human Resources Specialist, RTL Television
“The employee survey is a key element of participation in our corporate culture of partnership and results in greater employee identification with their jobs and the company. The employees feel that they have a say in shaping the company and their own job. That is why, in 2006, RTL Television will be performing the survey for the third time in six years.”
opportunity for contributing their ideas and helping to shape their company’s development. The plan also financially rewards employees: In 2005, awards totaling around €430,000 were paid out to employees, with one suggestion scoring a record payment of €70,000. One important instrument in employee participation and co-determination is the group-wide employee survey that Bertelsmann implements every four years. In the years between these group-wide surveys, individual Bertelsmann companies have the option of conducting their own surveys. We created the Bertelsmann Survey Services department as an inhouse service provider in 2003 to support the divisions and companies in the group, who have increasingly availed themselves of this opportunity. Since the last group-wide survey in 2002, over 20,000 employees at various Bertelsmann companies have had the opportunity to participate in an employee survey. The seventh group-wide survey will take place in September 2006. As a result more than 6,000 personalized results summaries will be distributed to executives and discussed with the employees in the departments – with the expected eventual results of numerous improvement measures initiated at all levels of the organization.
Bertelsmann Corporate Responsibility Report 2005