Development of the headcount
As of March 31, 2013, the total headcount in the voestalpine Group was at 46,351 employees (based on FTE/full-time equivalent), thus remaining practically unchanged compared to the previous year (46,473). With a slight increase of permanent staff (+1.0% from 41,649 to 42,078 employees) and apprentices (+6.9% from 1,263 to 1,350 young people) the marginal decline by 0.3% results from a year-to-year lower employment of temporary employees (–11.4% from 4,305 to 3,816 person years).
The continuing internationalization of the Group is reflected in the greater—albeit only slightly—percentage of employees working outside of Austria. As of the end of the business year, 22,567 persons or 53.6% (previous year: 53.5%) of employees were working at international locations; 46.4% or 19,511 employees (previous year: 46.5%) were working at Austrian Group companies.
The percentage of apprentices who are being trained at locations outside of Austria remained almost unchanged at 36.3% (previous year: 36.4%) or 490 persons.
Employee shareholding scheme
The employee shareholding scheme, which has existed since 2001 and has since been expanded, is currently available abroad for Group employees in Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and Belgium. Particularly in Poland and Belgium, additional companies were included in the model in the business year 2012/13, and thus the employee shareholding scheme was significantly expanded.
As of March 31, 2013, a total of around 22,600 employees are voestalpine AG shareholders through the voestalpine Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung and hold a total of 23 million shares. Due to the general bundling of voting rights, these employees, with a holding of 13.3% of the share capital (previous year: 11.9%), are one of the two largest core shareholders of voestalpine AG. About 1.8 million private shares owned by current and former employees (this corresponds to about 1.1% of the voting shares) are also managed by the voestalpine Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung. Thus, currently 14.4% of voestalpine AG’s share capital (previous year: just under 13%) are owned by employees.
The Stahlstiftung (Steel Foundation) in Austria
The Stahlstiftung, which was established in 1987, provides former employees of voestalpine from almost all of the Austrian Group companies with the opportunity to take up to four years to complete training and continuing education courses to upgrade their skills or to start a new career path. This institution significantly mitigates the social consequences of lay-offs, and the participants receive the best possible assistance in their search for a new job. In the business year 2012/13, more than 85% of the participants who were looking for work were able to find a new job with the help of the Stahlstiftung; this high placement rate, which is excellent by international standards as well, remained unchanged compared to the previous year.
As of the end of the business year, a total of 437 persons were being assisted by the Stahlstiftung, of whom 37.3% were participants from companies not belonging to the voestalpine Group. The number of participants declined compared to the business year 2011/12 (506 persons) by 13.6%.
Focus of HR activities
CAREER’S BEST RECRUITERS award
According to CAREER’S BEST RECRUITERS 2012/13 study for Austria, voestalpine AG was in first place for the iron/metal industry for the third consecutive time and received the “Golden Seal” award. More than 500 Austrian companies in 23 industries were evaluated with regard to their online and offline corporate presence and the feedback obtained from applicants.
Personnel marketing
In the past business year, the voestalpine Group was again represented at numerous target group events both in Austria and abroad, providing primarily interested students with the opportunity to get to know the “voestalpine working environment.”
In addition to classic activities, such as trade fairs and sponsorships, the HR online presence was again expanded: since March 2012, the Group has a career page on Facebook, which provides a look into the working environment at various Group locations. Furthermore, a website for apprentices was also set up that introduces the apprenticeship occupations that the Group offers as well as the training locations.
Apprentices
Complementing local activities by the individual Group companies, in the business year 2012/13, “steel sounds,” a campaign aimed at apprentices, was implemented jointly with Austrian and German sites that offer training for apprentices. In this competition, the young people were able to creatively explore the world of steel and submit videos, in which they created sounds using everyday steel products. The best sounds were selected online and integrated into a song that had been composed for voestalpine. As the campaign targeted young people, it was conducted online and on Facebook. This campaign attracted not only the attention of the youthful target groups, but it was nominated from among 500 submissions for the German Award for Online Communication in the “Recruiting Campaign” category.
In early December, the first Group Apprentice Day took place for apprentices from Austria and Germany in the last year of their apprenticeship. Besides a panel discussion with the Management Board of voestalpine AG, there were contests that involved a specially designed voestalpine Monopoly game, guided tours of the plant and the voestalpine Stahlwelt in Linz, and an award ceremony for the winners of the “steel sounds” competition.
Development of executives
In the business year 2012/13, 146 participants from 16 countries took part in the four-phase “value:program,” a development program for executives. Around 40% of the participants were from Group companies in other countries; the percentage of women was 15%.
High mobility pool
After the very successful, Europe-wide recruitment of participants for the “Generation 2011,” the internationalization of the high mobility pool is being driven forward. Participants from Brazil, China, Canada, and Mexico qualified for the “Generation 2013.” The high mobility pool offers young, well-educated, and geographically flexible people, who have a few years of professional experience, the possibility to get to know the voestalpine Group in a very structured form by way of concrete projects and to embrace this as an attractive career opportunity.
