Staff

Highly qualified and motivated staff are key to the success of our business. And given the global nature of Munich Re’s operations, an internationally oriented approach to human resources management is essential. Last year, we restructured our HR activities, placing even more emphasis on a business-and performance-related corporate and leadership culture. This supports the process of cultural change within the Group, in which change itself, achievement and learning are self-evident concepts.

Facts and figures

On 31 December 2008, 44,209 (38,634) staff were employed with the Munich Re Group worldwide, 10,534 (7,372) in the reinsurance group, 32,867 (30,460) in the primary insurance group and 808 (802) in asset management. In reinsurance and asset management, staff numbers increased by 3,162 and 6 respectively. The 42.9% rise in reinsurance is attributable to international acquisitions.

Reinsurance

In connection with Changing Gear, we have restructured our Human Resources Division. We are aiming for a more pronounced performance culture throughout the Group. We have therefore introduced a new performance management system, bringing together individual tools for the agreement of objectives, performance appraisals, salary structuring and career planning, and have consistently improved incentive systems. In addition, we attach great importance to the development and further training of our staff, in order to maintain their knowledge edge. We thus make substantial investments in specialist and personal training measures: in 2008, these amounted to a total of 9,465 participant days throughout Germany, at a cost of €7,326,333. We also support swift and flexible acquisition of knowledge Group-wide by means of innovative methods such as e-learning. Our objective is “to lead through knowledge”. Consequently, our leadership monitoring, in which all staff regularly assess their managers, is also designed to help ensure that learning and talent management are realised as central tasks of management.

Besides this, our remuneration policy makes an important contribution to enhancing performance and gearing it to commercial success. Remuneration models and incentives are consistently linked to the achievement of agreed objectives and are geared to financial results. Company pensions are also a central component of our human resources policy. Furthermore, by means of flexible working-time models, we give our staff the opportunity to combine job and family and to achieve a good work-life balance.

Attracting, winning and keeping the best talents worldwide and filling key positions with the best possible candidates is of major significance for us. That is why we created the Employer Branding initiative, which is intended to improve Munich Re’s systematic positioning in the international labour market. We also aim to step up our recruitment of university graduates nationally and internationally and to promote our image as an attractive employer beyond the confines of the insurance industry. Beyond this, we have enhanced our manpower planning qualitatively and quantitatively, and have networked our succession planning for key positions. To take account of the changing para meters of the internal and external employment market, we adjust our staff succession planning on an ongoing basis.

The percentage of trainees in the Munich Re Group in 2008 was 4.92%. In add ition, three candidates commenced the Master of Science course we have integrated into our training programme.

Primary insurance

With a view to enhancing its competitiveness on a lasting basis, ERGO launched the project “Continuous improvement of our competitive position” in 2008, which also has important implications for employees. The objective is to further improve administration and acquisition cost ratios in Germany, as well as increasing service quality in business processes. In order to achieve the expense ratio target for 2010, ERGO aims to save office and personnel expenses of €180m by 2010, which involves a reduction of 1,800 jobs. Against this background, the ERGO Insurance Group’s management and the ERGO Group Staff Council have agreed on an extensive package of measures. Besides important agreements to reach savings targets, it comprises arrangements relevant for co-determination, such as the introduction of a Group social plan and a Group internal agreement on the topic of “compatibility of family and working life”. An understanding has been reached that there will be no forced redundancies for desk staff or salaried field staff before 31 December 2012. The agreements with the Staff Council enable ERGO to start implementing the measures without delay. Independent of this, a continual process of permanent improvement in quality and service is planned.

Another field of activity involved preparing the integration of Europäische and Mercur into the ERGO Insurance Group. Subject to negotiation with the codetermination bodies, this is scheduled to be concluded by the end of March 2009.

A further significant topic, last year and this, is the “ERGO - one entity” initiative. Its objective is to reflect in terms of labour law the cross-market, function-oriented organisation and process structure we have established for ERGO in Germany over the last few years. As from the end of 2009, insurance operations staff are to have employment contracts solely with ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG, rather than with the individual brand companies. Field staff and staff working in the sales offices of the brand companies are to remain employees of those companies.

Asset management

The high professional quality of staff in asset management is a crucial success factor. MEAG has taken advantage of the fluctuation in the market resulting from the financial crisis to recruit further qualified staff. This applies particularly to the core functions in asset management. In real-estate operations, structures have been further streamlined and adjusted to meet increased market requirements. The “quality offensive” is rounded off by programmes for new executives and top management.