SBB: an attractive and reliable employer.

Transcription

1 P40 Responsibility for society and the environment SBB: an attractive and reliable employer. 28,143 people kept SBB moving in It is thanks to all of these employees that our Group performed well in the year under review. As Switzerland s fourth-biggest employer, we pursue far-sighted, sustainable HR policies. We attach great importance to the development and furtherance of our staff. SBB is creating jobs. For the third year in succession, our Group employed more staff in the year under review than in the previous year. In 2009, 27,978 people worked for SBB and its customers: in 2010, the average number of employees was 28, This represented an increase of 0.6 % or 165 jobs. The number of people working at SBB and SBB Cargo (excluding subsidiaries) averaged 25,356, i. e. 68 more employees 2 than in the previous year. The subsidiary companies created an additional 97 jobs (2,787). The picture varied in the different business areas. There was a slight increase in the SBB Passenger Division headcount as a result of additional jobs for train crew, train drivers and safety personnel (+ 8 jobs), even though some of the safety staff moved from the Passenger Division to the Infrastructure Division. The Infrastructure Division headcount grew by 175 jobs. There was a slight reduction in the number of employees in Real Estate (six fewer jobs). The number of employees in the Freight Division also fell as a result of the restructuring of the freight business and associated productivity gains. In 2010, SBB Cargo employed on average 92 fewer people than in the previous year. From a regional perspective, the canton of Solothurn experienced the greatest increase in job numbers. The new jobs were created in the Passenger Division and Human Resources thanks to the Jobin programme for newly qualified apprentices. The headcount also rose in the cantons of Berne, Vaud, Basel and Fribourg % of employees were non Swiss passport holders, a slight increase on the previous year (11.3 %). This has been a continuing trend for several years: in 2007, foreign nationals accounted for 10.5 % of the workforce. The increase in recent times is attributable to the growing proportion of highly qualified employees from abroad. SBB employees come from all over the world: in 2010, there were eighty different nationalities serving our customers. With the Group s enormously varied spectrum of activities, our workforce encompasses over 150 occupations. Human Resources at SBB now more professionalised. Over the past few years, SBB human resources officers have become more professionalised. In the year under review, we continued to merge cross-departmental functions at Group and division level in order to improve the competence and efficiency of our HR teams. As a result, previously decentralised jobs were relocated into the Central Services areas of the Group and the divisions. With effect from 1 July 2010, we introduced a new business model throughout the Group. This step implemented the new HR strategy that had been approved in The strategy is based on three elements: an efficient structure, an up-to-theminute product range and an HR culture that is consistent across the entire organisation. In 2010, we also increased our efforts to sharpen our profile and strengthen our position in the employment market. In view of the great challenges confronting our Group, we need dynamic employees at all levels and in all divisions who are ideally suited to the demands of the available jobs. We therefore implemented a marketing campaign in 2010 to strengthen and differentiate SBB s presence in the employment market. A new corporate identity on job platforms, in job advertisements and at job fairs makes sure that potential job applicants no matter what their skill or competence level recognise SBB as a modern enterprise and an interesting employer. 1 Average number of full-time equivalent employees during the year. 2 excl. employment market center (AMC) and reorientation and employment (NOA) employees

2 Responsibility for society and the environment P41 The e-recruiting project is intended to professionalise our external and internal recruitment capability. Computer-assisted processes support the teams involved in the selection and appointment of employees. A pilot trial has been running in the Group-level units since December We expect to introduce e-recruiting throughout the Group in March SBB fosters good industrial relations. SBB values good industrial relations. By engaging in active dialogue with our social partners, we recognise the important contribution made by unions and social welfare associations. Our common objective is to ensure that SBB has a long and successful future as a healthy, competitive enterprise. In 2010, we moved towards achieving our vision for the future when, together with our social partners, we produced a revised collective employment contract. 95 % of SBB employees are subject to this contract. At the heart of SBB and SBB Cargo s new 2011 collective employment contract is the new wage payment system. In the past, SBB s rostering, appraisal and remuneration systems had been developed to meet the different organisational needs of the divisions and were barely compatible with each other. This resulted in the creation and reinforcement of disparities throughout the Group and prevented the systems from being open and transparent for employees. In November, after extended and difficult negotiations throughout almost all of the year under review, SBB and its social partners succeeded in approving a new payment system that reflects current requirements. SBB employees now enjoy a modern wage system that eliminates the problems long recognised by employees, unions and the Group. The system is able to take into account the specific requirements of any job and to reward individual employee achievement and performance. It also makes it easier for the Group to adjust to the conditions of the relevant labour market. Furthermore, the new wage system creates transparency throughout the Group. SBB also agreed transfer conditions with its social partners to ensure that no employee suffers a reduction in take-home pay as a result of the new system. The changeover to market-oriented wages will be realised in stages on the basis of natural staff turnover. The 2011 collective employment contract will come into force in mid-2011 and will remain valid until the end of to face, SBB must also continue to improve its competitiveness during 2011, as well as its productivity and profitability. The 2011 collective employment contract provides a solid foundation for SBB and its social partners to address these challenges. Even in changing times, SBB remains a reliable employer. We take our social responsibility seriously. Even in times of change, employees should always know where they stand with their employer. SBB is a dependable and reliable partner for its employees as well as its customers. In consultation with our social partners, we have agreed guidelines and policies governing the reorganisation process. We reached this agreement after inviting our social partners to take part in a consultation procedure and allowed them three weeks to comment. SBB does not dismiss anyone for commercial reasons. We support employees affected by the restructuring and help to reorient them. This is also a condition of the collective employment contract. The Reorientation and Work Programme (Neuorientierung und Arbeit NOA) is helping those affected to develop a new occupational perspective. During 2010, a total of 214 employees (previous year: 176 employees) received occupational reorientation in the prevention phase. 57 % (previous year: 59 %) of the employees assisted by the NOA found alternative employment in good time before their job was cut. 109 employees (previous year: 80 employees) eventually entered the occupational reorientation programme. At the same time, 105 people left the programme because a new job had been found for them. SBB invested CHF 16.6 million in occupational reorientation in the year under review. In 2010, the NOA celebrated its 10th anniversary. During these ten years, the programme helped over 1500 employees and greatly extended its range of services. Consequent to this development, the NOA is being converted into a Labour Market Centre (AMC) at the beginning of 2011, offering a wide range of services to various target groups. The agreed term of three and a half years ensures stability and security for employees. In view of the challenges we are about SBB Annual and Sustainability Report 2010

3 P42 Responsibility for society and the environment The Jobs Bourse was launched in September 2010 as a pilot trial in association with the restructuring of SBB Cargo. It complements the services already offered by the NOA by bringing together internal SBB job offers and job seekers. It passes on details of the Group s internal vacancies to employees who are facing the loss of their job. The initiative will help the Group to retain as much specialist knowledge as possible during restructuring. Number of employees 28,000 21,000 27,933 27,438 27,822 27,978 28,143 SBB consolidates its position as a top quality employer. As Switzerland s fourth largest employer, SBB is committed to a far-sighted and sustainable human resources policy. We attach great importance to continually improving our recruitment activities and to providing training and professional development for our employees at all levels. For example, we encourage our employees to attend external professional development courses by giving them time off and/or contributing to the cost of the courses. In the future, we will be stepping up our support for learning in the workplace. We aim to help our employees gain additional experience and qualifications by offering them carefully selected secondments and placements within the Group. For example, we provide support for employees who wish to progressively assume new duties and responsibilities by offering them carefully chosen further training courses. Promoting talent. The SBB training programme offers young academics practical training upon completion of a higher education course. As a stepping stone to high-level positions, this programme is both popular and extremely successful. In order to better nurture the potential of talented employees in the future, SBB also expanded its talent management framework in the year under review. This framework covers the entire talent management process, from talent identification to professional and personal development via a variety of programmes and all the way to future assignments for potential top performers. 14,000 7, in the training of young people, and for this reason, have drawn up a policy for apprentices. In August 2010, we began recruiting for the first class of ten candidates who in March 2011 will complete the Login training association s new course for movements inspectors. The login training association is taking over SBB s training programme and opening it up to other association member companies as well as other railway companies. Once they have passed their exams, the newly qualified movements inspectors will work for an extended period in SBB s new control centres in Zurich and Olten. In 2010, SBB offered a total of 50 paid placements of up to a year in association with Jobin, the programme for unemployed newly qualified apprentices launched the previous year. Of the 20 young adults who took advantage of this opportunity, just over half have since found a new job. Through this programme SBB makes a significant contribution to the community, thereby living up to its social responsibilities. More apprentices. An average of 1,278 apprentices had training contracts with SBB through the login training association compared with 1,226 in Last year alone, 446 young people began an apprenticeship with SBB. This makes SBB the association s largest provider of apprenticeships. We will continue to invest

4 Responsibility for society and the environment P43 Employee satisfaction. In the year under review, employees responding to our regular staff survey on employee satisfaction rated their commitment and attachment to SBB at 72 points out of a possible 100. Employees expressed positive opinions on teams, safety culture, work content, immediate line managers as well as Group targets and strategies. On the other hand, general employee satisfaction and trust in the Management Board were significantly lower than in the previous year. The Management Board has since commissioned an in-depth analysis to discover the reasons behind these findings. The big challenges that the Group and its employees had to face in the year under review from the unresolved issues relating to the additional investment needed in the rail infrastructure, to the rapid tempo of reorganisation and realignment of different business areas, to the extended and difficult collective employment contract negotiations, the vital restructuring of the SBB pension fund and the heavy workload could have had a negative impact on the results of the staff survey. In view of these challenges, the high levels of solidarity shown by the employees and their undiminished commitment to SBB and its customers are most encouraging. By the end of 2010, around 300 in-depth reports on the staff survey had been produced for individual business units. By the end of January 2011 around 500 reports will be available. Each of the divisions will analyse the results and determine what steps need be taken to improve its performance. The 2010 staff survey was carried out between mid-september and mid-october 2010 among over 25,000 SBB employees (excluding subsidiaries). Some employees completed it online for the first time. At 57 %, the response rate was higher than in previous years. SBB pledges its commitment to its employees and to the community. SBB is committed to employee health. In 2010, we began implementing the formal health strategy that we had drawn up in the previous year. In its efforts to meet the demographic challenges and health requirements of the workplace, SBB is breaking new ground. The basic principles of this initiative are health promotion and preventative strategies (measures to improve health awareness, to create healthy working conditions and to minimise stress), attendance management (dealing with attendance and absence) and Operational Case Management (OCM), which devises solutions for employees who, for health reasons, find themselves unable to do their usual jobs at all or only for a limited number of hours. OCM was introduced in 2007 and has continued to prove its usefulness in the year under review. Every year, this programme offers support for approximately 1,000 employees who, because of illness, can no longer do their jobs or can only manage a reduced number of hours. In 2010, 436 cases were dealt with. 42 % of these people were able to return to their jobs. An inhouse or external solution was found for another 16 % and in the remaining 42 % of cases the employment relationship had to be terminated (owing, for example, to health problems). Thanks to professional structures and efforts to ensure swift reintegration into work, the financial repercussions of illness and accident have become less severe. There was a particularly noticeable reduction in the risk premium paid to the pension fund. Overall, each Swiss franc invested in the OCM system generated six times that amount in cost savings. Our efforts were also reflected in the low number of health-related absences. In 2010, the average absence rate due to sickness or accident was 11 calendar days. In 2001, it was 16.9 calendar days. We believe we have an obligation to do everything we can to retain employees in the Group and not to pension them off. However, opportunities for reintegration are limited by the existence of strict safety regulations. Because all of our in-house openings for disabled staff have been filled, it is now difficult for us to take on new staff with health impairments. In 2010, the SBB Management Board introduced two important measures for occupational reintegration: it established the basic requirements for the creation of reintegration jobs by the OCM system, and it agreed the strategic expansion of anyway-solutions. anyway-solutions provides reintegration jobs by turning SBB Production s secondary businesses (cleaning, upholstery, etc.) into core business. At SBB, the collective employment contract grants staff committees the right to consultation and participation on occupational health and safety matters. Staff committees monitor the application and implementation of the contract s regulations. SBB Annual and Sustainability Report 2010

5 P44 Responsibility for society and the environment SBB: a responsible employer. We maintain a countrywide network of advice centres for employees who need support because of problems at home or at work. Approximately 1,350 employees made use of SBB s social counselling service in The most common issues raised were financial and health problems, difficulties at work and relationship problems. It is clear, therefore, that the social counselling service makes a significant contribution to work and operational safety, to the preservation and/or recovery of working capacity, and to easing the pressures on employees and their social environment. The SBB Human Resources Fund Foundation provided funds totalling CHF 350,000 and issued loans to the value of CHF 150,000. The Foundation provides subsidised holidays and awards grants to staff who are in financial difficulties or who have to meet high healthcare costs. For employees who have been exposed to traumatic situations at work, SBB offers aftercare via a psychological support organisation. A counsellor will normally approach the affected employee directly after an incident to offer their help. They do not, therefore, wait until the person concerned asks for help. The aim is to identify the psychological repercussions of an incident more accurately and, if necessary, intervene more quickly to address them. Women at SBB We attach great importance to ensuring equal treatment of male and female employees. We wish to increase the proportion of women employed at all levels of the company. Women accounted for 14.5 % of the workforce in 2010, compared with 14.2 % in the previous year. The proportion of female senior managers rose from 8.6 % to 11.4 %. Overall, one management position in 13 was occupied by a woman. In the year under review, the Board of Directors appointed Jeannine Pilloud to the Management Board. She is the first woman to become a member of this body. In 2010, SBB set up the necessary structures for the successful implementation of the gender management strategy throughout the company. Gender management is a key business issue. Our newly created method of monitoring gender issues allows us to measure the progress we have achieved by looking at eight types of key data. For example, regular reports are drawn up showing the proportion of women and men in the entire workforce, in management positions, in the latest batch of new recruits, and attending talent programmes and management seminars. Gender equality is a core element of HR s business excellence programme: products and processes were redefined in connection with the new HR business model. The central procedures for recruiting staff and nurturing talent were reviewed and systematically overhauled so as to ensure equal access and equal development opportunities for women and men. Building equal opportunities: SBB is also careful to create a functional working environment for both female and male employees when setting up new workplaces. SBB s collective employment contract states that no discrimination of any kind will be tolerated. In the year under review, no case of discrimination was reported to SBB or referred to the arbitration committee.

6 Responsibility for society and the environment P45 Proportion of women at SBB Proportion of women in management in % 20 in % Work/life balance. To help employees achieve a better work/life balance, SBB provides them with childcare advice and funding. In 2010, 327 (2009: 341) employees received financial support, while 68 children received child care in nursery places organised by SBB. Fostering contact with pensioners. SBB created a specialist department in 2010 to act as a point of contact for pensioners. All retired employees are sent a free copy of the SBB newspaper. In seven support regions, we invite pensioners to attend annual events at which a member of the Management Board discusses the current issues affecting the Group. The first of these events took place in 2010 and were well attended and well received. These occasions play a useful role in encouraging pensioners to act as ambassadors for SBB. SBB Annual and Sustainability Report 2010