World of Work: Fairly Motivated

Regular Employee Surveys

Employee surveys are an essential part of REWE Group's appreciative human resources management. They reflect company morale and identify problem areas. During the reporting period, REWE Group wrote to nearly 200,000 employees from selected business units across Europe, or about 60 per cent of all employees. More than half of these employees returned the questionnaire. The evaluation of responses found that employees of REWE Group are satisfied with their jobs. Depending on the country and sales line, 50 per cent to 80 per cent of respondents described their overall satisfaction level as very good or good. The best grades were given to transparency and clarity, the mission statement and identification. Each business unit is evaluating the results of the employee surveys and is developing specific measures on the basis of them.

Life-Phase-Focused Human Resources Policies

REWE Group supports its employees in all phases of their lives and encourages work/life balance. As part of this commitment, the company has added 69 slots in its own day-care centre in Cologne to help employees transitioning back to the work world. In 2015, about 110 slots are to be available. Since 2008, the association ElternService Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) has been helping all employees at headquarters and regional locations across Germany with child-care issues, finding individual child-care assistance and offering urgent child care.

REWE stores are also committed to improving family's work/life balances. Many stores have already received such certification from berufundfamilie GmbH. With its "audit berufundfamilie", this organisation recognises companies that employ especially family-focused human resources policies. In 2015, REWE Markt GmbH is planning to become the first trade company to expand certification to all chain stores in Germany and to participating partner stores. REWE Group has developed a special model to address the growing need of employees to take time off in order to care for family members. This programme enables employees to completely stop working for up to six months in order to care for a close relative or to reduce their work schedule for up to 12 months. The model, introduced in 2012, had been used by about 40 employees through the end of 2014. Employees may also take up to six months off as part of a sabbatical.

Diversity and Equal Opportunity

Diversity is part of REWE Group's corporate culture. The company's employees are just as diverse as its businesses: a total of 19,931 employees in Germany and Austria are citizens of other countries. To address the lack of young employees, REWE Group in Germany is recruiting young people from other countries and is training them in a large number of different occupations. At the same time, PENNY has taken a major step in the opposite direction. It has been serving as a pacesetter by introducing a dual training/college programme based on the German model into other countries since 2013. This creates jobs and ensures that stores located outside Germany will have qualified staff.

Both concepts have been fine-tuned in the past two years. In 2015, the "European Recruiting" programme was launched. In future, prospective trainees in full-range stores and college graduates will be systematically recruited as PENNY store managers in European countries outside Germany. REWE Group intends to provide new employees with a long-term career opportunity in Germany. In this process, the company is offering both groups a training or job opportunity.

In 2014, the network called different together, or di.to, was created. The network is designed to help homosexual employees to network in the work world and to promote dialogue outside their own sales lines. A 10-employee working group is setting up the network and organising regular meetings and events, among other things. di.to also serves as a contact partner for employees who feel that they are being discriminated against as a result of their sexual orientation.

Flexible Mobility Budget for a Range of Needs

One attractive company benefit is the mobility budget that was introduced in 2014 and replaced the Company Car Policy. Eligible employees can now design their budgets individually by exchanging a company car for a smaller model and investing the money saved in other components that range from the German railroad's money-saving Bahncard to the company pension plan. This policy provides freedom of choice and promotes more sustainable mobility. Users of electric vehicles receive a bonus of 150 euros to supplement their mobility budget.