Recruiting, Education and Training
Our corporate culture is characterized by an unfaltering willingness to change. We help employees acquire new knowledge and skills throughout their professional lives and regardless of their place in the hierarchy. In the past financial year, ProSiebenSat.1 Group invested EUR 3.3 million in education and training programs (previous year: EUR 3.6 million). The majority of the budget is allocated to the ProSiebenSat.1 Academy as a central provider of training courses. [G4-LA10]
There were 558 events at the Academy in 2016 (previous year: 750 events), with 5,963 participants (previous year: 6,945 participants). The various seminars on professional and personal development are derived from the corporate strategy and aligned to the qualification requirements of ProSiebenSat.1 employees. Digital issues such as “Digital Economy,” “E-Commerce & Online Marketing” and “Lean Start-up for User Experience” are therefore a priority. The objective of this training is that employees understand digital megatrends and the latest technologies and that they estimate the importance for our industry, in order to develop new products and business models. Moreover, there is mandatory e-learning training for every employee with regard to “Compliance,” “Data Protection”, and “Antitrust Law.” In addition, we offer special training for ProSiebenSat.1 employees with journalistic roles in editorial teams. These are also obligatory and cover the subjects “Compliance,” “Media Law” and “Youth Protection.” [G4-LA9]
As a media company, ProSiebenSat.1 is a people business. For this reason, we need managers who inspire and persuade people. They must be able to encourage employees to innovate, think in an entrepreneurial manner, and make decisions quickly. ProSiebenSat.1 Group has therefore established a development program that every new manager participates in. This entails the “New Leader,” “Performance,” “Team,” “Self-Management,” and “Digital Leader” modules. In 2016, a total of 370 managers took part in the development offers (previous year: 451). In addition, we have defined “leadership values & behaviors”: They help managers strengthen teams’ performance culture and adequately support employees. At the same time, these behavior standards shall ensure that all managers share a common understanding of a good style of communication.
It is crucial for our success that our various business areas cooperate closely. The same applies to managers and employees: As TV and the Internet are increasingly merging, we need experts who understand both TV and our digital business areas and have interdisciplinary knowledge. We have therefore developed events such as “Lunch & Learn.” These Academy events are an important platform for learning from colleagues. In addition, internal qualification programs such as job rotations are tools for creating learning experiences and bringing together employees from different areas. Against this backdrop, ProSiebenSat.1 also intends to build a new campus at the headquarters in Unterföhring, which some of our workforce will move to. Our aim is to create a modern campus with open structures that promotes cooperation beyond the confines of departments and hierarchies. [G4-LA10]
The business areas in which ProSiebenSat.1 operates are evolving dynamically. The Group therefore continuously grooms qualified junior staff through various apprenticeships that are tailored specifically to the Group’s requirements. These include management trainees, trainees, and apprentices. This will allow us to counter a skills shortage in our Group. In 2016, ProSiebenSat.1 in Germany hired a total of 42 apprentices (previous year: 24), 59 management trainees (previous year: 53) and 70 trainees (previous year: 65).
We set high standards for the development and training of our employees. The same applies to recruiting. We pursue various recruiting approaches when selecting new, talented employees. The central recruiting platform is the career portal. Since 2014, the online portal has been supplemented by the digital job recommendation program Talentry. This turns employees themselves into recruiters: They are able to recommend appropriate candidates for vacancies and receive a bonus if the recommendation is a success. Additionally, ProSiebenSat.1 uses social media channels such as Xing and LinkedIn to approach talented individuals. In total, the number of applications in Germany rose to 41,800 in 2016 (previous year: 37,700). This reflects our attractiveness as an employer. Positions in employer rankings are a second key external tool for measuring the success of our HR strategy. ProSiebenSat.1 is one of the most popular employers in Germany. This was also the case last year, as shown by various rankings.