Electrolux 1998 Annual Report Download - page 67

Human resources
65
Electrolux Annual Report 1998
A company must be able to successfully
recruit and develop personnel, but must
also encourage and reward them.
While unemployment is on the rise
in many countries, companies find it
difficult to recruit suitably qualified
personnel. This is closely related to
increasing competition and greater
complexity and specialization in the
global economy. Continuously higher
levels of knowledge and skills is
required of personnel at all levels.
Skills must also be maintained and
developed continuously.
More diversity required
This situation applies especially to
managerial positions. Today, even a
company with operations in only one
country may find it difficult to recruit
properly qualified personnel. This task
is even more challenging for a global
organization such as Electrolux, with
companies in 60 countries and 90% of
employees outside Sweden. In this
situation, an international management
team of professionals with a diversity of
nations and cultures is required to
ensure successful operations worldwide.
A disproportionate ratio of our
executives currently hail from Sweden,
Italy and the United States, countries
where Electrolux has had a presence for
many years. Our relatively recent
entrance into China, India, South
America and Central and Eastern Europe
has not yet substantially affected the
composition of management. There are
still far too few women in leading
positions at Electrolux. And the age
spread at management level is uneven.
Top priority is therefore being
assigned to creating a management profile
that better reflects our geographical
spread, our personnel and our customer
base. A number of measures have already
been implemented to ensure quality,
diversity and an international orientation
among new employees. Other important
factors include exchanging personnel
between countries and business sectors,
and job rotation within and between line
and staff functions.
Methods have been developed to
measure the ability to retain recruited
personnel. The Group will be more
active in communicating with potential
employees in terms of describing the job
assignments and individual development
opportunities offered by Electrolux.
Open internal labor market
In 1998, the “Electrolux Open Labor
Market” was expanded. Established in
1997 to attract the most desirable
candidates for various positions, this
pilot project offers Electrolux
employees better access to career
opportunities within the Group.
The Electrolux Open Labor Market
enables all employees to be informed of
and apply for any vacancy in any of the
participating countries and business
areas, which helps to accelerate job
rotation and mobility between countries.
The Electrolux Open Labor Market
will be launched throughout the Group in
1999, and the goal is to make it the main
platform for internal promotion while
simultaneously attracting external
candidates on the Internet.
Electrolux University
Established in 1995, the Electrolux
University conducts programs in
leadership, strategic development,
project management and quality
control, among other subjects.
The primary mission of our central
development activities is to help create
a common Electrolux culture and a
common approach to how work should
be performed in practice within the
Group. In order to emphasize this
mission, training will be led to an
increasing degree by our own line
management.
The goal is for all our managers to
receive at least one week of training
each year.
The People Empowerment Process
(PEP) continued during 1998 within
white goods in Europe. PEP is aimed
at enabling employees to work toward
common goals, and comprises four
main phases:
•Individual planning sessions between
employees and managers, devoted
to evaluation, feedback and career
planning
•Team planning sessions for
enhancing group morale and
defining common goals
•Employee attitude surveys that
track perceptions of team spirit and
the workplace
•Reward programs that honor
specific efforts and results.
More than 60 units are participating in
the process, which is implemented
twice a year.
The goal is for PEP to provide a
better understanding of strategies and
objectives for the white-goods
operation, which will result in better
performance. The Group has also
developed a management training
program to support the implementation
of PEP. By year-end 1998, 150 managers
had participated in the program, which
will continue during 1999.
The PEP program