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The Group Human resources
Kesko and the K-stores offer motivating and rewarding jobs with products and services valued by customers. Kesko is a good and responsible working community where employees are treated equally and fairly.
At the end of 2009, the total number of Kesko personnel was 22,220 in eight different countries. Kesko’s most international division is Rautakesko, with 95.6% of its 8,789 employees working outside Finland. In all, Kesko and its chains’ retailer entrepreneurs employ some 45,000 people. Kesko’s strengths include providing an opportunity for versatile internal job rotation and career development. During 2009, some 2,000 people moved to new jobs within the Kesko Group.
Commercial students are interested in Kesko and its chains as a workplace. In the Universum survey, those with an initial vocational education ranked Kesko 6th, just like in the previous year. In the 2009 Universum Young Professionals survey, Kesko was rated on top among one hundred companies, offering the widest variety of assignments. Kesko’s overall ranking in the survey was 18.
Kesko carries out close cooperation with students and teachers in different sectors. For example, the job-orientation of Finnish teachers of commercial and technical subjects is promoted in trainings arranged by Kesko. Trainings will be revised in 2010.
Key competitive assets for Kesko’s and its stores’ operations and for improvement in work productivity include systematic development of staff competence.
Kesko’s subsidiary K-instituutti acts as a centralised planning, implementation and purchasing organisation of the K-Group’s training services. Its key duties include ensuring competence development in the K-Group with the best price-quality relation. The competence development solutions which support business activities are planned in cooperation with business units and implemented in cooperation with the selected and audited network of training partners. The role of K-instituutti also includes the fast and efficient duplicating and sharing of the best practices within the K-Group.
In 2009, the Master Sales Assistant training had more than 17,000 participants in 12 different product lines. The aim is, above all, continuous enhancement of sales people’s service attitude, sales skills and product knowledge in cooperation with suppliers. More than 100 business colleges and polytechnics also implemented the training, in which some 5,000 students participated.
Some 99% (the target is 100%) of the checkout personnel and their supervisors selling age-restricted products in K-food stores completed the proficiency test in 2009. The test includes questions about the sale of age-restricted products.
At Kesko, management is conducted in a responsible manner and in compliance with the corporate values. Leadership and the working community that are motivating and encouraging are prerequisites for excellent performance and wellbeing at work.
The annual personnel survey plays a key role in measuring the operations of the working community, the quality of management and the internal employer profile. A similar survey is conducted throughout Kesko and its chain stores. In 2009, replies were received from 72.3% of the employees of the companies included in the survey. Active leverage of survey results in managerial work and the efficient implementation of concrete development activities are of essential importance.
The personnel survey also looks into employees’ experience of equality in terms of age, origin and gender. Equality was considered to be good in every area surveyed.
One of the key tools in efficient performance management and the motivating leadership of immediate superiors is the performance and development review whose implementation is included in the personnel survey. 72% of the employees have had a performance and development review during the past year, and rated their satisfaction with the review as 4.0 (on a scale of 1–5). Furthermore, the performance assessment of the entire Group’s key personnel was further expanded in the companies.
Leadership skills and career progress are supported by Kesko’s own three-step superior and management training. Since 2004, Kesko has implemented a long-term development programme for members of the management and potential management. There are some 200 participants in the programme, whose purpose is to ensure a sufficient supply of managerial resources both in terms of quality and quantity. In 2009, key employees participated in the training supporting the implementation of the work and productivity programme.
Common training is complemented by the chain’s own training programmes. The building and home improvement sector’s Master programme in international retail management started in 2009 with the purpose of standardising the implementation of the sector’s concepts in all the countries where the Group operates. In Anttila and Kodin Ykkönen department stores, 190 managers participated in store-specific HR training. The aim was to increase general competence in personnel and employment issues, while specifying and improving the efficiency of implementing HR processes at everyday level.
The key objective of the ongoing work and productivity programme is to improve the employees’ work productivity, for example by focusing on the competence and wellbeing of people and on better leadership. The programme focuses on the development of sales and customer service skills, projects that promote wellbeing at work, efficient management of working hours and adapting the number of personnel to the current market situation. The programme also involves measures related to increasing electronic communications. The work and productivity programme applies to all of Kesko and its chain stores.
As a result of the decline in consumer demand, measures aimed at adjusting the number and cost of staff were continued. During the year, the Group’s staff cost decreased by 7.4%.
Labour productivity has also improved thanks to the adoption of different working hour models and the systematic management of working hours. For example, K-food stores carried out an extensive project, the aim of which was improving the planning of working hours, increasing the use of planning programmes and the electronic transfer of related information to the payroll accounting unit.
Long-term projects focusing on wellbeing at work will continue in companies. The introduction of the intervention model has further expanded during the year. The aim is to increase labour productivity by reducing sickness absences and raising the retirement age. A uniform sickness absence monitoring and reporting model was introduced at the beginning of 2009. All companies prepared a concrete action plan with the aim of reducing sickness absences.
In Finland, Kesko’s Occupational Health Service Unit focuses on operations that maintain work capacity and promote the wellbeing of the working community. Currently 35–45% of the total costs of occupational health are allocated to these activities. In other countries, occupational health services have been arranged according to the local practice and legislation. Support for personnel’s recreational activities is provided through joint staff clubs and in the form of company-specific contribution.
Most of Kesko’s employees belong to a bonus incentive system. The management’s incentive systems are described on page Corporate Gogernance.
Kesko’s internal communications became more efficient with the introduction of the new intranet in all operating countries in 2009.
Information about HR affairs will also be available in the Corporate Responsibility Report for 2009
The Volkswagen Retail Sales Excellence (RSE) is a sales management training programme for sales managers in Finland. The aim of the programme is to improve sales profitability with the help of tools supporting the training of sales people and the sales process. The RSE programme started in VV-Auto’s own Volkswagen outlets in 2009 and will be expanded to cover all Volkswagen dealers in Finland.
In the 2009 Universum Young Professionals survey, Kesko was rated top among one hundred companies, offering the widest variety of assignments. Respondents comprised approximately 6,000 young business, engineering and IT professionals.
Michaela von Wendt, Universum’s Country Manager for Finland says that Kesko has succeeded in communicating the variety of career alternatives and opportunities it offers to young professionals and students.
