Employees and Diversity

As of December 31, 2017, the Group had 6,483 employees (previous year: 6,565), calculated on the basis of full-time equivalents. The number of full-time equivalents averaged 6,452 in the period under review (previous year: 6,054). The increase of 6.6% is mainly due to acquisitions and reflects the expansion of the Broadcasting German-speaking and Digital Ventures & Commerce segments (Fig. 048). In 2017, an average of 696 people (previous year: 570) were employed at ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the Group had an average of 5,335 full-time equivalents in the reporting period (previous year: 4,876) (Fig. 049). This equates to growth of 9.4% year-on-year and an 82.7% share of the Group’s total employees (previous year: 80.5%).

Due to the increased number of employees, personnel expenses reported in the cost of sales, selling expenses and administrative expenses also increased to EUR 660 million in the financial year 2017. This equates to growth of 7% or EUR 44 million compared to the previous year.

048 / Employees by Segment¹ average full-time equivalents, 2016 figures in parentheses

049 / Employees by Region average full-time equivalents, 2016 figures in parentheses

The average duration of employment increased year-on-year to 6.1 years (previous year: 5.5). The turnover rate in the Group was 12.8% in the financial year 2017 (previous year: 10.2%). These two key figures do not include the international investments in the Content Production & Global Sales segment.

For the calculation of the turnover rate is the number of former employees who left in in the reporting period divided by the number of employees at effective date. Reasons for leaving are cancellations or termination agreements. Resignations due to temporal limitations of employment contracts, end of apprenticeship, retirement or death are not considered.

Our employees are the key to our economic success. ProSiebenSat.1 thrives on the creativity of its staff, their fast pace of innovation, and their ability to adapt quickly to new media usage habits. For this reason, our corporate culture is characterized by constant willingness to change. It forms part of our self-conception as an employer to create personnel-related conditions that support this process and cater to the individual interests of our employees. Employee matters and diversity in the workforce are therefore among the material non-financial aspects. Managers who have an entrepreneurial spirit and encourage their employees to be innovative are also important for the Group’s development. To this end, new measures and concepts – such as leadership development, talent management, or employer branding – are presented on a regular basis in “HR Sounding Boards”. The results are submitted to the ProSiebenSat.1 Executive Board member responsible for Human Resources for decision-making and presented to the Executive Board as a whole before being implemented.

Talent management/education and training

ProSiebenSat.1 continuously trains qualified junior staff for the Group through various apprenticeships. With our management traineeships, trainee programs, Chamber of Commerce and Industry training, and dual study programs, talented young people have a range of options for joining our Company. We offer specialisms in IT, digital media, sales, marketing, finance, HR, project management, or editorial work. In this way, we create a strong foundation of well-trained junior staff with an extensive internal network and specific company and industry knowledge. In 2017, a total of 158 employees were supported by our Young Talents department; the majority of our graduates were retained upon completion (Fig. 050). Objective is to counter skills shortage on the labor market and to support the diversification strategy of ProSiebenSat.1 by adapting appropriate apprenticeship formats in our company.

050 / Proportion of Young Talents Taken on in %

Besides initial training for young employees, ongoing training is also a key element of ProSiebenSat.1’s HR strategy. We systematically plan the short-, medium-, and long-term development of our employees within the Group by means of our talent management. The control of employee development and the selection of appropriate measures is based on appraisal interviews. They are based on a target system that breaks down the overarching corporate targets into segment, department and individual targets and thus specifies them for employees and managers. Personal development goals can also be defined in these interviews. We thereby ensure that individual skills are encouraged in a targeted manner.

Furthermore, the ProSiebenSat.1 Academy, offers a wide-ranging portfolio of technical and personal training. In 2017, a total of 596 events (with 6,266 participants) were held in the Academy, including 60 manager training courses (with 568 participants). One focus area is digitalization, with content such as “Digital Economy”, “E-Commerce & Online Marketing” and “Lean Start-up for User Experience”. These training courses aim to ensure that employees understand digital trends and current technologies and can assess their effects on the media industry in order to develop new products and business models for ProSiebenSat.1. As in the previous year, ProSiebenSat.1 Group invested around EUR 3 million in its education and training programs in 2017. Part of this was attributable to the courses offered by the ProSiebenSat.1 Academy. In addition, there are programs such as mentoring and the “Lunch & Learn” events that have been held since 2010. With the job rotation program, ProSiebenSat.1 employees also have the opportunity to gather experience in other departments and apply this to their own field of work.

ProSiebenSat.1 needs managers who inspire people and create optimal conditions for their employees. To give managers guidance and support as to how the work of their teams can be optimally geared to the market requirements and how employees can be encouraged to innovate and think entrepreneurially, the Executive Board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE defined the P7S1 Leadership Values at the start of 2015. On this basis, we offer a systematic development program for managers that ranges from onboarding to training courses to 360° feedback in the P7S1 Center of Leadership.

Recruitment/employer branding

We set high standards for the development and training of our employees. The same applies to recruitment at ProSiebenSat.1. The central platform is the careers portal www.fascinating-people.com. Since December 2014, the online portal has been supplemented by the digital job recommendation program Talentry, which allows Group employees to recommend suitable individuals from their own networks for vacant positions. In many cases, they receive a bonus if the person they recommend is eventually hired. ProSiebenSat.1 also uses social media channels such as Xing and LinkedIn to address talented candidates. In 2017, around one-third of all applications were received via new sourcing channels such as employee recommendations, social media, direct contact, and university marketing. Group Recruiting recorded a total of around 29,000 applications.

With campaigns such as “Claim New Grounds” and “Connect.Code.Create”, we are also stepping up our efforts to address potential candidates with a digital or IT focus. Our employer branding concept aims to ensure the best possible candidate experience for all of our target groups on the personnel market. Besides application numbers also external rankings are an important indicator for our HR strategy success. Here it becomes evident that ProSiebenSat.1 Group is one of the most popular employers in Germany. (Fig. 051)

In 2017, ProSiebenSat.1 launched a new tool for employee surveys with “Pulse Check”, which aims to record the current mood within the Group, gather ideas for improvements, and quickly implement these in specific projects. The focus is on deriving measures for optimization and creating a work environment that promotes team spirit, creativity, and performance. The initial survey is to be followed by topic-specific Pulse Checks every six months. Another aspect is the net promoter score (NPS), which is surveyed using the new tool. This key figure is intended to provide an indication of employee satisfaction. External rankings also show ProSiebenSat.1’s attractiveness as an employer.

Work-life balance

Our works agreements aim to promote an appropriate work-life balance. This is supported by teleworking jobs, part-time work, and sabbatical models (Fig. 052). On January 1, 2015, we also introduced the FlexTime working hours model, which takes account of the increased requirements in day-to-day work, makes it easier to balance work, family and free time, and offers employees of ProSiebenSat.1 more flexibility overall when it comes to organizing their working hours.

052 / Proportion of Part-time Employees in %

At the same time, our staff benefits from several social security and fringe benefits. At the headquarters in Unterföhring, for example, we have been running an in-house daycare center for over ten years. We offer these services to all employees, regardless of whether they work part-time or full-time or are on a temporary contract. There is also a focus on health and sport. With an in-house restaurant, gym and company doctor at the corporate headquarters, we cover a wide range of work-life standards for modern employers.

Diversity management

Our corporate culture is characterized by openness and respect. ProSiebenSat.1 values the diversity of individual characteristics, talents, and skills that our employees contribute to the Company. We are convinced that diverse teams are better at solving complex tasks and understanding the different needs of our customers. Therefore, we regard diversity as an important success factor for our Company. In the financial year 2017, people from around 50 countries were employed at ProSiebenSat.1 in Germany, with 28 different nationalities represented in the workforce at ProSieben Sat.1 Media SE. The average age of ProSiebenSat.1 employees as of December 31, 2017 was 36.8 years.

We hire employees entirely on the basis of objective criteria at all hierarchy levels and promote staff based on their skills alone. Other factors – background and culture, age, gender, sexual orientation and identity, religious beliefs and ideology, or physical abilities – do not play any role here (Fig. 053). A balanced relationship of men and women at the Company and in management positions also contributes to diversity (Fig. 054) (Fig. 055). 49.0 percent of the employees in the Group were female in 2017, the share in ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE was 58.1 percent. 

For information on the percentage of women in the two management levels below the Executive Board at ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE and the corresponding targets, please refer to the Management Declaration. For disclosures regarding diversity on the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board, please refer to the Corporate Governance Report.

054 / Proportion of Men and Women in the Workforce in %

055 / Proportion of Men and Women in Management Positions in %

ProSiebenSat.1 Group signed the Diversity Charter back in 2014 and follows the guidelines specified in it. Thereby, we emphasize our commitment to creating a working environment free of prejudice and exclusion that specifically promotes diversity among employees. Employees can report discrimination or violations of other principles set out in ProSiebenSat.1’s Code of Conduct to contact persons such as the Chief Compliance Officer or works council members at the company without having to fear any ensuing disadvantage from this. In addition, we provide the workforce with mandatory training on the German General Act on Equal Treatment (AGG).