Staff Development

As of 31 December 2008, the Bechtle Group had a total of 4,405 employees in ten European countries. Compared to the prior year (4,250 employees), the number of employees increased by 155 or 3.6 per cent. On average, 4,288 employees worked for Bechtle during the reporting period. This represents an increase of 185 employees or 4.5 per cent over the prior year (4,103 employees). The increase in the number of employees in the group is the result of acquisitions and new recruitment.

By the end of the year, the workforce in Germany had increased to 3,169 employees. This figure is 4.4 per cent higher than that of the prior year (3,036 employees). The number of employees in other countries increased by 1.8 per cent from 1,214 to 1,236. All in all, 71.9 per cent of the employees work in Germany (prior year: 71.4 per cent), and 28.1 per cent are employed at the foreign companies (prior year: 28.6 per cent).

In terms of fields of activity, 863 employees of the entire group worked in administration, 101 more than in the prior year. The workforce went up by 18 to 2,121 employees in the service division and by 40 to 1,353 employees in the sales division. The increase in the administration division is mainly the result of the new management and organisation structure implemented in the reporting period, which necessitated the establishment of additional positions in view of the size of the company.

At the business segment level, IT system house & managed services experienced the greatest increase. As of the end of the year, 3,450 employees worked in this segment, compared to 3,303 in the prior year. The number of employees in the IT e-commerce segment amounted to 955 (prior year: 947). For the system houses, this corresponds to an increase of 4.5 per cent over 2007. In the IT e-commerce segment, the intensified new recruitment in the prior year was followed by a period of consolidation in the reporting year. The average age of the employees in Germany was 37.7 in the IT system house & managed services segment and 27.8 years in the IT e-commerce segment.