After the bank’s successful integration efforts of the last few years, the activities of Human Resources in Austria in 2003 focused on further reducing staffing levels and cutting costs in a consistent manner (see also “Cost Management” on pages 128 to 130), as steady gains are achieved in productivity. These goals were realised in two ways: firstly, by not replacing employees who either left the bank or went into retirement, and through the selective employment of socially acceptable instruments to adjust staffing levels to the bank’s requirements (e.g. special part-time arrangement for older employees, and early retirement), and secondly by always ensuring a sufficient supply of personnel, selective training and employee loyalty.

The work of Human Resources in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was in 2003 again targeted at improving economic efficiency and cutting costs. The challenges for the Human Resources division were to reduce personnel expenses in the entire region while increasing staffing levels in defined growth markets on a selective basis.

The reduction of an additional 1,460 or so employees through integration projects in Poland, Bulgaria and Croatia lowered the bank’s personnel expenses in CEE. These integration and reorganisation projects were accompanied by change management measures.

An example of particularly successful teamwork is the cooperation between Bulgaria’s Biochim and Bank Austria Creditanstalt in Austria. Under the motto “best of both worlds”, expertise from Austria was used and adapted to meet local needs. In order to ensure that the employees of Biochim could continue to devote all their energy to the bank’s operations and to meeting customer needs they were provided with comprehensive information to prepare them for the changes.

The following measures were initiated with a view to further strengthening the cooperation and interaction of personnel managers within the CEE network: uniform standards and guidelines were established for the goup-wide activities of Human Resources, and more emphasis was placed on the exchange of ideas through regular Human Resources conferences and meetings of training managers, as well as on exchange visits to broaden the professional experience of employees.