The hard work, expertise and commitment of the workforce are essential to our commercial success. We therefore place high priority on initial and further training, and use motivation-enhancing, performance-based pay structures, with performance assessment that is standardised Group-wide. These are linked to human resources development activities specially tailored for each employee target group. The increasing internationalisation of our business and the growing demands on management increase the need for highly qualified young talent. We identify and promote outstanding managerial talent on an ongoing basis, amongst other things in connection with Berufsakademien (German universities of co-operative education) and the Group’s own university. International education opportunities and challenging career openings make the Group highly attractive, enabling us to hold our own in the competition for highly qualified specialists and managers as well as to actively counter the risks associated with workforce fluctuation, demographic developments and loss of expertise.

Liberalisation of the German mail market may pose further personnel risks. If despite all efforts Deutsche Post AG suffers substantial losses in market share, jobs may come under threat within the Group.