Employees

Number of staff

In comparison with the previous two years, the year 2011 was less hectic. The number of employees slightly decreased again, but not as significantly as in the previous two years. We again employed new staff, also in production. Almost half of new employments were related to transfers from subsidiaries, mostly from the Home Interior Division, which had some redundant workers because of the discontinuation of the bathroom programme. In accordance with our production needs, we mostly employed their workers.  

In 2011 the number of employees in the companies of the Home Appliances Division was adapted to the changing demand for our products and the strategy of moving production facilities to markets with low labour costs. The number of employees decreased in the parent company and in Gorenje I.P.C. (disablement company). The company Gorenje Tiki, Ljubljana was finally shut down in the middle of the year, while the number of employees in Gorenje Tiki in Serbia doubled. The number of employees in Gorenje Valjevo and in Mori, Czech Republic also decreased slightly. In September our new production company, Gorenje Home, began to operate in Serbia.

Due to the difficult market conditions, the number of employees in Asko and in the companies of the Home Interior Division decreased. Some employees from the latter were reemployed in the parent company and in Gorenje I.P.C., as the social security of our employees is of great significance for the attainment of our business goals. We have assessed that the relatively swift adaptation of the number of employees is crucial in circumstances of rapidly changing demand and the resulting fluctuations in production volume. To ensure high-quality and effective business operation, it is imperative that the Company has a strong core of well-educated, qualified and motivated employees.

The option of adapting the number of employees is feasible primarily in Serbia, because our companies there are young and a considerable number of employees are engaged for a fixed term. The situation is essentially different in production companies in Slovenia, where the majority of our employees have employment contracts for an indefinite period. It is more difficult to adapt the number of employees in periods of reduced demand for our products. We therefore welcome all efforts on the part of the state towards providing adequate legal conditions and changes in the social climate that would allow companies to more swiftly adapt their number of employees, and provide employees with more options for new employment through adequate programmes for acquiring new skills and additional training.

Staff structure by gender

The male-female ratio did not change in the last years and remained almost the same; 51 percent women and 49 percent men. In 2011, the situation was similar or the ratio of men to women was equal. In the last years, we paid more attention to the regulation of jobs in the production and we tried to unburden women and allocate men to individual jobs that are physically more demanding. Consequently, we observed a lack of male employees in the years when employment in the country was high and this is evident even today. Therefore, it will be necessary to devote more attention to this fact in future years and more men will have to be employed for production work.

Average age and occupational safety

The guide of each successful company is investments in employees, their health and well-being at work, and their social involvement. Although we cannot influence the majority of factors related to health and sickness, we at Gorenje have tried hard to create a healthy life style for individuals. In co-operation with the employees in other fields, production programmes, and in co-operation with doctors, we have performed several activities, both preventive and curative, as problems have arisen.

Absenteeism due to sick leave increased in the previous year. This trend has been present for a number of years, and is the consequence of the growing average age of employees due to the small percentage of new recruitments in the area of production. This also gives additional significance to the ergonomic design of workplaces, which ensures that employees are not exposed to inadequate workloads and environmental impacts. Employee health is preserved and, among other things, employees are able to perform their work at a high level of quality in later years as well. Projects for the ergonomic improvement of workplaces and working environments are conducted by interdisciplinary teams in the areas of production programmes, which also participate in planning and creating new workplaces and work procedures.

In 2011, the average age of employees was 42 years and 8 months. Due to an intensive reduction in the number of employees in the last two years when mostly older employees left the Company (retirement , waiting for retirement), the trend of a fast increase in the average age stopped in the year 2010, but in 2011 the average age went up again by 5 months. The women are on average a year older than the men. The average age of women is 43 years and 2 months and the average age of men is 41 years and 11 months.

The age structure reflects employment in the Company in the last years. Employment in the Company was most intensive 25 - 30 years ago and these employees now account for the majority of staff. We should be aware that these are mostly production workers who have performed mostly the same work for over twenty years, that is, work that is characterised by heavy burdens.

The absenteeism control team plays an important role since it co-ordinates work among production programmes, and proposes, transfers experience, draws up monthly reports on results, and takes care of the motivation of employees, i.e. by the organisation of trips for the most ambitious employees, such as a theatre performance visit, participation in lectures, preventive holidays and similar.

Occupational Safety

Precisely due to the significance of preserving and strengthening the health of employees, the Company organises preventive-recreational breaks for employees even in less favourable economic conditions. Their purpose is to promote the physical activities of employees, healthy nutrition, and responsibility for one's own health. This is also encouraged in the form of written contributions in the internal newspaper and leaflets promoting the protection and strengthening of health, methods of work, and similar.

Education

In past years our education structure has changed considerably, as the Company primarily hires employees with a high and medium-level professional education. This is due to the fact that in recent years the Company invested substantially in the modernisation of production processes which, among other things, also require higher employee qualifications.

The changing and spiralling demands of markets on one side and the prolonged active life of employees on the other call for the continuous upgrading of knowledge and skills throughout their entire working life. For this reason the permanent education and training of all employees is a necessity. Our employees may choose from various forms of education: off-the-job training for acquiring a higher level of formal professional education, courses, seminars and workshops for acquiring new professional skills, foreign language courses, introductory computer courses, and on-the-job training for the purpose of introducing new working procedures, products and devices.

The Company is focusing more and more on training employees for the performance of several different operations or tasks. This will increase the flexibility of employees, accelerate their adaptation to the changing demands of the work process, and have a positive effect on the preservation of their health. Changing work operations reduces the harmful effects of repeated loads. Employees who are trained for several different jobs also have a better understanding of the entire Group's operation and their own role in the Company. This strengthens their endeavours for higher quality of work and their allegiance to the Company.
In spite of the restrictive conditions, the training centre prepared an ambitious plan for the year 2011. Due to cost reduction we adjusted the number and contents of functional training courses. Special attention was paid to specialist training (the share of hours of specialist training amounted to 78.3 percent), the programme of human resource management and human resource work. We organised the Gorenje Manager Academy, the Academy for employees posted abroad, My team seminar, and training for mentors and instructors for trainees, students and secondary-school students during their obligatory in-company placement.

In the field of scholarships and off-the job training (calls for applications for scholarships and off-the-job training), the priority was given to the completion of formal education in technical fields (mechanical engineering, electrotechnology, mechatronics, etc.). In 2010, we organised 17 trainee programmes for the newly employed junior experts and trainees who started their first employment, and 32 programmes started in the year 2011. Seventeen programmes from the year 2010 and eight programmes from the year 2011 were successfully completed by the defence and presentation of trainee projects. 

Due to adequate, cost-efficient organisation of labour, optimisation of required contents, duration of training and participants in training 3301 employees were trained in the year 2011. They underwent training minimally once a year, which accounts for a 73.37 percent share of all employees. A year before, the share of employees who participated in training minimally once a year amounted to 67.95 percent, and 3,076 employees were trained. In 2010, the number of participants was 4,891, and 6,259 in the year 2011. In accordance with the established practice of many years, the major portion of training courses were organised outside working time since the work process does not allow the organisation of seminars and courses during working time.

In 2010, an employee was trained 18.63 hours on average, and in the year 2011 27.54 hours. Last year an employee included in a training scheme underwent a training of 27.54 hours, and in a year before 27.42 hours. A total of 123,890 hours were devoted to education and training of employees in 2011, and 84,338 hours were devoted in the year 2010.