Kesko's year 2007

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Kesko's year 2007
Kesko is a good
workplace
Kesko employees by gender, incl.
operations outside Finland, %
2.
●●1. Men 45.6%
●●2. Women 54.4%
1.
At the end of 2007, the aggregate number of
the Kesko Group personnel was 25,890, and
converted into full-time employees with joint
ventures included, the average total in 2007
was 21,180. Of these, 11,338 worked in Finland
and 9,842 in other countries. Kesko’s most
international division is still Rautakesko,
with 96% of its employees working abroad.
Kesko and its chain stores employ nearly
50,000 people in eight different countries.
In 2007, the basis of Kesko’s HR management
was revised and the HR policy and HR
principles were updated. The guide ’Our
Responsible Working Principles’ was published.
It contains two elements, namely the
Code of Conduct and day-to-day responsibility.
The manual implementation among personnel
was begun at the end of the year and
will be continued in 2008, complemented by
e-learning material for the countries in which
Kesko operates.
Aiming to be the most attractive
workplace in the trading sector
Kesko and the K-stores offer motivating and
rewarding jobs working with products and
services valued by customers. Kesko is a good
and responsible working community where
employees are treated on an equal and fair
basis.
In 2007, Kesko employed approximately
12,000 new people, including operations outside
Finland. 6,000 of them are permanent
and the rest work on a fixed term or seasonal
basis. Regional job induction days concentrating
on customer service were arranged for the
K-Group’s summer employees and were
attended by over 200 people in all.
In 2007, some 1,500 people transferred
internally to new jobs, including operations
outside Finland. Internal job rotation is
encouraged to promote diversified career
paths in the K-Group and various trading sector
duties. The efficiency of the K-Group’s
internal labour market coupled with the promotion
of controlled job rotation will continue
to be emphasized.
Kesko’s first K-trainee recruitment and
training programme was completed by 18
young trading sector professionals ready to
take on managerial and specialist duties. The
recruitment of recently graduated university
and polytechnic students for the next
K-trainee programme began in September.
There were more than 700 applicants of
whom 18 were admitted to the next programme
started in 2008.
Kesko also ranked high in employer profile
surveys in 2007. Among commercial students,
Kesko’s ranking in the list of ideal
employers improved from 42nd to 23rd. The
increase was even greater in the ranking by
young professionals with a university degree,
namely from 28th to 16th (Universum).
The most competent and motivated
people in the trading sector
Kesko and the K-stores offer their employees
competitive benefits and opportunities to
develop their competencies in a target oriented
manner. K-instituutti is the service
centre for the K-Group’s competence development.
In 2007, its training programmes were
attended by 22,100 people. Programmes relating
to the reform of the K-Plussa customer
loyalty system constituted the biggest single
programme in terms of the number of participants,
who totalled some 2,200 trading sector
professionals.
The responsibility for the implementation
of the Master Sales Assistant training, which
is Finland’s largest adult training programme,
was transferred from the K-Retailers’
Association to K-instituutti at the beginning
of 2007. The purpose was to increasingly
integrate the Master Sales Assistant training
in the staff development programmes. In
2007, there were over 15,000 participants in
12 different product lines. In addition, 6,000
students participated in the Master Sales
Assistant training in about one hundred business
colleges and polytechnics.
Customer and service competence was
the focal area in competence development
in every chain. For example, the Best Service
sales training in the Anttila and Kodin
Ykkönen department stores was attended
by some 2,000 employees during the year.
Management and leadership
At Kesko, management is conducted in a
responsible manner and in compliance with
the corporate values. One of the key tools in
efficient performance management and the
motivating leadership of immediate superiors
is the annual performance and development
review whose implementation is included in
the annual job satisfaction survey.