Employees
Richemont’s 24 700 people (full time equivalents (`FTE´)) around the world at the year-end are instrumental to the success of the business. Through our suppliers and business partners, we also provide employment opportunities for many more.
Our employees work in three main areas:
- Maisons – headquarters, from creation, marketing and communications to product development, Maison-related manufacturing, retail and distribution;
- Component manufacturing and regional shared services – business services provided to the Maisons both in terms of Group component manufacturing services and services provided in the regions including logistics, customer service, finance and human resources;
- Central functions – head office functions including marketing services, finance, operations, IT, real estate, legal and human resources.
Our long-standing strategic priorities are:
- Performance management;
- Health, safety and well-being;
- Training and development;
- Consulting and communicating with employees;
- Diversity and equal opportunities.
The last three years have seen sales growth in most markets and an increase in the number of people employed by the Group. Globally, the average number of FTEs over the three-year period has risen from 19 571 (2008/9) to 24 609 (2011/12), an increase of 26 %. Given the unstable economic environment during the year under review, particularly in Western Europe and the USA, the Group took a prudent approach to hiring. This approach was aimed at avoiding a repetition of short-time working practices, which were adopted in certain Swiss manufacturing businesses in 2009/10.
Local hiring forms part of the Group’s strategic approach and is acted upon whenever feasible. Our manufacturing operations are concentrated in Switzerland, France and Germany whereas our retail activities are spread worldwide. Accordingly, the great majority of the Group’s employees were hired locally.
At the same time, the Group’s size, diversity and geographic spread allows employees to develop careers across a variety of positions and international locations: internal promotion is favoured over external recruitment in most cases. This also applies to senior management positions at significant operations.
Key performance data
Detailed below is a split of our total workforce by employee type, by geographical region and by employment contract.
Europe includes the Middle East Africa.
