Human Resources

“We aim to establish a corporate culture that has two components: first, our employees’ performance orientation, i.e., the will to be among the very best. Second, the support required to become top performers: training, development, more personal responsibility and performance transparency. The objective is that, on the basis of an exchange of experience and best practice, the entire Group should always learn from the best.”

Wolfgang Haller, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, responsible at Managing Board level for Organisation, IT and Human Resources

After the bank’s successful integration and consolidation efforts of the last few years in both Austria and CEE, activities in 2004 focused on boosting profitability and efficiency. In line with Bank Austria Creditanstalt’s management approach geared to value creation, the desired business expansion and increase in income are to be achieved through higher productivity. For the Human Resources division this required a reduction in the cost/income ratio, in all areas of business and in all the regions, via staff costs. Secondly, this is directly linked to the realisation of our vision to develop a culture of excellence and empowerment throughout the entire Bank Austria Creditanstalt Group. Such a corporate culture is distinguished by a strong focus on performance, meaning that each employee delivers the highest quality and gives his very best, so that our claim of “excellence” is reflected throughout the company and becomes part of the bank’s corporate identity. On the other hand, both the organisation and the individual employee must be supported as much as possible as they strive to deliver the highest performance levels. The BA-CA Group achieves this at an individual level through training and personnel development, and at an organisational level primarily through best practice principles in the entire Group. The standard of performance expected from organisational units is the same as that expected from individual employees: identical standards apply consistently across the Group. This is the only way Bank Austria Creditanstalt can meet its cross-regional claim that it is a bank for the EU single market, and take advantage of the manifold ideas generated by its large core region.

In order to better realise these objectives with regard to personnel work at the bank, the Group Human Resources division has reorganised its activities. Each department, from HR Strategy & Policies, HR Controlling & Systems, HR Operations to HR Development & Training and Top Management Support, is not only responsible for Austria, but for the CEE region as well. We have thereby established the basis of a networked personnel management system throughout the Bank Austria Creditanstalt Group. We continue to place a strong emphasis on the personal exchange of ideas among personnel managers within the CEE network. Ideas are collected and evaluated. The resulting best practice will then serve as the basis for uniform guidelines and standards.