The importance of learning
Trainees at Rabobank Group
Employees satisfied with working at Rabobank
Breakdown of staff numbers at Rabobank Group
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25 Rabobank Group Annual Report 2005
The people at Rabobank
In 2005, 62% of staff at Rabobank Nederland and the local Rabobanks had
a PDP, against 72% in 2004. This reduction was due mainly to the imple
mentation of Performance Management, following which a distinction
was made between development activities with a 1-year planning
horizon and those with a horizon of 2-5 years. Due to the practicability
of the new material, an increase of the percentage of staff with a PDP is
expected for 2006.
In its training offer, Rabobank distinguishes between functional, career
oriented and leadership training courses. Over the past years, the
emphasis has shifted from pure knowledge transfer to improving the
quality of management and increasing the commercial effectiveness.
In the coming years, the Financial Services Act will determine which
knowledge should be available in client services. Rabobank is ready for
this new legislation.
In 2005, staff members attended 94,500 (90,000) training courses,
involving an amount of EUR 68.7 (69.0) million, equal to 2.6% (2.7%) of
the total wage bill.
Employees increasingly study via the Internet. After a spectacular growth
in 2004, the number of e-learners increased further in 2005. In all, 77,500
(55,000) training courses were offered via the Internet and 25,000
(34,000) digital exams were taken. Employees all over the world are now
using the e-learning programmes that were first developed by
Rabobank International in 2004.
Rabobank is keen to offer promising students traineeship opportunities
to experience how challenging working for Rabobank Group can be.
In 2005, 937 students were offered traineeship contracts at Rabobank
Group: 801 of them performed their traineeships at a local Rabobank
and the remaining 136 at Rabobank Nederland.
More than half of the trainees at an organisational level attend higher
vocational training (59% of the women and 50% of the men).
Looking at the traineeship contracts at Rabobank Nederland, the level
of education shows an upward shift to academic levels: 75% of the men
are in academic education, while for the women it is 56%.
Most trainees are indigenous; 13% are from ethnic minorities.
General satisfaction with working conditions was maintained at a high
level in 2005. The Periodic Identity and Working Conditions Opinion Poll
showed that 81% (2004: 85%) of all employees (fully) agreed with the
statement 'all things considered, I am satisfied to be working as an
employee at Rabobank'. Considering the many changes within
Rabobank Nederland and the tumultuous developments at the local
Rabobanks, this is a very pleasing result indeed. Rabobank's performance
on this aspect is significantly better than the external benchmark of 40
large enterprises (75%) and the benchmark of enterprises in the financial
sector (72%). High satisfaction with working conditions is also reflected
in the low absenteeism due to illness, which declined further in 2005,
from 3.8% to 3.7%.
More information on staff is to be found in the Annual Sustainability Report:
www.rabobankgroup.nl/sustainability
Netherlands
Abroad
Total 2005
Total 2004
Domestic retail banking
33,797
33,797
33,855
Wholesale banking and international retail banking
1,345
4,644
5,989
5,575
Asset management and investment
1,430
532
1,962
2,028
Leasing
891
2,252
3,143
2,844
Real estate
336
336
302
Insurance
5,823
Support units and Other
5,761
5,761
5,897
Rabobank Group 43,560 7,428 50,988 56,324
Absenteeism due to illness 3.7% 3.8%
Employee satisfaction 81.0% 85.0%
Training investments (EUR million) 68.7 69.0
