Staff

The Gerling Group, which was acquired in 2006, was fully consolidated for the first time in the year under review. The number of staff employed by the Talanx Group on an annual average thus rose to 17,178 (translated into full-time positions this is equivalent to 15,989). If the Gerling companies had been included for the full financial year in 2006, the number of employees would have been 17,549 (or 16,576 full-time equivalents). The decrease of 371 staff only partially reflects the synergistic effects realized as part of the integration, since to some extent this was offset by enlargement of the workforce – especially at the companies abroad (Poland, Turkey) – and the acquisition of BHW Lebensversicherung AG.

The necessary manpower reductions in the Property/Casualty Primary Insurance and Financial Services segments as well as the Life Insurance Division were implemented in the most socially acceptable manner possible. Special use was made of partial retirement arrangements and termination agreements. Under the social compensation plan fair termination payments were agreed in cases where staff left the Group. Employees who wish or find themselves compelled to seek a professional reorientation are assisted by an employment and placement company. Yet the social compensation plan not only regulates compensation for employees leaving the Group, it is first and foremost aimed at keeping staff within the company and supporting their mobility. It therefore sets out arrangements governing the assumption of relocation expenses, double rent payments and broker’s fees, the payment of an "express relocation bonus" and the reimbursement of travel expenses. In Germany around 2,000 employees moved to a new working location for integration-related reasons, around two-thirds of them in the property/casualty sector (including in-town relocations due to the merger of branches).