General review Personnel Personnel policy within the Group has largely been decentralized. Heineken operates in a large number of countries, each with its own culture and labour laws. The various operating companies are responsible for shaping their own personnel policy. The part of our personnel policy conducted at central level focuses on recruiting, training and re taining international managers at the senior management level. The tight conditions on the labour market necessitated an increase in our efforts in this respect. Knowledge management is a major prerequisite for improvement and innovation. Unlocking and making optimum use of new knowledge and knowledge already available is crucial to this. Our train ing structure, the Heineken University, plays an important part in developing knowledge manage ment. In 2000 the average number of employees amounted to 37,857 compared with 36,733 in the pre ceding year. The increase is the result of on the one hand an increase due to acquisitions and on the other hand a decrease caused by an improvement in efficiency. The acquisition of Cruzcampo in Spain accounted for the biggest increase in the number of employees. In Europe the work force increased as a result of acquisitions by the wholesale organizations of Italy, Switzerland and Poland. At the same time the number of employees declined as a result of improved efficiency in various countries, among them France and Italy. Geographical breakdown of personnel in numbers HEINEKEN N V. ANNUAL REPORT 2000 21

Jaarverslagen en Personeelsbladen Heineken

Jaarverslagen | 2000 | | pagina 31