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Employees

On March 31, 2008 ThyssenKrupp had 195,828 employees worldwide, a rise of 4,478 or 2.3% compared with the end of the previous fiscal year. The Services and Elevator segments in particular reported higher employee numbers due to business expansion. A large number of new jobs were created in the Steel segment as a result of the expansion of capacities in Brazil and the USA.

In Germany the headcount decreased by 1.6% to 83,660, mainly due to the disposal of parts of companies. Elsewhere, the number of employees increased by 5.5% to 112,168. At the end of March 2008, 57% of employees were based outside Germany, including 23% in the rest of Europe, 16% in the NAFTA region, 8% in South American and 10% in Asia, particularly in China and India, and the rest of the world.

In the first six months of the current fiscal year, ThyssenKrupp employees came up with over 100,000 ideas and suggestions for better products and production processes. The most important suggestion was made by a plant technician in the Steel segment, who proposed making changes to the roller hearth furnaces on the casting-rolling line in Duisburg. His idea will save over €2 million a year through energy savings and increased roller life. He received a major cash reward, the biggest ever paid for an improvement suggestion.

The ThyssenKrupp best Ideas Competition took place from October 01 to December 31, 2007 and the results are now available. Around 5,700 participants/teams submitted a total of 15,604 suggestions for improvements and projects. International participation was high: one in two ideas came from Group companies outside Germany. Participants could win 75 attractive main prizes, including five cars.