Personnel and social report

Number of employees increased

MLP is an innovative financial services provider. We systematically work on further developing our company’s culture of performance and trust, and support our employees in the development of their own personality. At MLP, staff should enjoy giving excellent performance, which in turn is rewarded by the company. In our personnel work in 2008, we therefore again paid great attention to ensuring that our employees have new professional opportunities and potential for further development – for example in the wealth management business segment, still a young core competency of MLP. We further expanded our internal training offer and employed new staff members. With a total workforce of 1,986 employees on December 31, 2008, the average number of employees in continuing operations was around 9 % higher than the previous year. Additional employees were recruited within the scope of our planning and due to the acquisition of the TPC-Group, as well as personnel expansion in sales and sales support. The majority of employees in 2008 worked in Germany for the financial services segment, 257 were employed by the Feri Group and 11 by the holding company.

Average number of employees

The modern working environment, a high level of staff focus through a diverse further training offer and a cooperative management culture geared to maximum performance make MLP an attractive employer. Our domestic employee turnover rate in the last year was therefore again predominantly determined by those taking parental leave. We were also once again pleased to be presented with the “Top Employer 2008” award by the magazine “Karriere” and the market research company “CRI” in 2008. As we have now won this award twice in a row, we assume that it has increased awareness of our company as an interesting employer among the target group of students, graduates and young professionals.

We create a familyfriendly culture

MLP considers its personnel policy an important strategic key for corporate success. We therefore employ great care in selecting high performance personnel and keeping them loyal to our company. In 2008 the following two questions formed the main focus of personnel work:

• How can an employer help his employees combine career and family?
• How can an employer acquire and keep high performance and reliable employees?

As 55 % of the workforce at MLP at the company HQ in the reporting period were women and the average age of our employees is 36, we worked hard in 2008 to further improve MLP’s profile as a family-friendly company.

Age structure of MLP staff 2008

Some successful examples of our family-oriented offers in 2008 include:

• Day care and kindergarten places: With the MLP family concept, employees at the company HQ were able to take advantage of subsidised day care and kindergarten places for their young children. In cooperation with an owner of day care centres and kindergartens, places for children up to six years of age were provided near to the campus. The employer’s contribution to the childcare costs was 50 %.
• Summer camp for children of school age: Mothers and fathers of school age children were offered another chance to keep their children busy all day during the holidays at a summer camp. The holiday camp had proved popular among MLP employees in 2007 and was even more in demand last year. 17 MLP employees sent their children off to summer camp in 2008.
• Free-of-charge counselling service: Employees could also get free advice on all questions of how to look after family members in need of care and on how to find day-care centres.

Health protection

In addition to these offers, a large number of campaigns, seminars, workshops, lectures and consulting sessions were held on and around the topic of health protection last year. A new fitness room also opened on the MLP campus. Checkups were also offered within the scope of the first “MLP Health Week” in October 2008 in cooperation with company doctors and regional healthcare providers. These were accompanied by health workshops on relevant topics such as “life in balance” or nutritional issues.

For acute emergencies, MLP employees received fast and professional support from staff at the outpatient clinic of the University of Heidelberg – all of whom, of course, treated all issues in confidence. Support for our employees in acute family or partnership crisis situations was always fast, anonymous, confidential and free of charge. As the employer, MLP paid the costs for the first five meetings with a qualified psychotherapist.

Flexitime working models

It is the view of the HR management team at MLP that individual flexitime working models are closely linked to the “family friendliness” of an employer. The HR department is always open to individual working hours agreements that fit the respective lifestyle of employees. Last year, we therefore once again agreed individual working hours agreements with our employees. These also included home-office working and job sharing agreements. 41 employees gave birth to a child last year and took maternity leave, while a total of 66 women and 4 men took parental leave.

In our opinion, the openness of the HR department to individual working hours models and parental leave for both sexes has a positive effect on staff motivation. Particularly for the younger generation, an employer that seeks partnership with its staff is always an attractive employer.

Alongside this, the salary structure also has an influence on employee motivation. We support a culture of excellence at MLP through performance-linked remuneration components. Managers also have the option to reward the performance of individual staff members with special payments or bonuses.

Occupational pension provision more attractive

As a company whose core competency is old-age provision, in 2008 we again ensured that our employees keep an eye on their own old-age provision and further improved our offers in this field. Since 2008, those working for MLP in Germany have had access to a broader range of occupational pension provision products. Instead of just four, employees can now choose from seven old-age provision products for their occupational pension provision. MLP considers occupational pension provision an important constituent of social contributions for MLP employees.

Last summer the second stage of the provident fund for MLP employees was also launched. As such, the amount contributed to the company pension of employees from Group funds was again increased. The fact that branch managers also get pension promises from the company is pretty unique in this sector.

Personnel marketing strengthened

Like all companies operating in the financial services market, MLP also views finding and keeping new consultants as a key challenge. Here, the company relies very heavily on the multiplication role of its staff and directly addressing potential candidates.

As such, MLP attaches great value to winning new junior consultants. For the selection process, we use varied tools from the most diverse staff classification and selection instruments, from individual addressing right up to assessment centres.

Consultant recruiting

Last year, representatives of the HR department again attended job fairs with information booths, such as the “Absolventenkongress” graduate fair in Cologne and “Talents 2008” in Hamburg and Munich. A range of information evenings for recruiting consultants were also organised and held. In keeping with the motto of “Experience MLP”, MLP’s HR management team organised numerous information events in various German cities. In an evening event entitled “Banker\@MLP - an evening you will benefit from”, we addressed professionals in the banking sector that prefer to exchange information and experience with our managers in small groups. The regional round table events organised by the MLP branchs had a similar structure. In a relaxed yet professional atmosphere, branch managers offered local information on MLP and the career prospects at their branches.

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