Employer attractiveness lower

In the year under review, we recorded a decline in the employer rankings. The poorer performance in applicants is attributable to the sometimes critical public discussion about the quality and punctuality of DB Group. However, the year under review was a successful year from the recruiting point of view. Strong employer branding and effective recruiting ensure that we are still perceived as an attractive employer even in a tense labor market and can hire the necessary employees to operate our business successfully and also to ensure its robustness in the long term.

In the year under review, the requirements for new em­ployees were once again particularly high. At Kiel, Bremen, Dortmund, Cologne, Koblenz and Saarbrucken, six further locations with talent acquisition teams were opened. In addition, regional staff marketing teams were set up in all regions and new recruiters were sought at all locations. We have thus further thoroughly regionalized the talent acquisition organization and aligned it with the needs of local labor markets.

Numerous campaigns were carried out for all relevant target groups. In particular, the focus was on the specialist professions that are in high demand. The current employer branding campaign “Welcome, you are one of us.” was specifically developed for the respective channels.

We continued to focus on innovation in addressing our target groups. With the DB Job Tour, we have implemented a modern recruiting style. Over seven weeks we were out and about at 27 locations in seven recruiting regions in Germany. The DB Job Tour was not only a particularly candidate-­­oriented format, but also received wide and positive media attention.

In the year under review, further digital tools were introduced or further developed as a basis for modern recruitment. Our global recruiting software in Germany is the basis for our career site and cross-­­border cooperation in talent acquisition, and optimizes the applicant experience. Our career site has also been revised. A chatbot now answers basic questions from applicants. With new job ad formats, such as the podcast IT@DB, selected target groups are being approached in an innovative way.

Since November 2019, a digital portal has been available to newcomers in DB Group. The new platform connects seamlessly to the recruiting career portal. This will provide new employees with information about DB Group and the business unit they are entering into before their first day of work. The purpose of the platform is to ensure that the transition from recruiting, through the hiring process right through to arriving at the company is seamless.

In the year under review, our talent acquisition staff received important industry awards. These included two Trendence Awards for greatest image enhancement over 20 years and the best employer branding campaign for skilled employees, the German Award for Online Communication in the Recruiting&Employer Branding category, the Digital Communication Award in the Microsite category and the HR Excellence Award for Active Sourcing.