Employer attractiveness remains high

In the year under review, we were able to maintain our appeal as an employer at a high level, meaning that DB Group is still well on the way towards becoming a top em­­ployer. This is in line with our forecast from the 2017 Integrated Report.

In April 2017, we launched our new employer branding campaign. With our new campaign slogan “Welcome, you are one of us.” we issue an invitation to all potential applicants, who, similar to us, work on themselves and their goals and want to improve DB Group.

When recruiting new employees, we are increasingly addressing new target groups and using innovative formats, such as open candidate castings at passenger stations.

In May 2018, we moved our application management system to completely new software. Submitting an application is now much quicker, easier and more transparent, and candidates can also apply by smartphone and track the progress of their application online at any time.

In autumn 2018 we scrapped the covering letter, starting with trainees. The application letter is one of the greatest hurdles for applicants and provides little meaningful information: a résumé and personal interview are much more helpful when determining applicants’ skills and motivation. This step is based on the findings of the successful DB application marathon in November 2017, where the informal application process was particularly well received.

In the year under review, DB Group once again received multiple awards for its talent acquisition strategy. For example, its innovative Sourcing Automation was selected for the HR Excellence Award and declared “Innovation of the Year” by the Federal Association for Employer Branding (Bundesverband für Employer Branding, Personalmarketing und Recruiting; QUEB). Sourcing Automation analyzes data from all tenders in real time to optimize marketing measures, thus al­low­­ing the budget to be used more efficiently and effectively.