Sharing in the company’s success

A fair share in material benefits is an integral part of our corporate culture. Profit participation was introduced back in 1970 to give employees a stake in their contribution to the company’s success.

This makes Bertelsmann a pioneer in employee profit participation in Germany. When Reinhard Mohn introduced profit participation at Bertelsmann he wished to strengthen employees’ motivation and their identification with the company with his idea of "participation and partaking.”

A transparent approach

At the suggestion of staff representatives, the existing concept was reworked and made more transparent in 2008. Employee profit participation is now based on the same performance index that determines the performance-based remuneration of management, the Bertelsmann Value Added (BVA). In other words: management bonuses and profit-participation payments always develop in the same direction. So when executives, managers and other top executives get paid high bonuses for a good year, the employees also receive high profit-participation payments - and conversely, in a weaker year, both payments are lower.

The profit participation payment consists of a company component, and a share of the Group’s global net income. The company component models stay very close to the business, in order to remain competitive in tailoring employee participation in the success of their respective companies and businesses. This focus on the company component makes it easier to understand the amount of profit participation. Employees can accept the profit participation payment in cash or have it paid into the Bertelsmann pension fund.

In June 2011, more than 20,000 employees at Bertelsmann’s German companies received profit participation to the tune of €24 million from the profits of the 2010 fiscal year. RTL Group, Gruner + Jahr, Prinovis and many Bertelsmann companies outside Germany have their own profit-participation models. In all, Bertelsmann and its companies paid out €118 million in profit participation – the highest sum ever distributed at Bertelsmann.