13 April 2016 Insurance

Talanx starts talks on substantial staff cuts

German insurer Talanx has confirmed that it is continuing its planned modernisation of its Retail Germany division, with the company’s management and group employee council starting talks on staff cuts.

“Constructively and with a great sense of responsibility we intend to develop a fair and socially responsible solution for the employees. We agree on the common goal to make sales in Germany more efficient, so that we can become more sustainably competitive and strengthen our business in the long term," said Dr Jan Wicke, chief executive officer of Talanx Deutschland who is and responsible for the Retail Germany Division within Talanx.

The company said that it aims to cut 330 full-time equivalents (FTEs) at HDI Vertriebs by 2020. The Retail Germany Division employs around 5,000 people, of whom around 1,000 work in HDI Vertriebs.

Talanx already held talks with the works council last November in order to cut 600 FTEs, predominantly in HDI Kundenservice likewise by 2020. The reduction of staff, along with organisational and IT-specific measures, aims to bring about a €240 million reduction in the cost basis of Retail Germany by 2020. In the same period, the Group will invest around €300 million in modernising the division.

"We will, however, also be improving our service for our sales partners, so that customers can receive more attractive offers and services from us. As part of this, we will shortly see the agent home pages, which will be rolled out further, as well as greater digital, and thus more direct, communication with our intermediaries/brokers," said Wolfgang Hanssmann, sales director in the Retail Germany Division.

"In the area of occupational pension insurance, we aim to strengthen bAVnet, in order to streamline even further the administration of contracts between HDI, sales partners and employers."

The company said that the planned measures are part of a comprehensive investment, growth and costs program in the German private and corporate customer business. The focus of all these measures is to significantly improve efficiency through consistent automation and digitisation of the business processes.

In addition, the traditional life insurance policies were largely replaced at the start of January 2016 with the modern classic policies. Furthermore, the sales of biometric products such as occupational and disability insurance will be stepped up, as will the focussed targeting of customer groups such as corporate customers and freelance professionals.

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