OREANDA-NEWS. May 28, 2012. E.ON presented its proposal for the future structure of its HR and Accounting functions to the Economic Committee of the E.ON Group Works Council. The proposal is part of the company’s ongoing E.ON 2.0 efficiency program. Under the proposal, similar functions across the E.ON Group will be centralized in shared service units known as Business Service Centers. This will yield significant cost reductions, result in greater process standardization, optimize the use of institutional knowledge, and lead to uniformly high standards of quality across all companies in the E.ON Group.

The proposed Business Service Centers (BSCs) will employ around 1,100 people. Following extensive analysis, E.ON prefers two BSC locations: the German capital Berlin and the Romanian city of Cluj. As Germany’s largest university city, Berlin offers excellent infrastructure, while, Cluj, also a university city of considerable standing, offers good transport infrastructure and the advantages of low business operating costs and costs of living. Both cities are already home to similar service centers operated by other major companies.

Under the proposal, the Berlin location will have about 500 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions specializing primarily in HR services, while the Cluj location will have 600 FTEs providing mainly Accounting services. E.ON is currently looking into the specific arrangements for both locations.

About 1,400 employees will continue to work in HR and Accounting functions in E.ON’s existing steering, operating and support units. Their job will be to ensure a smooth interface between their respective units and the Group’s Business Service Centers.

It is anticipated that the proposed measures will be fully implemented by 2015. By systematically bundling functions and harnessing synergies across the entire Group in this way, E.ON will lose around 1,200 FTEs in HR and Accounting. This figure forms part of the 11,000 total envisaged by the E.ON 2.0 efficiency program.

Marcus Schenck, the E.ON AG Board of Management member in charge of the Business Service Center project: “The HR and Accounting services restructuring proposal represents another milestone in the implementation of our E.ON 2.0 efficiency program which is integral to E.ON’s ability to compete and make necessary investments. We will now do everything we can to work out the details of the proposal in partnership with our employee representatives and to put in place the agreements necessary for a speedy and responsible implementation.”