MittelstandsWiki

Virtually all German companies (98%) are by now connected to the internet. At the same time also smaller companies, which three years ago were still lagging behind, have caught up with bigger companies in this respect. In addition, an always growing number of employees have internet access at their places of work: while at the end of 2004 their percentage amounted to 48%, it has increased to 54% by now. The electronic data processing industry, telecommunications companies, the providers of technical services as well as banks and insurance companies are the forerunners in this respect. +++

The number of non-remunerated overtime hours worked by specialists and executives in Germany is falling. This is the result of an international survey conducted by the StepStone online job market, in which 9880 German executives and specialist took part. The study showed that for 79% of interviewees overtime hours are still a part of their everyday working life, but these hours are increasingly remunerated. Thus, the number of overtime hours not remunerated has fallen by 8% over the past two years. +++

The global »Global Security Studie« study carried out by Deloitte on the security situation in the international financial industry revealed that almost half of all respondents stated the risk awareness of employees to be the most decisive security factor. However, it turned out that there is a gap between the awareness of the problems by individual business divisions and a corresponding corporate strategy. +++

The Institute for Labour and Technology (IAT) at the university of applied sciences in Gelsenkirchen is currently dealing with e-learning in small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). The usage of e-learning might help SMEs to increase their competitiveness on the European market. However, so far e-learning is hardly made use of by SMEs. How is it possible to support SMEs, which quite often have only little knowledge and resources in this field, with the introduction of e-learning? +++