Reed Elsevier’s workforce is highly skilled and a large proportion are graduates. It includes some 5,000 IT specialists and developers, 8,000 editorial staff, and some 11,000 specialist marketing, sales and customer service staff.
In 2008, our workforce was 54% female, based on a sampling of greater than 85% of our key facilities, responsible for more than 75% of turnover. 46% of women are managers. Our senior management group comprised 16 nationalities, of which 21% are women, as are two members of the RE boards: Lisa Hook is a non-executive director of Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV and Dien de Boer-Kruyt is a non-executive director of Reed Elsevier NV.
We recognise employees of different ages contribute unique perspectives to our endeavours. In 2008, 20% of our employees were 30 years of age or younger, 62% were between 31 and 50 years of age, and 18% are 51 and older. Our oldest employee, at 86, is a senior columnist and the youngest, at 17, a research assistant.