Sign language
An attractive corporate culture gets word of mouth – and is therefore often more effective than any advertising campaign. Six Bremen-based companies show how they are changing in order to retain specialist staff in the long term and attract new talent.
Up to 75 percent of all jobs are filled informally – many of them through recommendations, unsolicited applications, and word of mouth. However, people only recommend where they feel comfortable. The corporate culture is therefore an important figurehead in the competition for skilled workers.
This applies both to management positions and to the breadth of the workforce, as employees today can choose where they want to work at any level. How can you make positive changes to your own corporate culture?
Our 6 best-practice examples for new approaches in corporate culture:
1. Living part-time – Hellmann Worldwide and Mercedes Benz
Sharing jobs in management positions is nothing new, but is usually limited to office jobs. At the Mercedes-Benz plant in Bremen, Malte Meyer and Daniel Sommerfeld show that it is also possible in a production environment. The two successfully share a position as team leader in assembly hall 9 – and both have more time for their families as a result. At the same time, the company also benefits, as the two aspire to be more than the sum of their parts. They are setting a precedent in the Group and are considered a model example.
The situation is similar in logistics – also an industry with rather traditional management structures. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics is consciously breaking away from this and adopting new working time models. Change and Project Manager Airfreight Germany Sina Hertwig: “Good examples and role models are needed to make management positions more attractive for women – especially in part-time positions. It's up to us how attractively we exemplify our leadership role; we also see ourselves as role models.”
For her, there is no alternative to moving towards more flexibility: “If parents manage to go to work anyway thanks to flexible options, there is more manpower available.”
2. Transparency in salary structure – CE-CON
Employees are often expected to think entrepreneurially – without bearing entrepreneurial responsibility. However, the two go hand in hand, as CE-CON demonstrates. The certification service provider values participation and personal responsibility in its team of 30 coworkers. The team has opted for pay transparency. Everyone knows how much everyone else earns and why. This initially led to conflicts, but in the long term it increased satisfaction and promoted a deeper understanding of the organization.
3. Not hiring people based on their CV and promoting women – CVS Ingenieursgesellschaft
Nobody is perfect and people grow with their tasks. This is the motto of the IT service provider CVS Ingenieursgesellschaft. “When we decide on a person, we think about what skills are still missing and how we can train him or her further. For us as a company, it is important that the gut feeling is right and that the chemistry between the person in question and the team is right,” says HR developer Dorothee Pioner. The company values an open management culture, transparency, and family-friendly structures. It is also actively involved in networks that aim to increase the proportion of women in IT.
4. Redesigning communication – Wamoco
Diverse teams often achieve better results and their members come to Germany from all over the world. However, bringing together different nationalities, religions, and cultures in one company can also lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. This is why an open, targeted communication culture is key. Bremen-based e-commerce service provider Wamoco GmbH relies on “need-oriented communication” – everyone in the team can and should communicate what they need. This creates a common foundation that can then be used to discuss topics such as responsibility, goals, and work-life balance.
5. Question your own values – and redefine them – Deutsches Milchkontor DMK
What do we stand for as a company? This question cannot be answered from the top down. A company stands for what each and every employee takes home, to their friends and family. That is why it is important to involve employees in strategic processes, to develop a corporate culture together, and then, to set an example. This also works in large companies as demonstrated by Deutsche Milchkontor DMK with its 7,500 employees.
