Since the coronavirus pandemic began, many employees have been working from home, some permanently and some occasionally. How do you see this development, also with a view to the future?
This is a challenging, complex and, above all, global issue. Since 7,000 of our more than 11,000 employees do not work in Germany, it is very important to coordinate with the many countries in which we operate. In Germany, the situation looks like this: Two-thirds of all employees at the headquarters in Holzminden, as well as in Braunschweig and Nördlingen, have to be on site every day – mainly employees in production or in the laboratory. Here, as at our production sites around the world, it is important to strike a balance between working from home or remotely and working in our offices, laboratories and production facilities. We don’t want to create what might seem like a “two-tier society.” Here, we need solutions for the Group overall. It is also important that personal contact between a manager and their team, or among team members and with other departments, not get lost as a result of working from home. Personal conversations, seeing colleagues face-to-face, chatting about news and developments are very important for building and maintaining personal ties. The last few years of the pandemic have shown that “alienation” can also lead employees to feel that they are replacable in their work for a company. That’s why we are working to develop a solution that allows us to bring all these aspects together.
What issues are important to you for the coming years up to 2030?
Particularly in the Western European countries of the EU and especially Germany, we need to actively address the demographic shift – both now and in the coming years. How can we counter the extreme labor and executive shortages that will occur as entire generations retire? In all countries of the world, we have to ask ourselves how we can remain attractive as an employer – even as we compete with other companies. We want to show what makes us unique. In addition to appropriate pay, this includes a fair and constructive corporate culture, exciting tasks and opportunities for development, and having a good reputation as a company. Which is why we were delighted to be ranked among Germany’s best employers in 2021 in a nationwide survey of the population conducted by the rating and ranking agency ServiceValue in cooperation with the well-known newspaper WELT. We want to continue to foster a lively spirit of cooperation and diversity. And last but not least, to achieve parity between genders and many nationalities in our global leadership positions. My hope is that by 2030 this won’t be much of a talking point anymore because it has become part of the standard way we do business.