Thursday 2023-03-09

​​This was the first global employee survey conducted jointly with Faurecia: In November 2022, HELLA employees with an email address were invited to rate aspects such as job satisfaction, working conditions, further training opportunities or communication from their superiors. Dr. Lea Corzilius, who is responsible for human resources among other things in HELLA's management board, provides an overview of key results and findings.

​Ms. Corzilius, the participation rate of 80% was higher than ever before. In this respect, the global employee survey was a complete success, wasn't it?

​In fact, more employees took part in this survey than ever before; usually we are at around 70 percent. We were very pleased about this, because the more people who participate and give us feedback, the better we can draw conclusions and derive targeted measures. But even if 80 percent is a lot - that's almost 15,000 colleagues who gave us feedback - we have to take into account that we didn't survey a large part of our workforce this time: The colleagues without their own HELLA e-mail address from the plants. This was not possible this time for organizational reasons. However, we will be conducting the survey annually from now on, and this year - with a little more lead time - we will be able to invite all employees to take part in the survey.

​Please give us a short list: What are the core results of the survey for you?

​Let's start with the positive feedback: The employees are satisfied, they are proud to work for HELLA, they are convinced of the strategic goals and believe in the success of the company. This is particularly great in view of the turbulent market environment and shows that the foundation of our company is solid and has a promising future. Incidentally, we also score better than other companies on most of these points. But: We have also been made aware of a few weaknesses - some we were aware of, others were a surprise for us.

​If you look at these weaknesses: Which aspect will management need to address most urgently?

​Clearly the issue of care; this result was a shock to everyone in the management board: Only just under half of the respondents agreed with the statement that HELLA cares about its workforce. In Germany, Slovakia and Slovenia, we are only at around 30 and 40 percent respectively. That is alarming.

​Why did this result come about in your view?

​From my point of view, two things come together here. First: We certainly don't make our offerings, our employee benefits transparent enough. If I look at Germany, for example, where the issue of care was rated among the worst: Compared to other companies, we already offer a lot here, for example our childcare services, family service, elder care, bicycle leasing, laundry service, HELLA in Motion and much more [editor's note: an overview of all offers can be found on the intranet in the Local Services section]. In addition, there is our mobile working offer, which I would like to mention here because it is absolutely attractive compared to other companies: Employees are free to choose their place of work for up to 60 percent of their working hours. Not many companies offer this much freedom. HELLA is also very flexible when it comes to part-time offers. There are no predefined structures, e.g. fixed number of hours, as in other companies: With us, everyone can organize working part-time in the way she or he needs. On the other hand, and here we come to the second point: Of course, we see a great need for action, for example in the area of equipping office space and workplaces - especially at the Lippstadt site, our headquarters. But we also look at the topic of appreciation. My impression from many conversations is that the so-called extra mile, the very good performance has become a matter of course. Our employees rarely get to hear a thank you. We definitely have to get better there, too.

​How are the issues being addressed in concrete terms now?

Together with the managers, HR is in the middle of evaluating the results and is in the process of identifying specific pain points and corresponding countermeasures in the business groups, in the countries, at the individual sites. We don't want to lose too much time in the process. We will therefore soon be able to communicate the first improvements. Some things can be implemented quickly, for others we need more time. In any case, we want to be able to present the complete package of measures by the summer. Until then, we ask for a little patience.​