Mrs. Zajic, which vacancies have been particularly challenging for you recently?
Specialists in the field of electrical engineering and software, both at technician/master level and at engineering and project management level, are currently in the greatest demand. One major challenge is the high level of willingness to travel, which we require in addition to broad and in-depth specialist knowledge for our global service, as we support our international customers on site.
What new ways of recruiting are you using?
In addition to traditional job advertisements, direct approaches and recruitment agencies, we are working above all on increasing our visibility in the region, but also beyond the borders of Saxony and Germany. In addition to traditional radio and poster campaigns, we use social media and mobile recruiting. Here we can specifically integrate moving images, such as our newly produced video spot for our apprenticeships. In the future, networking in interest groups will become increasingly important in order to attract skilled workers to the regions in demand and keep them there. This will require the efforts of all employers in the region, as well as those of politics, culture and society.
Compared to five years ago, how much has the effort required to fill each vacancy increased?
We generally fill our vacancies successfully, even if it sometimes takes a little longer. However, the labor market situation in the Dresden region has become much tougher in recent years. Today, significantly more effort is required to attract and, above all, retain skilled workers than just a few years ago.
In order to fill a position, it is increasingly necessary to be flexible, e.g. if specific knowledge is lacking but the person seems to fit in well with the team. How do you deal with this?
We are in constant communication with our specialist departments about which requirements are definitely an advantage and which others are an advantage, but not absolutely necessary. True to the motto “hire for personality, train for skills”, we are happy to impart the necessary specialist knowledge to committed candidates. To this end, we invest a great deal in training. However, basic technical knowledge and enthusiasm for technology should definitely be present, as this is what our corporate culture is all about.
Terms such as Feel Good Management or New Work are flooding the job market. What role do these terms play in your recruitment strategy?
Although these terms may sound new-fangled, they have played a role in our company for many years. We summarize this under the term employee retention, which also includes life-phase-oriented work. We see ourselves as a “family business” in two respects: we are a family-run company that pays close attention to family friendliness for our employees in addition to the ownership structure. We want to offer solutions in all phases of life to reconcile professional and private matters, whether for childcare or caring for a close relative.
We have been offering flexible working hours with a flexitime model, mobile working and additional days off via a working time account for several years now. We also provide financial support for childcare. But New Work is about much more than just working hours and benefits. We are also interested in topics such as digitalization, process automation, modern knowledge management and agility, mindfulness and a sense of purpose. We want to invest more in these areas in the future.
Which benefits set you apart from the market as an employer and which are most valued by your employees?
I’ve already mentioned some of our benefits. Our cafeteria, which we also subsidize as an employer so that we can offer our employees a very good and inexpensive breakfast and lunch, is also very popular. There are also always ice cream and coffee breaks, as well as company and team events. Our company pension scheme model is also very attractive, as we offer significantly more benefits than most companies. We also offer a job ticket, job bike, the aforementioned childcare allowance and other employee discounts. Advantages such as exciting and varied tasks, an open corporate culture and individual development opportunities are not considered traditional benefits for us, as they are now taken for granted.
Human resources marketing also depends on a crisp communication message. How exactly do you go about developing such messages and can you give us an example of a message that works particularly well?
We work very closely with our specialist departments in HR marketing. In addition to the HR and marketing departments, our employees and managers are therefore always involved, as they know the target groups we are looking for best. Whether a message is effective depends above all on the medium used and how precisely the desired content is conveyed. For example, I have to communicate much more concisely on a roadside poster than with other communication channels because the attention span is much shorter.
Our cross-media recruiting campaign has been running for several weeks under the motto “Mechanical engineering at its most exciting”. We started with radio commercials and in-app ads in which we take a look at everyday working life in the fields of vacuum coating and electron beam technology. The design of our commercial illustrates very well what we stand for: for sophisticated high-tech products that are used worldwide – developed and manufactured in the region, by people who enjoy working in a team and want to help shape the future. We are currently continuing this campaign on large digital billboards in the city and are supporting it with in-app advertising and classic print ads.
I would like to come back to your communication mix: What is your focus here? How do you measure the results and which channels are most effective today
Our focus at VON ARDENNE is on a mix of social (online) channels and interactive approach methods. Depending on the position, however, the classic newspaper advertisement or radio spot can also be helpful. We look very closely at where our target group is and how we can reach them. I would always advise this, because there is not THE one channel that always works for every job. Incidentally, the best advertising is always your own employees. If they are satisfied, they will tell others. We therefore attract a lot of new colleagues through our employee recruitment program.
What role do reviews on Google or Kununu ratings as well as comments and posts on platforms such as LinkedIn play in this?
The importance of review portals has increased significantly in recent years. This is not surprising, as interested candidates not only look at work tasks and the salary package, but also at meaningful content, a healthy corporate and error culture and open, appreciative communication. These “soft” factors are best accessed through other people’s experiences. Review portals can therefore be a possible indicator. However, it should be noted that the voices of the dissatisfied are usually louder, even if they do not reflect the representative average. This can also be explained: statistically speaking, negative experiences are reported much more intensively and more frequently than positive experiences. Our employees are generally very satisfied with their working environment, which is also reflected in the fact that they have been with the company for many years. However, an online evaluation portal is not (yet) able to reflect such values. That’s why I always recommend getting your own impression of where, with whom and how you would like to work (together) in the future.
