Respect for employees starts from the details

Recently, Markus Krebs is learning how to use chopsticks with Xiaoshuai, a boy from Qingdao. "If you don't practice often, it's easy to give up." The 18-year-old said solemnly at Xiaoshuai's house.

Three weeks from now, Markus will take Xiaoshuai to his hometown, Dinslaken, Germany. Markus and Xiao Shuai are two participants in the Degussa Summer World Student Exchange Program. In 2005, a total of 170 children from all over the world participated in the program. One thing these children have in common is that their father or mother works for Degussa, the world's number one specialty chemical company.

"It's important that we know what our employees need and do it," said Eric Baden, president of Degussa China, about the project. In his view, Degussa is taking advantage of its own multinational company to provide employees' children with an opportunity to gain international experience as early as possible. Lin Deen said that Degussa's respect for employees penetrates into all aspects of training and caring for employees through details. As a direct result of this, Degussa's employee turnover rate is well below the industry average.

Care at all costs

Many companies emphasize respect for their employees. What special practices does Degussa have in this regard?

Mainly reflected in two aspects. On the one hand, it respects the value that employees create for the company. Most companies agree with this view, but it's not enough to just say it. You have to make sure that people who are role models in the company can really recognize the value of employees, respect the employees themselves, and then communicate this respect to everyone in the company, so that everyone realizes that respect for employees is very important to the company. Personally, when I do this, I just ask myself a simple question: Can I respect others as much as I respect myself?

On the other hand, attention to detail is more important to companies. I think there are a lot of companies that have good ideas or policies, but they sometimes overlook details that make the difference between companies.

For example, caring for employees. Nowadays, many companies attach great importance to the care of employees' families, but few companies do our best to truly care about the international education of their children from the perspective of employees.

What are the requirements for participating in the World Student Exchange Program? What effect has been achieved?

Anyone between the ages of 14 and 18 can participate as long as they are children of Degussa employees, regardless of whether their parents are at Degussa, whether they are in production or in managerial work. All Degussa subsidiaries participate in the program, and children can choose their destination in more than 50 countries. We take care of all the formalities for students, pay for travel and foreign insurance. 2005 was the first time we launched this international student exchange program called "New Horizons", and it will continue in the future.

More than a dozen Chinese children participated in this project in 2005, and two children came to China. Later, they all wrote articles about their feelings about going abroad.

I think this project enables the children of employees to have an opportunity to exchange life experiences on an international platform at an early stage, learn about the cultures and languages of other countries, and understand different value systems. For Degussa employees from different parts of the world and with different growth backgrounds, they can gain a deeper understanding of Degussa's value and trust each other's families through the exchange of family members. If my children are eligible, I would very much like them to participate.

Degussa does this, presumably at a higher cost. How does the company balance costs and benefits?

You're quite right. While this will not directly benefit Degussa, and it will not work quickly, it will bring us several very important benefits. For example, it will strengthen the connection between each family and the company. This connection can cross national borders and connect the company to the country where it is located, which is very important for the Degussa global community.

In addition, this is our contribution to Responsible Care. The company hopes to build a more harmonious and constructive international organization by helping people to understand the people and cultures of different countries. In a big way, it contributes to world peace. People can get to know each other across borders. Although the number of people every year is not large, we will continue to do so.

You mentioned the concept of a "global community". What was the original intention of building a "global community"?

Degussa is a multinational company with 63 main bases and 45,000 employees in more than 50 countries. We use our global community to build a network of people, so that doing business globally benefits both business growth and employees benefit.

The company helps employees' children live in the families of Degussa employees in other countries when they are teenagers through the holiday exchange program, experience the local culture, and get to know other friends. After returning to China, they will share these feelings with their own. Share with family members and other partners. This family-focused program enhances our global advantage in attracting high-caliber employees, while also embodying the social responsibility of an international company.

Tutors are also running for competition

I heard that Degussa has cooperated with some domestic universities and educational institutions on various projects, such as the "Degussa Class" with Shanghai Petrochemical School. What is the company doing this for?

Our coaching process for employees actually begins before we actually hire them. There is a cooperation project between Degussa and the Shanghai Petrochemical School, the main purpose of which is to develop people who are very experienced in chemistry. We brought professional technical engineers and expensive equipment from Germany to Shanghai to teach Degussa trainers and some students from Shanghai Petrochemical. At the same time, we provide financial support for this training course, so that the "Degussa Class" and the Degussa training base will continue to operate, so that 40 students in their 20s can obtain long-term education in the chemical field.

Of course they are still students and they are not even employees of our company, but we have now started to convey some of our company values to them, so that they can feel what it will be like to work in Degussa in the future At the same time, let them think about their future choices, cultivate their sense of responsibility, and consider the meaning of their lives, so as to determine their goals in life. If they are interested in joining our company, and we feel that these people are very good and ideal candidates, then the way we work together will continue.

In addition, if employees want to develop into management, we have a Chinese elite program for employees who are promoted to management. This is a training similar to a mini MBA course, where participants learn some management knowledge and complete some team projects. In addition to the curriculum, we have mentoring programs that address the development of future leaders. Every high-potential employee has a mentor. Not everyone is qualified to be a mentor, and not every senior executive is a suitable mentor. At Degussa, mentors must have the right values, the right attitude and the right code of conduct. Just a person with excellent performance, we will not appoint him as a mentor.

Of course, the mentor will not be the supervisor or supervisor of the mentee. Only in this way, when these people encounter difficulties, they can find their mentor without hesitation and consult them. These consultations are not recorded and therefore do not have any impact on the assessment of their supervisor or supervisor. In this way, we enable consultants to obtain timely advice and solve their own problems.

Are mentors designed specifically for future leaders? How do I appoint a mentor?

Degussa has approximately 2,300 employees in China, and it is unlikely that we will have mentors for all of our employees. Whether you can get the guidance of a mentor has nothing to do with the employee's job type, but whether the company hopes to train the employee to become the company's future leader. When a new employee joins the company, after the company's training and assessment, we believe that he has the potential to become the company's future leader, and we will arrange a mentor for him. For example, if we want to train a leader in production, we will assign a mentor to the corresponding production worker.

Mentors must be leaders, and primarily people who have worked with the company for a long time and that we all know well. Mentors are selected by the company's senior management team, which includes the head of human resources, the company's vice president, chief financial officer, chief technology officer, and two non-executive directors, one in charge of operations and one outside director. We have very neutral senior leaders involved in the selection of mentors.

When selecting mentors, the team screens existing company leaders and trains the mentors. Future leaders will choose their preferred mentor from these trained mentors. Each candidate mentor is required to fill out a form to give a brief introduction to themselves so that the mentee can get to know them from all aspects. We hope that the mentor can become the spiritual partner of the mentee, so that it is possible to talk to them, conduct in-depth communication, and obtain advice and guidance.

You mean these high-potential employees can choose their own mentors?

Yes. They will know in advance which tutors will be selected, and then select three tutors in priority order through the introduction and materials of the tutors, just like Chinese students filling out their university wishes. We will try our best to satisfy everyone's first choice, but if the actual situation does not allow, we will consider their second or third choice. It is also interesting that mentors are chosen. Every mentor wants at least one person to choose himself as a mentor. From the selection, we can also see some feedback from employees about being a mentor. After this, we also collect feedback from mentors and mentees on the event.

Although the mentor system is a new program in China, we do it globally. The training for mentors takes about half a day, and we will send them some simple information, such as the responsibilities of mentors, why there are mentors, expectations for mentors, and how to choose mentors. The content of the training includes how to become a qualified mentor and how to have a long talk with the mentee.

Respect starts with front-line workers

You mentioned that front-line production workers will also have their own mentors. For production workers, what other measures does the company take to show respect for them?

I often tell my management team that respect for employees does not vary by position and function. Respect for employees has nothing to do with the function of the employee or the level of education of the employee. Respect is the recognition of the value of everyone, regardless of its role in the organization. This attitude is a fundamental value if you want employees to be loyal to the company. If you just respect their abilities, you can't exchange employees' loyalty to the company. Competence gets them paid, but employees also expect them to be respected as individuals, whether on the production line or in the office.

For example. I personally think that how we treat an employee on the first day he joins a company will affect his impression of the company for a long time. An employee's first day at the company is very important, and we do a lot of work on that day. We need other employees to realize that if I want others to respect me like this, I need to respect others like this.

For employees, a formal induction is not enough. When a production worker goes to work on the first day, they need a special person to lead them to familiarize themselves with their job position. They do not need to have too much communication and communication with the outside world, they do not need to have their own business cards, but they need to have their own lockers, well-fitting work clothes, be familiar with their own working environment, and have a comprehensive understanding of safety operations. understanding and awareness. It is difficult for me to specifically give an example of production workers, because in terms of respect for employees, we do not deliberately distinguish between production workers and office workers. One of the manifestations is that when our employees have dinner every month, all employees will be Invitation to attend.

All of these are small details, but it takes a lot of effort to get them right. Of course, these efforts are worth it. This employee will feel the respect that the company has for him, and this respect will translate into the pride and pride of the company's employees and bring this pride and pride to work.

Apart from Human Resources, is there a dedicated team responsible for implementing these details?

All placement work on the first day of employees joining the company and related arrangements on weekdays are the responsibility of the human resources department. But the company doesn't leave all the work to the employees in the human resources department. For example, if a business department wants to hire a new employee, where will the new employee work, which other employees will he interact with, what kind of office equipment should this employee have, whether it is a desktop computer or a laptop, and if so For production workers, what kind of production tools are needed, whether business cards are required, what is the title on the business card... The determination of these details needs to be completed by the business department itself. Everyone involved with the addition of a new employee must make sure that the new employee feels part of the family and that he is treated with the respect he deserves.

Human resources staff are responsible for these things and urge all others involved to do what they are supposed to do. This will involve many other departments. Coordinating all departments to complete their work is a complex project, and many companies know the need for this, but it is often very difficult to execute, so many companies fail to implement this to the end. But Degussa took notice and did a good job, which is one reason why our attrition rate is well below the industry average.