Factory closures, site relocations, share price losses—the German supplier industry is suffering and dominating the headlines of the economic news. The major German automotive supplier Continental has not been spared from the economic crisis. Dr. Ariane Reinhart, Head of Human Resources and member of the Executive Board of Continental AG, explains in the interview how the company is meeting the current challenges, what advantages Germany still offers as a location and what the automotive supplier is doing to retain and promote as much employee potential as possible despite the crisis. She also explains why transformation is teamwork and how employees' “transformation fatigue” can be countered with tact and sensitivity.
The German economy struggles. What are the biggest challenges and how can they be tackled?
REINHART The shortage of skilled workers is getting worse, and, at the same time, unemployment is rising. The economy is shrinking, and more and more companies are relocating their activities abroad due to the poor location conditions. The German labor market is in a structural crisis and our welfare state is in danger.
And yet we have highly skilled workers in Germany. Our education system is envied by the whole world. Year after year, it produces tens of thousands of excellently trained specialists for industry, trade, healthcare and services. Our resources are our people. Now we need to look at how we can use our good personnel, productivity, quality and innovation to secure our welfare state and our prosperity.
We must act now. And all stakeholders must act together. Keeping the problem quiet won't help. Not only is a coordinated common approach needed. Effective instruments to improve the employment situation must also be developed and promoted.
What tools might these be?
REINHART One promising approach for such an instrument is a so-called perspective company, the “Work in Motion” GmbH, which we are currently setting up. This will emerge from the Continental company “ContiMotion”, which Continental founded together with the IG BCE trade union. The concept envisages the involvement of other stakeholders (companies, trade unions, additionally associations and institutions and possibly also state institutions).
The idea behind “Work in Motion”: employees who are not currently needed in the work process - for example due to operational overcapacity or because they no longer have the right qualifications - are hired, trained if necessary and then temporarily or fully placed with other companies with personnel requirements. This ensures that the labor market will continue to have sufficient employees with the necessary skills in the future. This makes a targeted contribution to ensuring that the German economy remains innovative and competitive in the long term.
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