A strong community 

The employees are decisive to achieving the company's sustainability: their motivation, their knowledge and their experience are the basis for the company's success. To ensure that “MEISTER-workers” are able to develop their potential to the fullest, the company's human resources management works to both ensure suitable framework conditions for the entire workforce and to target personalised support for individual employees.

Stefan Mühlenbein, for example, who today works as a project engineer in Research & Development, began his career at MEISTERWERKE in 2004 with a traditional apprenticeship as a wood mechanic. After his apprenticeship, he was initially employed as a specialist worker in production before the company offered him the opportunity to further his education through a dual course of study to become an engineer for wood technology. “I was very pleased that the company approached me proactively. Although I had a lot of respect for the additional work and course load that was coming my way, I gladly seized this opportunity and accepted immediately,” Stefan Mühlenbein recalled. His diploma thesis, with which he completed his degree program, dealt with the series production of a sustainable and hard-wearing real wood floor – a product that is now one of the bestsellers in the MEISTERWERKE product portfolio today, marketed under the name Lindura, and continues to post high growth rates. 

With more than 15 years of service, Stefan Mühlenbein represents the “typical” MEISTER-worker – at the end of 2020, the average length of service in the company was around 13.5 years, 2.4 years above the national average of 11.1 years. The turnover rate of just 1.9 percent in 2020 was likewise at a pleasing level – and with good reason, according to Guido Schulte: “The wants and needs of employees have changed in recent years. In addition to fair and performance-based remuneration, which with us is higher than the collective wage agreement, other components such as flexible working time models play an important role in long-term retention of employees or in attracting them to the company. We are very committed to having a family-friendly corporate culture, for which we have also been certified by the district of Soest.” For example, requests from employees to temporarily or permanently reduce their working hours from full- to part-time, or to work on a mobile basis, are taken seriously by the management and can often be fulfilled. In mid-2021, 71 people, or about 10 percent of the workforce, were working part-time; in addition, six men and women from the workforce were on parental leave. Mobile working, which is now managed uniformly throughout the company in the form of a company agreement, was used by 53 employees, or about a quarter of the administrative staff.

Given the increasing shortage of skilled workers, medium-sized industrial companies like MEISTERWERKE which are located in rural regions are constantly challenged to offer modern framework conditions and thus to position themselves as attractive employers to the outside world. “Our employee survey conducted in the summer of 2021, as well as the regular benchmarking with other companies, have shown us which areas we are already very well positioned within today and where we still have some catching up to do,” said Simon Korn, Head of Human Resources at MEISTERWERKE. While additional benefits like bike leasing, employee discounts on the company’s own product range and free beverages have met with broad approval, there is a particular need for optimisation in the area of health management. “A company health management system is definitely a useful tool for maintaining and promoting the health and performance of our employees long term. A cross-departmental team has already started working on this so that we can offer customised modules for employees from 2022 onwards,” emphasised Simon Korn. The performance assessment system, which is currently used as an incentive component exclusively for industrial employees and can lead to a performance-based remuneration bonus, is also to be fundamentally revised.

The company attaches great importance to in-company training and education. School leavers can start their dual training at MEISTERWERKE in ten different professions, and the company also offers a dual course of study to become an engineer for wood technology/bachelor of engineering in cooperation with Lemgo University of Applied Sciences. MEISTERWERKE employs a total of around 30 trainees each year from the first to the third year of their apprenticeship, almost all of whom have been hired on in the past. 

“As an innovative, medium-sized company, it is essential for us to invest in training our future pool of skilled workers in order to ensure the competitiveness of the company as well as to fulfil our responsibility towards the people in the region,” said Simon Korn, emphasising the importance of this. MEISTERWERKE received the “Excellent Training Company” seal of quality for the eighth time in a row in May 2021. The basis for awarding the seal is the results of an anonymous survey of all trainees currently being trained in the company and the analysis of key training figures (such as the number of apprentices taken on or the results in the final examinations).

In-service training of employees is also important to the company. MEISTERWERKE makes use of individually tailored solutions here: Needs are identified in the individual departments, and employees are then encouraged to take the initiative. Consequently, employees, supervisors and the Human Resources department can develop customised training measures together that are beneficial for all sides. In addition, MEISTERWERKE offers an internal management trainee programme which teaches content in four three-day learning blocks on topics such as time and conflict management, employee leadership and presentation techniques. As a former participant in this programme, Stefan Mühlenbein also rates this instrument very positively in retrospect: “In addition to the specialist content and the highly competent trainers, I particularly enjoyed the teamwork with my colleagues from various departments of the company. This is a network from which I still benefit today.”