Appreciation, transparency and trust
The days when job security alone attracted talent and top employees are over. Today, companies that pursue an overriding goal and stand for values are attractive. The Reitz goal: to create top conditions for the further development of each individual and therefore the company as a whole
Growing together
We humans are not comfortable with change. On the other hand, it is also in our nature to want to develop and experience new things. As we spend a large part of our lives at work, the ideal situation would be to find conditions there that combine both needs, offering both security and promoting personal development.
This is precisely the approach that the third generation of the Reitz family business, with Elmar Gierse and Ulrich Breder, is advocating. While the hierarchies in old-school companies are clearly defined, today’s team is all about distributing responsibility and knowledge across several shoulders and engaging in dialog on an equal footing. “When we sit together in a group, it shouldn’t be obvious to an outsider who is the managing director and who is an employee. In principle, it’s all about competence.” This is why every employee who wants to further their education in their field, for example as part of the Reitz Academy program, enjoys the full support of the management.
“Want to, can, must” becomes explicitly ‘want to, can, may’. Anyone who dares to take on responsibility is not put in the way, but on the contrary is encouraged with all available means. In this atmosphere, not only does productivity increase, but exciting career paths also emerge, both up the ladder and laterally into other specialist areas.
Positive examples are known to all employees in the company; they encourage people to reflect on their own strengths and find out what suits them best and what is possible at Reitz. Strengths are always the explicit starting point. As every person has particular strengths and enjoys doing certain things, the promotion of “can do” makes a significant contribution to the success of the whole.
Beyond pure expertise
In line with the corporate philosophy, the focus has shifted when it comes to recognizing and developing talented junior staff. Whereas professional competence used to be the top priority, methodological competence – including the ability to communicate clearly – and social competence are now the decisive factors when assessing high potentials. This paradigm shift can be explained. Professional competence is increasingly being spread across several shoulders. One person alone cannot assess every aspect of a complex topic, which is why trend-setting decisions are made within an expert team that brings together different perspectives. In comparison, individual methodological and social skills are becoming increasingly important for the company’s success.
Employees can act on their own responsibility if they understand why they are doing something and what impact it has on the bigger picture. This requires transparency and empathetic managers who can explain things clearly, are able to listen and understand the employee’s situation. This creates trust, which is essential in order to manage the whole in the interests of each individual. From the Reitz perspective, the success of the company is the success of the individual and vice versa.
Steering on the basis of trust
An example of the importance of transparency and trust becomes clear when dealing with reduced workloads. It is human nature to spare work when your own department runs out of orders. You slow down so that you still look busy tomorrow and don’t run the risk of being considered superfluous. This phenomenon can be observed in all areas of work all over the world. From the company’s point of view, however, it doesn’t make sense because the bottom line is that productivity decreases without it being clear why. For the success of the whole, it is clearly more advantageous to signal that work is becoming scarce in your own department and, if in doubt, to reduce hours. This requires both an understanding of the context and the confidence that there will be no negative consequences. Knowing that overall productivity is more likely to be safeguarded than jeopardized by a temporary shortage of work in certain areas also brings with it the certainty that there is no need to feel inferior or bad in this case.
A course towards stability and balance
The chosen path is already having many positive effects on the further development of the company. Since meaningful company figures and correlations have been communicated and explained to all levels on the basis of appreciation, transparency and trust, a significant increase in productivity of around 25% can be seen. Today, the Reitz boat is no longer steered by a small group, but by many leaders who have developed an understanding in all departments of what needs to be done to keep Reitz on course for success overall. For Elmar Gierse, the grandson of the company founder, the utopia can be put into pragmatic words: “If we succeed in replacing every ‘this can’t be done’ with ‘this is how it can be done’, we will be way ahead and in a position to keep our promise to our employees in the long term, namely to do everything we can do locally here.”