HUMAN RESOURCES
Employees - a key factor in success
The mills located in Pöls and Laakirchen, Austria, and Kunda in Estonia are amongst the most important employers in their region.
The Heinzel Group owes its international success to the commitment of every member of its workforce, irrespective of whether they are employed in plant-intensive production or personnel-intensive retail. In both areas, the focus is on employee performance and people with a diversity of qualifications and experience are in demand. The ability to think in entrepreneurial terms and to act flexibly is of major importance in this connection.
From its headquarters in Vienna, situated in the heart of Europe, the Heinzel Group is operative worldwide. It is represented in 29 countries and in 2015 its average workforce numbered 2,135.
The Heinzel Group is a truly international player and profits from the many different nationalities of both its blue- and white-collar staff. A prerequisite for geographic expansion is that personnel from a variety of cultures can be unified in a constructive manner under the Group umbrella. The high level of employee diversity creates an excellent basis for the generation of ideas and the formulation of fresh approaches to solutions and thus makes a decisive contribution to corporate success.
The Group’s human resources management takes decisions decentralized and when seeking to recruit new employees, consciously looks to maintain a balance with regard to origin and gender. In 2015, women constituted a notable 28 percent of the Group workforce and with 29 percent also occupied senior management posts which represents an above-average number for the branch.
The high levels of employee motivation within the Heinzel Group are also due largely to the well-proven combination of individual, company- and Group-wide, professional training and career development measures. In addition, all employees are encouraged to participate actively in change processes.
During 2012, Heinzel launched a Group-wide Leadership Development Program, in order to provide managerial employees with targeted training in teamwork and leadership skills. To date 81 managers have participated in the programme. In addition, local programmes are on offer to all employees, presenting a wealth of possibilities ranging from professional training to personal development.
For the Heinzel Group, responsible human resources management also means the proactive support of young workers and managerial staff. Accordingly, in order to obtain highly trained and motivated employees, a trainee programme has been in successful operation since 2004 and is the object of a pleasingly high number of applications.
In 2015, the Heinzel Group continued its initiative for a reduction of accidents. In this connection regular training takes place at the industrial locations where work safety plays a major role. Accidents in 2015 totalled 16 (2012: 17) clearly indicating a need for further improvement in the safety area.
Everyone is important
I often see that employees do not attribute the success of our company to their own work and achievements, because they consider their own contribution to be too small or insignificant. This is really a pity. In the many years I have worked as a businessman and manager, I have realized that there is no such thing as an unimportant activity or position.
Everyone has his or her own area of responsibility and work which contributes to the success of the entire Group, from the youngest temporary worker to the longest serving employee. For example, compare Heinzel Group to a symphony orchestra. If there were only conductors or soloists, the orchestra would never function to begin with. Every instrument, no matter how small, is important, in order to create a harmonious piece of music. The most diverse types of musicians play in an orchestra. The same applies to our company.
Perhaps you can imagine that it is not easy to form a perfect team starting with so many individual people. Nevertheless, despite all the different personalities involved, the musicians of an orchestra play together, fusing their know-how in the decisive moment to attain the very heights of brilliance. In fact, they need each other to be successful. The best results are achieved if each and every person concentrates on playing “his own instrument“, with dedication and passion, exploiting his strengths, and enabling the entire ensemble to further develop and grow together.
In this spirit, I hope that we will all be aware of our capabilities, and thus contribute to the success of our company.
Yours,
Alfred H. Heinzel