Helping people help themselves
Congratulations! You have made it. You are a Siegwerker! What now? At Siegwerk, human resources work does not cease once staff members have been recruited. In fact, that’s when the support really gets going. Job rotation, overseas postings, talent networks – preparation for executive management positions, and ongoing individual development: Those are the bricks and mortar of talent management, and the company is glad to carry the considerable cost involved in assisting its staff in becoming even better top-rate performers.
Take Andreas Schellenbach, for example. Straight after his studies, Andreas, a chemical engineer from a small town in the south of Germany, began working for the company. Things took an international turn when he moved house to Thailand. After another assignment in Shanghai (China) as Head of Technology for the Flexible Packaging business in Asia he is now working at Siegwerk France.
Like him, dozens of Siegwerkers are “on active duty” overseas. Frenchmen working in China, Indians in Germany, Germans in the USA. All of them carrying the corporate culture into the world. Learning from each other is crucial, cultural adaptability desirable. At the end of the day one thing is clear: The Siegwerk company philosophy of Ink, Heart & Soul is what binds Siegwerkers together throughout the world.
Where Andreas Schellenbach is now – that’s where the Global Talent Network (GTN) program graduates are headed. Towards higher things. Twelve executive trainees were selected from around the globe, and they are now undergoing a demanding program. Leadership training, personality development, negotiation techniques, conflict-solving strategies and a major Supply Chain Management project initiated by the Board of Management at a Siegwerk site – these are just a few items of their development program.
Over a period of 18 months, the executive trainees complete a total of eleven such courses, each lasting several days. The participants are recruited from a variety of countries, and the training sessions are held in different regions. Once they have completed the program, all doors are open to the global Siegwerk talents. Initial interest in these up-and-coming executive trainees has already been shown from several departments.
The goal these future executives are aiming for is one that has already been achieved by the participants in the Global Executive Leadership Program (GELP). The training program covers a two-year period, the culmination of the first year being a whole week of excellent MBA training at the globally renowned INSEAD Institute in Fontainebleau near Paris (France). The second year is no less spectacular, including as it does a week spent at the Management Academy in St. Gallen (Switzerland).
Siegwerk achieves two different objectives with this full volley of outstanding advanced training opportunities: executive leadership whose management skills are on a par with those of large multi-national corporations – and enormous loyalty on the part of top management to their employer.
The fact that informal talks between two business unit managers “on the sidelines” of the in-service training can resolve a problem or two without resorting to official channels is a welcome bonus.
Individual coaching measures round off the comprehensive range of offers.
There is no question for Siegwerk as to whether all these training measures are money well spent. This is an ideal investment – suited to a family-owned company with a professional management team, and to its ambitious objectives.
At Siegwerk it’s people who make the difference.