"Diversität leben - eigentlich ist das für uns alle Alltag. Aber diese Diversität wollen und müssen wir auch im Arbeitsleben noch konsequenter abbilden. Davon profitieren wir, Diversität ist heute Grundvoraussetzung für Erfolg!" Das Statement kommt von Herzen. Sehen Sie selbst!
Dear Readers,
We want to use the December newsletter to spread good cheer – not only with our little Christmas video including a small teaser for 2025!
Yes, the geopolitical world situation, the business climate index, record sickness rates and many other issues are challenging. But right now, the RWTÜV Group can confidently adopt an optimistic attitude.
As an employer, we have a responsibility to promote a motivating, forward-looking mindset. With our corporate culture, which we will continue to strengthen in all subsidiaries in 2025, we are consolidating the foundation for sustainable employee satisfaction and promoting a spirit of innovation and productivity. Positive, optimistic employees are more resilient to stress and feel good.
Our optimistic attitude is based on the awareness that we have carefully set the course for the coming months and years, both economically and in general: The gradual integration of AI into our internal and external processes is bearing fruit. It helps us to analyze and use data in a differentiated way, strengthen our competencies and keep the reins of action in our hands as well as long-term decision-making cycles in view. We are globally positioned, with a value-based culture that combines aspects as diverse as openness to lifelong learning, effective implementation of the ESG principles and responsible striving for security in technology and communication.
In the period “between the years”, work in Kronprinzenstraße, home of the RWTÜV Group headquarters, will be paused. However, we will be back for you from the first week of January. With new ideas, new motivation and a lot of dynamism, that much we can already promise. We wish you all relaxing holidays with family or friends, where you can find peace and quiet or time for things that are otherwise neglected in our busy everyday lives. Thank you very much for the good, constructive and successful cooperation, we look forward to the coming year and enter the holidays in good spirits; we wish you the same.
Season's greetings and all the best for the New Year
Yours
Thomas Biedermann and Dr. Fabian Fechner
The winners have been announced! As part of the internal innovation competition 2024, the jury consisting of the Group's managing directors decided on three ideas and rewarded them with first place.
Martin Kirchner from cetecom advanced won over the panel with a proposal for AI-supported measurement data analysis. Second place went to an idea for the digital transformation of technical building services planning using building information modeling (BIM) and augmented reality technologies, submitted by Jannik Hausfeld, an employee of RWTÜV subsidiary Ingenieurbüro Nordhorn. The third winner was Frauke Schell from energy solutions provider Enoplan. After she had already won the community vote among all Group employees with another idea for increasing internal efficiency, the jury also awarded a prize to her proposal for AI-supported process and sales optimization.
A total of 30 creative minds submitted 44 proposals on the RWTÜV Campus competition platform. The task was to design AI-supported processes, products or services that would enable the employees of the RWTÜV Group companies to provide new services for customers or work more efficiently or better on a day-to-day basis.
On December 4, RWTÜV Managing Director Thomas Biedermann and Dr. Fabian Fechner crowned these three: “Congratulations to the winners on their convincing ideas! This is the innovative RWTÜV spirit that we need for our future and that we also see as top employee motivator. We are now very much looking forward to implementing the different proposals together.”
Another RWTÜV management training course took place in the inspiring ambience of The Qvest Hotel in Cologne at the end of November. It was attended by 17 participants from the subsidiaries, Managing Director and trainer Wibke Schindler from Klar & Quirlig and her team, as well as Thomas Biedermann, Dr. Fabian Fechner and Natascha Winter from RWTÜV GmbH.
Part 1 focused on topics such as appreciative communication in appraisal interviews, clarifying roles between HR and managers, diversity and working across generations. Key aspects such as recruiting, onboarding, feedback and evaluation were presented in a practical way.
Part 2 focused on forward-looking HR planning, talent management, benefits and retention. The participants built team matrices, discussed the benefits and development of high-performance teams, and discussed how to deal with conflicts. This created the basis for sustainable HR strategies.
A guided tour of the cathedral and a visit to a brewery rounded off the program on the first day; a visit to the Olympic Museum on the second day created a further framework for a relaxed exchange between colleagues. “We take every opportunity, not only to continuously develop the Group's management staff, but also to further strengthen the cohesion between the Group’s companies. This training was once again perfect for this,” said Natascha Winter, Business Partner HR at RWTÜV Holding.
Dorena D'Alba and Arina Bolgar are the first two apprentices at Van Ameyde Germany. Since they started in September 2023, they have been helping to shape Van Ameyde Germany's premiere as a training company with great enthusiasm and commitment. Arina Bolgar, 20 years old, left school after the start of secondary school to start her career with the global provider of professional insurance services. Dorena D'Alba, who is one year older, first completed her A-levels and then started her apprenticeship. Both are enthusiastic about their experiences so far: “The tasks are new and challenging for us, we make phone calls to customers and are already looking after international contacts. We are allowed to work very independently and have the feeling that we are being intensively supported. That's incredibly motivating, we're really growing beyond ourselves!” says D'Alba. Bolgar adds: “At the beginning, we didn't know what claims settlement or insurance services meant, and by familiarizing ourselves with these topics, we are discovering completely new sides and interests in ourselves. We're currently in accounting - and even that's fun because you suddenly understand the processes and recognize the bigger picture!”
Wherever practicable, D'Alba and Bolgar are together in the departments so that they can exchange ideas and support each other. In Van Ameyde's teams, which are as diverse as possible, the two benefit from an international and mixed group of colleagues with different levels of experience; at the same time, Van Ameyde encourages people to contribute their own ideas and promotes independence, not least by offering flexitime and working from home.
Bianca Goebel, Head of Human Resources at Van Ameyde, is full of praise: “We are delighted with this first experiment with trainees: We can rely on them one hundred percent, they do a full job, take on responsibility and are even prepared to jump in at six in the morning. Simply great!”
A significant personal milestone was also achieved by RWTÜV Managing Director Fabian Fechner. At the end of the year, he successfully completed his doctorate at the University of Gloucestershire with the dissertation titled: " Money makes the world go round, or does it? An exploration of the decisions of first-generation owner-managers of German Mittelstand firms to seek a business sale and select a buyer for their business."
In the field of Mergers and Acquisitions, he had already demonstrated outstanding expertise on multiple occasions for the RWTÜV Group even before earning his doctorate. Now, the proof is in black and white. Congratulations, Dr. Fabian Fechner!