Employees Give Conti the Thumbs Up

Unhappy in your job? Go and work for Continental. A survey undertaken in Germany indicates that workers at Continental are happier with their employer than the ‘industry benchmark’. And while Conti doesn’t state that its staff spring out of bed each morning with an unquenchable enthusiasm for the day’s work that lies ahead, it comments that the findings of the “BASICS live” employee survey conducted by the University of Manheim, in collaboration with the tyre and automotive components manufacturer, show Conti to have faired far better than the benchmark results in several subject areas.

More than 130,000 employees participated at some 200 Continental locations throughout the corporation. The questionnaire, which was made available in English and 27 other languages, provided staff with the opportunity to anonymously voice their opinion of Conti’s corporate culture. As in 2006, says Continental, the return rate of approximately 80 per cent exceeded all expectations.

“The findings of the survey reflect what our employees think about the corporate culture as practiced. The marks regarding loyalty to the company, quality orientation, cooperation with the supervisors and in the respective work groups are clearly above the industry’s benchmark,” explained Executive Board member for human resources Heinz-Gerhard Wente. “Our employees see a need for improvement in the area of departmental strategy and cooperation between departments. This constructive feedback provides management with a valuable tool to help optimise work processes. We will incorporate many suggestions in detailed tasks and projects, as this is the only way to ensure that the continuous improvement process really works.”

Wente pointed out that a total of 8,496 projects had been completed in response to the previous survey. Most of these projects dealt with Employee Development, Strategy of our Department, and Cooperation with Other Departments. “The staunch commitment of the employees when it came to improving the tasks indicated by the survey is for us proof that our BASICS are not just theory but are actually lived out on a daily basis,” said Wente.

This year’s “BASICS live” employee survey is the first of its kind after the acquisition and integration of Siemens VDO into Continental. “It has provided us with a good barometer of the mood in the company. This is all the more important since in the integration process, the corporate culture plays a key role – it had a major impact on the running processes as well as on the cooperation,” said Wente. “Employee loyalty, commitment and satisfaction are the basis for the success of any company. The findings of the survey therefore speak for the success of the integration activities and a merging of the two corporate cultures,” according to Stefan Kraft, head of Corporate Human Resources Development and responsible for development of the corporate culture.