Brose A Comprehensive Approach to Innovation (3. strana)

REGION–KOPŘIVNICE Thanks to the Top Employers audit, we received a specific benchmark, while we went through our HR processes to understand how we take care of employees, what we offer and what we can improve. And yes, we’re very proud that we have succeeded now three years in a row with this certification, which I think shows that we have a good basis, we have a good, very motivated team, and I think there are a couple of things behind us, which I need to touch on a little bit already. One of them is our company principles “FIRST”: F stands for Family, I for innovation, R for Respect, S for Success and T for Team. And that’s basically what we are always trying to communicate to our workforce– how we should behave towards each other at work. These principles are very important to us. I think we are a company which has always tried to help the community, and a year ago we and the town of Kopřivnice organized a campaign called “To be a good neighbour.” This is something which we not only want to show, always, but also really to act on accordingly. So, even now, during the crisis, sometimes there was a council contact asking if there is something we could do to help, some ideas maybe to help the school to be able to teach kids. Some time ago, we finished with our Brose Run team--an activity to support the young kids who have some health issues, so that each year we are supporting disabled and disadvantaged kids. And last but not least, we are trying to invest in our employees, in their training and also in technology. So this is why this region should benefit from us: we are offering a modern company that supports the region and has basically good principles for our employees. As a part of the company’s development, you also manage an Employee Care department. How do you support the health of your employees in these times? Well, I think, first of all, this crisis since March has taken all of us by surprise. It’s correct, we have always had special health support for our employees. We have our own doctor, so this doctor is available for employees. For example, something we did, and we did it for everyone last year, was to order flu jabs for our employees. We have an on-site physiotherapist helping employees at the workplace. And we can mention our Brose Kids Club--an educational leisure centre for the children of our employees from one to fifteen years old. In this very special situation with the coronavirus, we had to begin protecting our employees’ health and the company‘s health. Since the end of March, we have been using facemasks on company grounds and we have, unfortunately, erected some of those plastic dividers in the company canteen. We have given facemasks to employees and we were very proud in the beginning when nobody had disinfectant and chemists from our painting line created it by themselves. And we are proud of the employees of the Kids Club, who sewed face masks for our employees on the front line. Your company has a Apprentice center with elements of dual education. What kind of project is this? I think the important thing is to grow the skills of our employees so that we can be stronger in the end. To stay competitive, to be a strong, healthy employer and successful, for that we need proactivity, automation and digitalization. And I am very much convinced that we will not be able to achieve this only with people from universities. So that’s why we thought about what we can do. On one hand, it was our apprentice center offering environment for our future mechatronics. This way we are able to teach young people and offer them jobs in Brose, immediately after school. Basically, it was a higher qualification, having the chance to work in the areas of maintenance or even on an automatic line where you have robots, cameras, etc. On the other hand, I think we need not only to provide qualifications for young people, but also for our workers. We have to offer our employees the continuous possibility to learn, and basically give them a better understanding of technology. Only then we will be efficient, will have automated and digitalized production workplaces and stay globally competitive. We expect that our current workers and setters will grow their skills and take a career path towards our modern production environment. Thank you for the interview. Text: Šárka Kůrková, Barbora Pěchová Foto: Renáta Botošová archiv společnosti Brose CZ spol. s r.o. www.brose.com POSITIV 4/2020 ǀ 69