Today‘s labor market is very tense. How

do you get new employees and how

do you manage to look for technical

experts? Do you work with schools in any

way?

You are right that you will not find free

capacity on the labor market. However,

I am not a supporter of agency employment.

For me, longevity, the satisfaction of

regular employees, their ideas and

creativity and good performance based

on the relationship to both the company

and our electric motors are important. This

is the only way to keep not only existing

employees but also to hire new people.

This strategy has paid off for us in recent

years, and I am glad that we are mainly

employing people from our region.

The strategy of cooperation with schools is

very important for obtaining new experts.

We cooperate with both high schools and

technical universities. We have built our

own training center, where high school

students practice in our country. Five years

ago, we opened the so-called Student

Office in Ostrava for students of technical

universities. Here, students work on real

projects and connect their studies with

practice. At present, we are cooperating

in this way with more than fifteen students

from the Technical University of Ostrava’s

Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical

Engineering, and we are also beginning

to cooperate with students of economics.

Most students stay with us after graduation

and become members of our core teams in

either development or engineering.

The student office and good cooperation

with VŠB-TUO were also the basis for the

decision to build a European development

center for electric motors and generators

in Ostrava. This fact helped me to convince

the German leadership and transfer a large

part of the competencies from Germany to

the Czech Republic.

Now Siemens has significantly participated

in the construction of the Testbed for

Industry 4.0 at VŠB-TUO, which will

serve, among others, small and midrange

companies as a laboratory in which they

can try out the latest technologies, including

digital twin methods and other advanced

digital solutions.

You have been running the company for

six years now; the last two years have

been quite challenging for most managers

in connection with the COVID-19

pandemic and the tense situation on

world markets. How do you manage to

rest? Do you have any advice for others?

I have no advice for others. Everyone has to

find a balance between work and rest. But

I agree with you that those significant and

very fast fluctuations are very demanding

on the flexibility and management of most

companies. We had the advantage that

industry did not close during the pandemic

and, despite very difficult conditions, we

did not have to reduce or even close

down production. The company‘s crisis

management has been taking its toll for so

long, but it is necessary to keep a cool head

and be able to relax even after work or on

weekends.

My big hobby is photography. With

a camera in hand, I forget about the daily

work carousel and behind the lens I enjoy

the beauty of our region for several hours at

a time. I am all the more pleased that there

is interest in my photographs, which adorn

many households in my area.

Mr Director, thank you for the interview.

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