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.
POSITIV 4/2021 ǀ 13