The client for the interim mandate was a leading service provider in the engineering sector operating in Germany and Europe. The company faced a huge challenge with the reform of the Temporary Employment Act (AÜG), which came into force on April 1, 2017. The existing company collective agreement was only partially compliant with the new legal requirements. It would have meant a considerable competitive disadvantage in competition with other service providers if it had been continued. One of the most important reasons for this was that the in-house collective agreement did not provide for any industry-wide wage supplements. This would have meant that the statutory equal pay would have automatically applied after nine months. As a result, well-known key accounts threatened to terminate contracts and be removed from the supplier lists as of December 31, 2017.
The challenge was to lead the company, with its more than 10,000 external and around 1,000 internal employees, into a completely new collective bargaining environment. The main focus of the task was the legally compliant implementation of the AÜG reform on the internal processes and the associated sales realignment.
Processes for implementing the AÜG adjustment
The first task was to convince the company's management that there was no alternative to changing the collective bargaining partner to ensure future competitiveness. Next, the impact and extent of the changeover on the respective divisions had to be defined. These included:
- Human resources: conversion of employees' employment contracts
- Payroll accounting: changes to wage and salary adjustments
- Sales: reorganization of costing and communication internally and with customers
- IT: adapting the content of SAP.
The tight time frame of just under 9 months and the precise interaction between the individual sub-projects were among the challenges. The main task of the interim manager was to support all departments in the preparation, implementation and follow-up with regard to the correct application of the new collective agreement and the new law that had come into force. Only a few employees in the company were familiar with the new collective bargaining environment and the associated practical implications.
The HR interim manager communicated the necessary content and initiated the necessary changes at the same time. His high level of integration and communication skills was a decisive factor in the success of the project.
In addition to communicating the content and legal issues (with the support of lawyers) to the individual divisions, the integration of the new collective bargaining environment focused on enabling the individual departments and their managers to implement and argue this complex change to the entire basis of the company both internally and externally. Advising the management and regularly communicating the status quo were just as crucial as convincing and involving all employees, from the sales director to the clerk, on the uncomfortable but necessary common path.
