In a medium-sized automotive supplier, HR work had been reduced almost exclusively to core operational issues - partly due to economic problems. The company engaged the interim manager as an expert in HR development and coaching to better equip managers and staff for crisis management and future challenges.
Systematically improving the efficiency of HR planning during short-time working and crises
The company had a long history of dealing with short-time working. Together with the production manager, the interim manager developed measures to make more efficient use of short-time working. Based on the order situation, vacation planning, warehousing and the sickness situation at Corona, the necessary staff deployment and short-time working were planned more precisely and economically and determined weekly in the management team together with the works council. This led to a significant increase in productivity.
Manager coaching, mentoring and succession management introduced
In the analysis meetings, shift and team leaders reported problems mastering difficult management situations. In order to better prepare the managers, the interim manager and coach for personal leadership and executive coaching developed an internal leadership training program. In addition, he set up a mentoring program to particularly promote talent and improve cooperation within the company. The mentors were trained and equipped with mentoring tools. Systematic succession management now ensures that managers are aware of their opportunities - and make better use of them.
Promoting cross-divisional collaboration within the organization
The automotive supplier's operational divisions in particular were working in silos. The interim manager agreed measures with the managers involved to improve collaboration. The principles of the Toyota production system provided orientation. This includes all shift managers now going through the production plan with the adjacent toolmaking and quality assurance departments at the start of each shift and coordinating measures for the implementation of which the production shift managers have been designated as responsible.
Corona was causing high sickness rates in production. The interim manager agreed with the works council on flexible support for production from toolmaking and quality assurance. This prevented production downtime.
Efficient HR planning and better collaboration yield quick results
Within a few weeks, the company's EBITDA margin had improved significantly thanks to the increased productivity resulting from the HR measures. The management development program started with the modules "Finance" and "Conducting difficult conversations". The mentoring and succession programs were well received and supported by all members of the management team. The interim manager introduced the HR team members to the new tasks on these topics and coached them personally in order to anchor the new approaches in the company's HR work in the long term.
