The HR interim manager was commissioned as interim HR manager of a plant engineering company in Lower Saxony. The once owner-managed medium-sized company had been part of a US group with around 60,000 employees for several years. Originally, the interim HR manager was primarily to promote a cultural change at the German site and train the managers. However, very different challenges quickly arose after the start of the assignment.
Regular communication brings order to the international HR management team
It became clear at the start of the assignment that communication within the company's HR departments was inadequate. For example, there was no regular communication between the different HR managers for Europe, D-A-CH and the German location. The interim manager succeeded in convincing the HR managers of the need for regular communication. The HR managers now exchange information on a regular basis. The interim manager also developed a Kanban system with retrospectives to track and adapt tasks and progress in an agile manner.
Missing times identified as the cause of extra work and poor team morale
In discussions with managers and shift supervisors, the participants reported to the interim manager that morale was deteriorating. In production in particular, some employees regularly arrived late or were absent without reporting. This had a major impact on production processes. Sometimes delivery promises could only be kept by making special trips. Managers had to make considerable additional efforts to compensate for the performance of absent or late employees. The mood in the teams deteriorated noticeably due to the unnecessary extra work.
Initiative to reduce absenteeism initiated and implemented
Despite the obvious problems, the problem had not been systematically addressed. As a result, the interim manager developed a multi-part initiative to reduce absenteeism and improve motivation in production. On the one hand, the program included addressing the entire workforce and dealing with individual employees under labour law. On the other hand, the interim manager trained managers to conduct critical employee appraisals.
Poster campaign for compliance with working hours
Together with management and the works council, the interim manager developed a campaign for compliance with company agreements on working hours. On the one hand, the campaign relied on pointed communication of the regulations: for example, multilingual posters were hung up throughout the company to promote cooperation between employees in the interests of the company. The interim manager organized short workshops with employees to involve them in developing ideas for solutions. This contributed significantly to the working groups organizing themselves better - and the social pressure on underperformers increased.
Motivation increases - individual dismissals of underperformers
A positive side effect of involving employees on the store floor was that employee satisfaction increased. Despite the broad success of the campaign, there were still individual employees who did not participate. In these few cases, the interim manager took steps under employment law, which also led to dismissals.
Workshops to train managers in production
In the past, employees in the HR department had spent a conspicuous amount of time initiating disciplinary measures. The subject of the warnings was often the disregard of work instructions. When looking for the reasons for this, the interim manager noticed that many managers in production were apparently afraid to issue clear instructions or to hold serious discussions about criticism when the occasion arose.
This was mainly due to the fact that many of the managers were not trained for such tasks and were not encouraged. The interim manager closed this gap by introducing regular workshops with the young managers. She based the content of the workshops closely on the daily challenges in production. The managers learned a lot about their own impact, alternative courses of action to their previous approach, their understanding of their role and many methods for employee management and communication. Trained in this way, teams were formed for collegial consultation and mutual support. The result was that targets were achieved efficiently and managers gained self-confidence and recognition.
Missing time significantly reduced - agreements on working hours are adhered to
The package of measures from HR and the works council led to a significant improvement in communication on shifts and morale. The working time agreements are now being adhered to. In addition, capacity was freed up in the HR department because less time had to be spent on time corrections in the time management system and no disciplinary measures had to be taken. The company management was very satisfied with the results of the mandate: This also applied in particular to the cultural change in production.
