“People are more than a resource”

Sabine Brandl: The term Chief People Officer is currently becoming established and more and more companies are using this title. In the past, you would certainly have said Chief HR Officer. However, we at KUKA have deliberately decided to put people first. We no longer want to see them as a resource, but as individuals with whom we are embarking on a journey together.

In my department, I place a great deal of emphasis on the topic of corporate culture. I want to create a corporate culture in which managers and employees feel welcome and have the feeling that they can achieve personal fulfillment and actively contribute to the company's success. On the other hand, I also deal with the classic HR topics, such as payroll accounting, time tracking and finding and hiring suitable people, and I do this globally for the KUKA Group, including Swisslog and Swisslog Healthcare.

The great thing about my day-to-day work is that no two days are the same. One topic that is currently keeping me very busy is: How do we find the right talent in the right place? Because we at KUKA are also struggling with the issue of a shortage of skilled workers. The current challenge is to abandon the concept of finding experts everywhere. Rather, we need to find employees who are willing to develop themselves further. In addition, I am in daily contact with our robotics teams, for example, so that we can develop the appropriate personnel strategies together. Suppose we need a new CEO in Malaysia. We would then consider whether to hire them through a headhunter, whether to look in the local job market or whether to find talent within our organization.

The most important skills for my position are clearly empathy and social intuition. However, these are also the hardest skills to learn. You have to have them to a large extent to do this job.

Another important skill for my position is leadership. It's not just about managing a global organization across 50 different countries, but much more about whether I can use my leadership skills to move employees and other managers in the right direction, especially when I want to establish a certain corporate culture.

Thirdly, I would like to address the topic of change management: in my view, transformation projects are becoming increasingly important, for example in research and development or in production, but also with regard to new organizations or other types of collaboration. In all these transformation processes, employees rightly rely on us to take them by the hand. We need to show them what the change means for them and what the future will look like. This is not just about painting a picture of the future, but about active support.

Analytical skills are the fourth important area of expertise. Particularly when we talk about the topic of women and diversity, we can use our data to see whether there is a form of discrimination of which we are not yet aware. This applies, for example, to the adjusted gender pay gap. In addition, we can use the career paths of our employees to determine whether there are certain career levels that men reach faster than women. To my knowledge, there are still few companies that can do this analytically today. The first step is to create transparency in order to recognize these disadvantages and then take the appropriate remedial action.

Three challenges in particular have shaped me along the way. First of all, there is my collaboration with BMW. For three years, I researched resistance to change in the adaptation of innovations using the example of e-mobility customers. It was a very exciting time, on the one hand to do research outside the university, but on the other hand to get to know a large corporation. It helped me a lot to understand the behavioral patterns of people when major change processes occur. Resistance to change is always an issue and probably one that will accompany me throughout my entire professional life.

I look back on a very formative phase at KUKA. At a time when the company was undergoing major changes, a collaboration strengthened me in the long term. One person in particular shaped me there: my mentor at the time. He was the former CEO of our robotics division, who was a great role model for me, but also placed a great deal of trust in me to try things out to prove myself.

The third challenge that shaped me can be found in my personal life. Since I have had two children of my own, I have a much greater understanding of how to reconcile family and career. This is something you have to think about as a human resources manager. I see it as a great enrichment to now understand exactly what employees want and need when it comes to this topic.

Overcoming all these challenges is only possible with good support. It is important to have people around you who do just that. In addition, I had a female role model that I could look up to. This helped me a lot in a male-dominated environment. Furthermore, it is not possible to develop yourself and the company without a certain work ethic and the willingness to give a lot.

I am currently working in a rather female-dominated department, so I am referring to the group as a whole in answering this question. At KUKA, we have a quota of around 20 percent women, which is well above the industry average. But, to be honest, we have to say that we can't afford to rest on our laurels; we have to continue to expand it. At the first level below I find that extraordinary for this career level. And it also shows that our two male board members are really promoting the issue of women and diversity.

For example, we have our own daycare center here at the Augsburg site, which is very well received. The fact that it saves the hassle of commuting to childcare facilities should not be underestimated. In addition, we deliberately attend career fairs for women in order to spark their interest in technical professions. And, of course, we make sure to present female role models in our public image. One example is our #HomeofRobotik campaign. Here we show women in technical professions to help take away the fear of the technology sector among young women who are currently deciding which course of study or vocational training they want to pursue.

Furthermore, I am in a position that allows me to design policies and guidelines in a way that fosters a diverse work culture. Creating such an environment is very important to me. This also includes, for example, mentoring programs, but in the right corporate culture, one that gives employees the feeling that they are allowed to develop and grow, regardless of gender. In my opinion, this corporate culture can only be achieved through the interaction of management and the human resources department.

In the past, our managers often had a list of five potential employees at the end of a hiring process. I deliberately say employees here, because usually only men were on this list in the end. Then it is impossible to fill the position in question with a woman. So I have to make sure that at the end of the list there is a diverse spectrum that gives the manager the opportunity to fill a position with a woman, for example. As a personnel manager, I can reject lists from headhunters that only consist of men. Incidentally, when it comes to positions that are traditionally filled by women only, we do not accept lists of female candidates either.

I advise them to overcome their inhibitions about STEM professions and not to accept stereotypical role models. It doesn't always have to be a university degree either. Industry offers a great many exciting apprenticeships. I specifically advise young women and men planning to embark on a career in a STEM field to look for a suitable mentor, regardless of whether or not there is a mentoring program in the company. You can get an incredible amount of added value out of it, as I can say from personal experience.

The interview was conducted by Frauke Itzerott
Head of Robotics and Editor for ROBOTIK UND PRODUKTION