Dr. Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann - Schau Verlag Hamburg

GO – the Salzgitter AG Generation Offensive 2025
The project is geared to responding to the consequnces of demographic change in a timely manner
Demographic development
and the resulting consequences
for present and future
societies have meanwhile
become a central focus of discussion,
not just in Germany. In addition
to the knock-on effects on social security
systems, it is above all employment
issues that dominate the current socio-political
debate. Companies are increasingly
having to accommodate the
fact that tomorrow’s world of work, and
that of the day after, will be populated
by fewer workers. What’s more,
the work to be accomplished must be
managed by a workforce of a higher average
age and of a very different composition.
The staged increase in the retirement
age and the abolition of partial
early retirement at the end of 2009 will
exacerbate the situation still further.
In order to respond without delay to
the consequences of demographic change
and thereby maintain and enhance the
Group’s ability to compete and innovate
in the long term, back in March
2005 Salzgitter AG launched Project GO
– the Salzgitter AG Generation Offensive
2025.
stil Why has Salzgitter AG decided to initiate
Project GO – the Generation Offensive 2025?
peter-jürgen schneider As part of the
demographic change in society that we have
all heard about, in the coming years the proportion
of older employees among the workforce
as a whole is going to increase substantially.
Legislative action such as the end of
partial early retirement and the increase in
the pensionable retirement age will emphasize
the trend still further.
stil GO is very broad-based. What is the
thinking behind this approach?
schneider Demographic change will impact
the entire structure of society. The number
of school and subsequently university students
will decline, with corresponding effects
on the labor market. So we can’t just concern
ourselves with older employees, we also have
to change the way we recruit the next gen-
Project: GO
The Salzgitter AG Generation Offensive 2025
Corporate culture and
leadership
Work organization,
working hours and pay
Project GO is designed as a collective
learning and development process. In the
past 2 years, employees from all Group
divisions have developed 90 programs
focusing on such diverse aspects as
corporate culture and leadership,
personnel marketing and recruiting,
human resources development and
eration. And there is no point in
delaying preventive action until it
is too late.
stil When will we begin to experience
the first effects of demographic
change?
schneider We are already doing
so. The numbers of children are in
sharp decline, while the proportion
of older people in our society is
growing strongly. And this in turn is
reflected in the workforce.
stil So is GO also a way of safeguarding the
future of the Salzgitter Group?
schneider With GO we aim to offer our
employees the prospect of fulfilling, value-creating
work through to the age of retirement.
At the same time we also intend to safeguard
the company’s ability to compete and innovate
under changing demographic conditions.
Human resources development
and qualification
Health/fitness and
ergonomics
qualification, work organization,
working hours and pay, health /
fitness and ergonomics and integration
management. In the coming years these
programs will gradually be rolled out
at individual Group companies, if
indeed they have not been implemented
already.
“The first steps are already being taken!”
Interview with Peter-Jürgen Schneider Executive Board member at Salzgitter AG with
responsibility for Human Resources
Peter-Jürgen
Schneider
Personnel marketing and
recruitment
Integration
management
stil Are the first specific steps already
being taken?
schneider Yes, by restructuring
company pensions we have gone
some way towards facilitating early
retirement. Our in-house fitness
centers offer the opportunity to
keep fit and take preventive measures
against poor health, and with
a broad-based human resources
development system, efforts are currently
being made at SZFG to substantially
raise the level of qualifications among wage
earners, as well as salaried staff. And there
are a whole lot of other examples I could
name.
GO – the Generation Offensive 2025
will form the basis of our human resources
activities at Salzgitter AG in the years to
come.
“Isn’t it good?” Two girls at the Steel Campus show off their rose made out of steel
Inspiring the next generation with
a love of technology
Salzgitter AG addresses school pupils and students with a diversified outreach
Demographic changes (see left)
are making it progressively more
difficult for German industry to
recruit adequately qualified junior
staff. Now more than ever, it takes commitment
and imagination to inspire school
pupils and students with enthusiasm for a
technical career.
Experts are forecasting that by 2020 the
number of pupils in schools will have fallen
by 18.6 percent, accompanied by shifts
in school types, whereby schools focusing
on practical training will be the losers. Over
the same period, the traditional candidate
base for industrial training courses and apprenticeships
will decline by a third.
Already the problems in attracting young
people to take up engineering- and sciencebased
careers are not to be overlooked, due
mainly to their choice of subject at university.
In the coming years, the number of engineers
entering retirement in Germany will exceed
the number of graduates emerging from universities.
In not a few cases, the choice of career at
various entry levels is marred by irrational
preferences and inadequate information and
dictated by the structural availability of train-
ing places. The universities report vacancies
in sectors that offer prime employment prospects,
such as electrical engineering, for example,
while in other fields the numbers of
students is growing out of all reasonable
proportion to the expected demand for employees
with such qualifications.
Choosing the right career path enables
candidates to avoid failures and frustration, it
conserves the financial resources of both individuals
and society, and it helps to preserve
the economic efficiency on which our ability
to finance the welfare state ultimately depends.
The need to improve career orientation
must therefore be a matter of concern
shared by all social groups.
And that of course includes Salzgitter AG.
The Group attaches great importance to safeguarding
the next generation of employees.
For some years now, Salzgitter AG has used a
whole raft of approaches to appeal to the relevant
target groups.
To reach out to school pupils, school
partnerships, school activities and practical
work experience are all designed to interest
even the youngest in a technical career.
All these measures are backed up by special
events such as the Steel Campus staged
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at the “Ideen-Expo”, the Ideas Fair in Hanover
which attracted over 60,000 school pupils
in the autumn of 2007. Under the guidance
of trainees from Salzgitter AG, both girls and
boys got better acquainted with steel as a material
through the medium of play.
In June 2007, in a joint venture by Salzgitter
AG and the phaeno “science theme park”
in Wolfsburg, 70 groups drawn from Years
10 to 13 gained a lasting impression of what
metal working is all about.
In order to address students, Salzgitter
AG maintains close contacts with numerous
universities in Germany through joint research
projects, sponsored professorships,
study grants, etc. The 15 or so annual graduate
careers fairs also play an important part.
In 2007 for example, events were held at the
RWTH Aachen University and the Technical
University Brunswick.
In addition, Salzgitter AG also offers integrated
degree programs, sponsors students
studying abroad and awards various study
prizes. “All of these approaches are aimed at
safeguarding our next generation of em-
ployees as well as making a contribution to society
as a whole,” explained Peter-Jürgen Schneider,
Personnel Director at Salzgitter AG.
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PHOTO: UDO BOJAHR