employees
in focus
Good corporate governance
十个员工中的四名员工在家里工作，全世界各地的生产设施，最重要的是我们同事的健康问题：人力资源部遇到2020年的一些意外任务。在这次采访中，博士人力资源负责人Iñigonatzel解释了世界各地群体所面临的挑战需要克服。
Dr. Natzel, the coronavirus pandemic shook the global economy and even turned it upside-down in many areas. How did Symrise react to the developments?
Like many others, we underestimated the coronavirus pandemic in the early stages when it started to spread around Asia. No one saw the pandemic coming. In those first weeks, everyone thought that the coronavirus would be a locally confined phenomenon. Most importantly, however, we did not foresee the disruptive power of the pandemic – with its impact not only on public health but also on our daily private and working lives. That is why, this year, we focused our attention on our employees more than ever before.
What does that exactly mean?
Our traditional HR standards, such as our rules for working from home, were no longer adequate. We needed to ensure that our employees could get through the crisis healthy and safe. Therefore, we first identified how we could protect those working in our plants all over the world. Production could not be interrupted. For this reason, we increased our occupational safety regulations, provided disinfectants for hands and surfaces everywhere, had offices and warehouses cleaned more often, installed plexiglass panels wherever needed, and, of course, made it mandatory for employees to wear face masks in common areas.
How many employees are working from home?
When the pandemic first peaked in the spring it was 40 %, which then plateaued between 20 and 25 % during the course of the year. That is a very high percentage for a production plant and still first needed to work in technical terms. Employees required equipment, needed to be provided with video conference tools and had to figure out themselves how to balance work and family, which partially converged at home. We also provided our flexible support in this area.
Working from home has been part of everyday working life since the spring of 2020. How did you experience this at Symrise?
由于我们员工巨大的参与，我的经历很大程度上是积极的。一如既往，我们的劳动力为我们的成功做出了贡献。通过这种大规模的变化，我们还确定了一些我们可以改善的领域。
What would be an example?
Our managers faced the challenge of leading their teams virtually. Some of the employees were in the office; others at home. In addition to that, there were some living in other time zones and were unable to travel. This greatly complicates management duties. And we also had to make clear to the employees working at our factories, meaning those who could not work from home, that their health is just as important to us. Because of that, we introduced, for example, staggered working times in the labs and handover periods for shifts in production. On top of that, we gave a one-time “corona bonus” to all employees as recognition for their effort. This put those who earn less in a better situation in relation to those who earn more – which was important for us.
45 % of promoted employees
in 2020 were women.
所有员工都很困难。你能够在公司的情绪感受吗？
是的，我们在夏天在夏天进行了这一员工，在20个焦点小组中有一些在线，其他人在线，有超过50个个人访谈。除此之外，我们还发布了调查卡，数千人已经回到了我们。我们对结果很高兴，因为他们证实我们在危机期间负责任地致力于致力于。此外，员工明确表示他们喜欢他们的工作，涉及创造力和创新技术，并且他们将他们的活动视为有意义的活动，因为我们对这么多人的生活产生了积极的影响，并制造了越来越多的可持续产品。这显然也允许我们在争夺工作市场中的斗争中。
Continued education, which has always been important to Symrise, is also beneficial to that end. How were you able to ensure it?
After realigning the core processes, such as performance measurement, we turned our attention to career development. This included, of course, the establishment of corresponding feedback processes and the further development of the teams. The latter in particular is not easy during times in which people are confined to their domestic environment due to the pandemic. We tried to ensure as much communication as possible.
How did you manage to promote individual careers further?
This year we rolled out our new global career development process called “Grow”. Through it, we aim to give employees feedback regarding their career development and identify those who have the potential to leap forward in their careers in line with our succession planning. We use our global HR management toolcareer@symrise为了这。1,700名员工在2020年获得反馈意见。其中90％收到了详细的发展计划，270人被确定为有可能被视为管理职责。这些流程使我们能够查看谁，例如，需要更多的国际经验或者谁应该用于价格谈判，介绍或沟通技巧的培训课程。我们将越来越依赖电子学习这些培训课程，这些培训会议也集成在成长平台中。由于冠状病毒，我们移动了我们所有的现场培训课程，如语言课程，管理或沟通研讨会，在2020年回到电子学习。许多员工使用时间锁定以提高他们的技能。
All over the world, women had to dedicate even more time to family again while working from home due to the coronavirus. Is that a setback for the efforts to further diversify the working world?
我希望不是。事实上，当谈到灵活的工作模型时，它并不容易解决所有社会群体的需求。但我仍然乐观：确定在2020年评估中潜在适合管理职责的一半雇员是妇女，这是我们继承执行局两次管理水平的继承规划中的第三个。我们的“未来一代领导发展”计划中有40％的参与者是妇女 - 顺便提及，我们在2020年的45％促销雇员是妇女的事实中，我们也看到了上升趋势。
The coronavirus pandemic placed enormous demands on humanity in many areas, but it also accelerated processes such as digitalization. What has Symrise taken from these developments?
我们将继续基于遥控工作中获得的经验，但在冠状病毒大流行期间没有相同的程度。但是，我认为我们可以改善某些领域的工作生活平衡，例如，如果员工必须从他们的工作场所返回他们的家园。我们还通过学会将某些事件作为视频会议进行贡献，我们也在这里做出贡献。通过这种方式，Symrise更灵活，更快，我们可以通过减少较少来减少我们的碳排放。然而，意识到创造性和创新类型需要直接与各部门和团队中的其他人进行互动的创意和创新类型也很重要。因此，我们正朝着数字和模拟的健康工作模型。
Three women tell us about their
careers at Symrise.
Responsibility
我是我贸易学徒的唯一女性，也是我的技术高中，我专注于施工技术。在获得我的建筑学位的同时，我有很多女性同学，但我是在施工管理中的其他一些比起草的更感兴趣。这就是我降落的地方：完成了我的学业后，我搬到了霍尔茨蒙登以个人原因，我听说，对马绍尔建设部门正在寻找一个新的队友。在我的责任领域，我有一个难以置信的自由，我的工作是非常多样化的。我在承包商和规划师之间生产工作列表，协调，部署内部技术人员，我参与我们植物的生产网站的规划和建设，并在此之上，必须验证发票。我们需要在日常运行的制造业务中实施不同的项目。作为架构师，无论如何，我们总是承担巨大的责任。我们正在处理化学品，有时是高度爆炸性的物质，这意味着根本没有意外的空间。这是一个巨大的，但也是令人兴奋的挑战。
在建设管理时
Support
I have worked at Symrise for eleven years, and during this time I have taken one interesting step after the next. The company has supported me in many ways – not only by assigning me exciting tasks with a high degree of responsibility but with an adequate work-life balance. After studying chemistry in Strasbourg, France, I obtained a doctorate in Karlsruhe on the synthesis of naturally occurring substances followed by a research stay in Shanghai. After that, I decided to enter the industry. Since I was still living in Frankfurt with my husband and first child at the time, the first step was directly finding a spot at a day care in Holzminden, with the help of Symrise. Additionally, the company offered us an adequate position for my husband. When our second child was born, he was able to go on parental leave for five months. That allowed me to go back to work sooner, where I led a team of laboratory managers and later a new group assembled to accelerate the process from fragrance development to market-readiness. Within a year, we managed to increase the output of captives – meaning the proprietary, distinctive molecules of Symrise – from renewable raw materials by 430 %. What also comes to mind is a network of women in the company.
相信
I’ve always had the feeling that women can have successful careers with us in the research department of the Flavor division. We have many female colleagues at the management level who – like me – always receive a lot of support. Still, I joined Symrise rather by coincidence. I studied nutrition at the Technical University of Munich and, during an internship, met a flavorist who helps develop new flavors. That immediately caught my interest, and I changed my focus area to food science. Later I was able to write my dissertation in the research department of Symrise – that was a great opportunity. During that time I sensed a great deal of trust and was even entrusted with responsibility for the lab and the first female chemical lab technician. With the exception of a short seven-month absence – during which I conducted research on cheese products in New Zealand – I have been at Symrise since 2003. In 2012, I completed a training program as a flavorist. I also oversee research on an ongoing basis, lead a team and now also the Flavor Academy, where we train the next generation.
R&T FUNCTIONAL FLAVOR SOLUTIONS,
FLAVOR SEGMENT
