Schmalz Receives Award for Exemplary Human Resources Management

05.02.2010

Schmalz wins Axia Award from the consulting and financial services group, Deloitte, for sustainable and successful human resource management.

The consulting and auditing company has honored medium-sized companies for sustainable and successful economic management for the last three years. Winners are honored with the Axia Award. The ancient Greek term "axia" means worth, ability and success, and combines key aspects of the work and challenges of medium-sized companies. The Axia Award 2009 placed a particular focus on the success factors of sustainable business management in unstable times.

The vacuum specialist, Schmalz, based in Glatten, Germany, was the 2009 winner in the area “human resource management”. With 16 branches around the world and partners in a further 40 countries, Schmalz has developed into an internationally active business group. Schmalz can proudly look back on successful company development spanning 100 years thanks to sustainable economic management, high levels of innovation and top commitment from its employees. By the millennium, the company already had 173 employees. Today, ten years later, 560 employees work hard for the success of the company. In spite of, or perhaps as a result of this enormous growth, the company's management never lost sight of the importance of the employees.

Social commitment in the interest of the employees is a given. "We vest in trusting and mutually cooperative treatment of our employees and in a broad commitment to the training and education of young people," says Dr. Kurt Schmalz, Managing Director. All important decisions are taken jointly with the elected employees' council. The company also offers a broad range of leisure activities, such as the company's own beach volleyball field or the recreational area on the Schmalz ecological discovery trail. Last but not least, the company's own Schmalz Academy offers further training for all employees.

Fair wages, health-based and performance-based premiums as well as profit sharing on the one hand, and travel and lunch allowances, free beverages, free flu shots, ergonomic office workstations and no-smoking bonuses on the other hand make Schmalz one of the area's most attractive employers.

But the vacuum specialist doesn't just vest in being appealing financially. Secure jobs and sustainable economic management also have top priority at Schmalz. The company managed to maintain the jobs of the entire fixed staff even throughout the crisis year 2009. "In the turbulence of 2009, even Schmalz had to adjust its costs to the overall economic situation. Keeping jobs always had the highest priority for us", said Wolfgang Schmalz, Managing Director.

A traditional and deep commitment to training young people is another of the special features of the company. Schmalz currently employs 60 apprentices and students at cooperative universities at its headquarters in Glatten, Germany, This corresponds to a training rate of 14% of all permanent staff in Germany. Young people are trained in trades and professions in seven commercial and industrial areas, and five degree programs offered jointly with the cooperative universities in Horb and Villingen-Schwenningen. Schmalz also creates apprenticeships for young people with learning disabilities, offering them a fair start in the professional world.

The honoring of the winners, coming from the German state Baden-Württemberg, took place in the hotel “Le Méridien” in Stuttgart on Thursday. Guest speaker Heniz Dürr, chairman of the supervisory board of the Dürr AG, gave the speech “Family-run companies are the medium-sized businesses”, the evening was moderated by Michael Prellberg from Financial Times Germany. The awards went to the vacuum technology company J. Schmalz GmbH, to the specialist for thermal insulation Schöck, to the manufacturer of woodworking systems HOMAG Group as well as to Vetter Pharma International, a producer of aseptic prefilled injection systems. The jury declared the business management of the winner companies as outstanding, each in one of the four areas Internationalisation, Innovation Management, Human Ressources Management and Customer Relationship Management.

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