Values and principles

 

Mutually defined values and principles are the foundation of our company. They form the basis and guidelines of our conduct.

In our daily work we focus both on people and on results. We work in order to achieve results that our relevant to our customers - as people. That is why we focus on our common values. They give us something on which to focus our long-term decisions and provide all our employees with security. The dependable focus on our values generates trust.

Irrespective of any religious influence, together we have freely defined these values in order to provide the basis for good collaboration.

Our values are also the basis of our management principles. Here we have described in our own words how our managers would like to manage employees.

We would like to measure ourselves against these guidelines by means of feedback talks. Productive feedback relies on openness among each other. Moreover, feedback is the foundation for personal development in our company.

Working well together based on defined values is a necessary condition for achieving a sense of purpose at work. Every one of us spends a major part of their lifetime at work, and each of us is responsible for how we organise our lifetime. It has been shown that a people who see a purpose to their work, also work better (see also the works of Viktor Frankl on this subject). That is the advantage that our company has as a whole - and by which we will ensure our future.

 

How does a company come up with the idea of defining its values and principles?

As a family company, from the very beginning we were proud of our corporate culture and our good collaboration. Well into the 80s it was still common to have a barbecue together on Friday evening after work, seeing out the week with sausages and beer. Every employee was invited to this by Klaus Kuhn. There were no problems with relating to one another.

Increasing growth saw the introduction of shift work and the number of employees grew year by year. There were an increasing number of "new faces". In the meantime we have almost 200 employees - how do you create a "common spirit", and how do we maintain the good sense of collaboration throughout the company?

From the company management to temporary staff, everyone wants to work in a company where there is a feeling of cooperation. This is an important condition in being able to generate productive performance in the first place.

Therefore, in the 90s we first defined our own "Rules towards good collaboration" in management circles and discussed them every year. It helped us to make decisions on important issues and in particular was a yardstick for ourselves.

In 2003 we expanded this to the definitions of our values, our management principles and our code of conduct in a group of 20 leading employees. One weekend in June these three fundamentals were set out in writing and consequently signed by everybody. A copy can be found on the wall of every member of management.

In 2005 all employees finally defined in writing and signed a common code of conduct in their respective teams without any instructions "from the top" or other influence on each other, just for themselves, based on our company values. Unlike at, say, "Wal Mart", these are not compulsory regulations given from above, but rules of the game, which our employees bestow on themselves.

Of course values only serve any use if we conduct ourselves in accordance with them and if we live them out in our daily activities. Therefore, systematic feedbacks about actual conduct in relation to the defined values are an important, regular exercise for us. They provide us with a valuable impetus to improve.

The written definitions have not resulted in any revolutionary changes among each other all of a sudden. Over the years, however, a very important development is taking place - step by step. In the meantime it has become apparent that we all remember our values especially in critical situations. We no longer supply parts for weapons because in our view this cannot be reconciled with our values. We are proud of the fact that people from all countries and all religions are fully accepted at our company and that performance clearly comes first, irrespective of their cultural background.

We can no longer imagine our company without our values, therefore. It would be like a shell without a core that can easily collapse in on itself in times of crisis. The core is just what we are given in difficult times.

 

Tolerance

  • Accept co-workers as they are
  • Ability to work as part of a team


Health

  • Occupational safety
  • Integrity
  • Ergonomically correctly laid out working environment

Humanity

  • Humane working conditions
  • Fairness
  • Willingness to cooperate
  • Will to consent
  • Refrain from workplace bullying
  • Find a balance between worktime and leisure time

Sense of Responsibility

Ethically justifiable products

  • Job security
  • Health
  • Product quality
  • Product safety
  • Health in the private sector

Honesty

  • Honesty
  • Admit to mistakes
  • Be straightforward
  • Meet realistic agreements
  • Relay information quickly

Esteem

  • Respect
  • Dispute correctly
  • Listen


Reliability

  • Abide by your promises
  • Be punctual
  • Discipline

Openness

  • Critical faculties
  • Be open to new things
  • Feedback
  • Discretion
  • Information with changes

 

 

  • We will always treat our employees with honesty,
    reliability, decency and tolerance.
  • We will respect and pay attention to our employees.
  • We are responsible for our employees.
  • We will react sensibly and helpfully to all our employees concerns.
  • We will create trust and clarity through transparency and openness.
  • We are committed to improvement, willingness to learn and creativity.
  • We will act responsibly and thus promote reaching goals in conformity with the efficiency and the state of knowledge of our employees.
  • We will offer regular feedback and also demand this of our employees.
  • We will promote critical faculties and thus create the basis for a good working relationship.
  • We will take consistent action in relation to these management guidelines and will thus fulfill our model function.

 

 

  • We will make decisions and consistently pursue our goals for common success.
  • We will conclude realistic agreements, which we will formulate clearly and explicitly and will staunchly adhere to.
  • We will provide and ask for relevant information in good time.
  • We will speak frequently and honestly with each other, will listen, and will ask for and provide constructive feedback.
  •  We will accept responsibility for our actions.
  • We will stand by our mistakes.
  • We will respect other people's opinions and are willing to compromise.
  • We will improve our personal knowledge and skills and are open to new things.
  • We will continuously work to improve procedures.

 

 

At our management workshop in June 2005, we discussed the subject of openness at our company intensively and together thought about how we could make further progress on this important company value.

Our company is known for its open and honest corporate culture. It was therefore a question here of "strengthening strengths" and looking in terms of continuous company development at ways in which we could improve in this area.

Openness affects all the subjects that are important to the company, such as quality, costs, customers, security, competition, employees etc.. It does not go as far as private matters, as long as the concerns of the company do not take precedence.

Treating all the subjects important to the company openly gives us many benefits:

  • Greater trust
  • Higher productivity
  • Faster ability to respond
  • Better understanding
  • Time saving
  • More ideas
  • Better implementation of ideas
  • Better participation in ideas
  • Better development

 

 

It is not always an easy subject. How can I also tell him something negative now and again (thereby providing an impetus towards improvement), without damaging the relationship, stirring up resentment or doing harm to myself in some way?
 

One of our central values in the company is openness. In our agreement about openness, amongst other things we undertook on 24 June 2005 to

  • praise open conduct
  • shoulder worries and admit our own mistakes
  • give quick feedback
  • accept criticism and remain on a professional level
  • be open to questions and not see them as an attack.

In order to also practice this at the company, we encourage and ask for open feedback, in particular from our employees to our managers. Open feedback is a present! It gives the recipient a chance to obtain an honest view from outside. Amongst other things it gives him the opportunity

  • to learn about defects
  • to discover misunderstandings
  • to learn about missing or incorrect information
  • to learn something about the effect of his personality and conduct and in particular
  • to be able to compare the image of himself with that of someone else.

No workshop, training course or self-analysis can provide this. The benefits of open feedback go way beyond any manager evaluation.

Feedback is not a one-sided issue. One of its basic requirements is trusting in the ability of the recipient to accept feedback and in the honesty of the person giving feedback. This trust must and can only come about with time.
What we can learn is the right basic approach to feedback. For the feedback giver this includes

  • the right formulation so that feedback can also be accepted,
  • the right preparation preferably with facts and examples so that it can be understood
  • distinguishing between factual description and personal evaluation ("I have experienced.. /I felt that was...")
  • the inner approach that one's own feedback has to be received but not accepted - that is always a free decision on the part of the receiver - as well as
  • the clear aim of feedback to improve something at the company.

For the feedback receiver it is important

  • to learn to listen,
  • to only ask questions if there is a lack of understanding, but not to give justification immediately,
  • even in case of clumsy or misleading formulation not to see it as a personal attack, but instead
  • to also have the clear aim in mind to improve something at the company.

It is not at all easy with everything involved in "speaking your mind" to your boss, but also to a colleague, employee or someone you live with (think of your partner!) - when you also want this to have an effect. Yet you can soon see that feedback ideally links the key values of openness, trust and development and therefore has to be a part of our company - as this is the basis of our long-term success!