DORMA: Six years one of Germany's best SME employers

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27.01.2011

Wolfgang Clement confers 'Top Job' award for exemplary personnel management

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Ennepetal, Germany. The Top Job award goes to Germany's best employers. 2011 is the sixth year that the DORMA Group has received this accolade. The University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, polled DORMA's 2,700 employees and analysed its human resource management (HRM) policies in May 2010. The outcome of this survey is that the firm will receive the prestigious Top Job award from project mentor Wolfgang Clement in Duisburg on 27 January this year and will therefore officially be recognised as one of Germany's best employers.

This family-owned business is an international supplier of door-related products and systems. These include door closers, movable room dividers, glass fittings and systems, electronic access control and emergency exit control systems. The academic survey highlights the company's particularly pleasant working environment: its employees' above-average number of years' service is just one indicator that bears testimony to the success of the firm's HR policies and the strong motivation of its staff. The fact that the workforce identifies with its employer is amply illustrated by the 'DORMA look' – as Thomas Höll, head of HR development, explains: "Whenever one of us walks through a door, we look up and down to check whether the right products have been installed." A further indication of the workforce's close ties to the company is the large number of employees who found a job with the DORMA Group as the result of a recommendation. None of the seven German companies in the DORMA Group - all of which have been awarded the Top Job accolade this year - has any difficulty recruiting and retaining young talent.

The company also motivates its employees by giving them performance-related pay and awards, for example in recognition of outstanding achievements by sales staff. Furthermore, staff are rewarded for long periods of loyal service and for making useful suggestions that enhance the company's performance and development. Professor Dr Heike Bruch and her team from the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen scrutinised the work of 169 HR departments at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across all sectors in Germany. They analysed all the key HR tools used and conducted a staff poll. The 72 best firms - DORMA among them - now bear the Top Job accolade for one year.

"We are really proud of the fact that this award is based on the opinions of our workforce", stressed Michael Ecker, head of HR. "What's more, we now know what our staff think about the working environment in our organisation. This is absolutely essential if we want to develop and evolve as a best-practice employer over the long term and adopt the right policies."

The 72 best SME employers have an average workforce of 493 people. The Top Job firms planned to recruit an average of 74 new members of staff in 2010. More than half of the 72 firms awarded the Top Job accolade in 2011 are family-owned businesses. The fact that these companies include 11 global market leaders and 21 domestic market leaders proves that good employers are also commercially successful. Consequently, more than half of the Top Job award-winners pay their staff above the rates stipulated by industry-wide collective bargaining agreements.

Further information on DORMA, the other 71 prize-winning firms and the Top Job project can be found atwww.topjob.de.

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