„WE CAN MANAGE THAT!” – INSPIRING THE GEN Z
The new HR manager at Schuster Maschinenbau, Maria Schmidt, proves that women can do it just as well as men. For over 1.5 years at Schuster, the 29-year-old has been fully dedicated to the area of “Human Resources”. With a lot of Schuster spirit!
Her goals: Attracting new talent - including female talent - and increasing employee satisfaction. Not an easy task in times of a shortage of skilled workers and the “war for talent”. Her biggest challenges: Filling positions that require specific specialist knowledge and a lot of experience - such as in project management - or in areas where there is plenty of competition, such as in design, IT and accounting. The awareness of Schuster in the region could also be improved - especially among Generation Z. “They tend to go to the big companies in the region that everyone knows,” regrets the HR manager. There is also an unintentional concentration on a small applicant radius of a maximum of 25 kilometers. It is not for nothing that most Schuster employees come from the immediate vicinity.
To increase awareness of Schuster, Schmidt is relying on the creative employer branding campaign “I like to move it, move it”, among other things. This helps young people looking for meaning in a playful way to make a decision when choosing a career. Study or training? Netflixing or flexing? Nine-to-five or high-five? Schuster stands out as a meaningful employer - whether at training fairs, on social media channels or at the local bus stop - and is a talking point.

In any case, personal interaction and “word of mouth” from satisfied Schuster employees remain the most effective means of attracting new employees. “We have a lot of employee recommendations, and they tend to stay with us for longer,” reveals Schmidt. Employee loyalty and satisfaction cannot be imposed or bought with higher wages. Rather, Schmidt is interested in listening carefully to what is really needed in the individual departments and responding with the necessary openness and flexibility. After all, one of the great advantages of a medium-sized company is being able to respond flexibly to the wishes of the workforce. Schmidt’s motto is, for example, if an employee has a family appointment and needs to take time off: “We can manage that!” Schuster’s flexitime model also ensures a good work-life balance and compatibility of family and career.

Openness and fairness are also very important to the trainers. Gender clichés have no place here. Because a career at Schuster is open to everyone. This particularly appeals to the younger generation, for whom girls are more than just “princesses”. The best proof of this are the two female trainees who have recently joined the Schuster team. To ensure that this does not remain an isolated case, HR manager Schmidt would like to see a greater social rethink and more positive initiatives that take away young women’s fear of entering technical professions.

