Mayer & Cie wins most attractive SME employer award in Germany

“We have long been aware that we have a special corporate culture,” said Marcus Mayer, one of Mayer & Cie’s two managing partners, who received the award on February 24 in Berlin. “We are told that both by employees, some of whom spend their entire working lives with us, and by business partners. The external survey has now scientifically confirmed this ‘intuitive knowledge’ by underpinning it with figures.”

The Top Job award was presented by former German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. The employee survey on which the Top Job award is mainly based is undertaken by the director of the Institute for Leadership and Human Resources Management at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, Professor Heike Bruch. The survey is carried out online and anonymously. Existing personnel management measures are also analysed, Mayer & Cie said in a press release.

The experts gave Mayer & Cie an especially good rating for ‘culture and communication’. Employees of the long-established company said they particularly appreciate the innovation-friendly, motivating, and dialogue-oriented atmosphere. The textile machinery manufacturer is open to new ideas and facilitates formal and informal exchange across all levels as a matter of principle. By the same token it is convinced that the professional and personal development of each and every individual is important.

The external experts also confirmed the family-like working atmosphere at Mayer & Cie. The company is owned and managed by the fourth generation of the founding family. “Respect, trust and mutual esteem form the foundation of our ‘corporate family’ just as how we practise these values in our own private family,” added Mayer.

This getting on well with each other ensures a powerful identification with the company and its products. Some members of staff are second- or third-generation Mayer & Cie employees. They like to meet each other for lunch, at the bumper summer festival, or for free training in the fitness studio after work.

Praise aside, the external feedback includes homework assignments for the Albstadt-based textile machinery firm. Mayer, who sees them as a privilege, said: “In the further development of our circular knitting machines and braiding machines, we fundamentally see a good result as an incentive. We are looking for approaches to further improvements. Thanks to the external survey, we are now aware of the adjusting screws we can turn in the human resources sector, and we have every intention of turning them because committed, motivated employees are of decisive importance for a company’s long-term success.”

Top Job award winners can lay claim to the Top Job seal of quality for the next two years. Sixty-three per cent of these employers are family firms. Twenty-eight per cent are national and four per cent international market leaders. On average they have 250 employees. All award winners are listed on the Top Job website.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)