Alena Klinz

We get quite a lot of confidence from our CEO.

Alena Klinz | weleda

Isabella Heidinger, Head of HR

HR departments should refrain from ‘cooking’ up a concept behind closed doors and then presenting it to the employees.

Isabella Heidinger, Head of HR | weleda

Uwe Urbschat

Our leaders are allowed to take a lot of time to reflect the own leadership-behaviour.

Uwe Urbschat | weleda

Isabella Heidinger, Head of HR

Leading is a challenging task that you simply cannot do casually.

Isabella Heidinger, Head of HR | weleda

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Weleda

“The year 2012 was like sailing on the high seas in biting wind and under considerable turbulence,” says Uwe Urbschat. The traditional company Weleda witnessed an unusually rapid and vital change in 2012. After decades characterized by stable revenues, beginning in 2008 Weleda repeatedly experienced losses. Within a week, the two main anthroposophical shareholders exchanged both the board and the chief executive officer. At the same time, they introduced the new “Culture and Identity Management” under the leadership of Uwe Urbschat. This particular corporate culture, which grew over decades, should be firmly anchored within the company right at the time when Weleda had to find a new balance between humanitarian and economic efficiency.

The painful restructuring made the company more efficient. However, Weleda always set its core competency on humanity. “In harmony with man and nature” is the slogan of co-founder Rudolf Steiner.

Due to his experience, the new CEO, Ralph Heinisch, successfully restructured the “black figures” of the company. At the same time, Uwe Urbschat took care of the roots and the inner stability of the enterprise. Particularly in times of change, employees are looking for meaning and values which provide stability. Weleda started various offers (again) to meet those needs. Curricula on identity and the core values of the company, programs on anthroposophy, life biographies, and so-called working hours—which provided information about the business, its history, and its products—helped.

Meanwhile, Weleda navigates back to calm waters. In the calm after the storm, it became obvious: before, during, and after the crisis, the company has created a model environment, which gave employees the opportunity to grow beyond themselves.

THE GENERATION NETWORK

Already in 2005 Weleda had received recognition from the outside. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder handed it the Innovation Award for the idea of the so-called “Generation Network.”

The idea was born in the year 2003 when Weleda, as the first German employer, showed interest in certification for the “Work and Family” initiative from the Hertie Foundation. By now the company has acquired the “Work and Family Audit” certificate for the fourth time and distinguished itself as a family-oriented company.

In preparation for this certification, the personnel managers of Weleda asked: How can the two areas, work and life, be better balanced? Little did they know that the best answers come from those who relate to this issue or who are directly affected. They conducted a survey of current and former employees. In dialogue with staff and retirees, it became increasingly apparent that active employees often lack time. At the same time, former employees expressed the desire for meaningful “jobs” for their current life situations.

Once the needs were transparent, a common idea arose: Both groups could take on responsibility for each other as they would for extended families and neighborhoods. Starting with this idea, a project team was founded in 2004. During the first meetings, they looked at the survey responses in greater detail, collected ideas, and drew up a framework for how young and old could support each other.

Shortly after, they installed a showcase in the foyer of the company. This board provided information about offers and inquiries from employees and retirees. The offers are various and come in a kind of bartering system. There are requests such as, “I’ll make you a cake but need someone to mow my lawn” and “I don’t have time to do the family washing; who could help me for a little money?” and “Who can I call in an emergency if my child is sick and I need a caregiver?”

Over time, a partially solid support network formed. Christina Sauer, a young mother and part-time trainee, was lucky and found a “nanny of choice” for her daughter. Time-wise, the days when she had to go to vocational training were hard to master. The Weleda Kita (Kindergarten) of her daughter opened at 7 a.m.; however, the train left earlier. That meant she would never arrive on time. Through the Generations Network, she found Cornelia Oesterle, who stepped in to support the young family. Twice a week in the morning she picks up her “granddaughter of choice” and drives her to the daycare center. “Getting up early was easy for me, and we both got on well,” the “nanny of choice” recalls. Oesterle would even go to the Parent Night if the mother was unable to attend due to training. “I listened carefully and wrote everything down so that Mrs. Sauer knew all the important things,” says the “nanny of choice.”

The idea gets a lot of support from the organization. Weleda seemed to have understood the need for workers early on. A representative survey of the enterprise for Consumer Research shows that for 92 percent of employees, the reconciliation of work and family life has become at least as important as their incomes.

The project manager, Dr. Isabella Heidinger, would like other companies to implement this idea. However, she warns, “HR departments should refrain from ‘cooking’ up such a concept behind closed doors and then presenting it to the workers. It was crucial for us to find the exact needs of our employees. We worked closely with all networkers to eventually implement this project.”

A PREDICATE OF LEADERSHIP

In the crisis year, 2012, three central functions disappeared at each management level. This was painful for all involved, the company wrote in its annual report. At the same time it was apparent that the rest of the management team had to be strengthened.

“Leading is a challenging task that you simply cannot do casually. We hope that every leader can take more time for his leadership,” said Dr. Isabella Heidinger. Weleda has set up a new program with the idea that employees who have been with the company a long time, as well as newcomers, can gain a common understanding of leadership. At the same time, it is designed to support all managers in terms of their personal and individual development paths. “In Weleda I can be part of an all-new leadership style,” enthuses Sabine Brutsch, team leader for International Shopping. “In my previous employment, all leading ideas were dictated by the personnel department of the employer. Here, I am asked what I think would be meaningful.”

The joint management of the business should not only be implemented on paper but be obligatory. At the end of the annual cycle, successful participants will be awarded a predicate provided that the set managerial development objectives were achieved.

Now every manager at Weleda participates in a kick-off meeting in which both the guide values as well as the management methods are presented transparently. Executives who are less than two years into their leadership roles or who just recently joined the company participate in an additional workshop in which the methods are covered once again. With that, the joint workshops are finished. All other measures are individually tailored for each executive.

Every manager starts with a 360-degree feedback perception of his environment. The feedback questions are matched to the Weleda leadership values of ”role modelling, trust and responsibility.” That should help the manager find out how he is perceived by his team. “We want our managers to take the time to reflect on their entrepreneurial behavior,” says Uwe Urbschat.

The ideal value competencies which Urbschat wants as head of the Culture and Identity Management department for executives at the Weleda AG are as follows:

1. A holistic, development-oriented image of man

2. Openness and interest in the anthroposophical background of the company

3. A focus on the principles of dialogic management

4. Knowledge of and orientation to the current values of Weleda

5. An awareness of one’s own biography and personal development for the near future

The dialogic management has as a goal that each employee shows a high degree of self-efficacy and responsibility—one of the neurobiological basic needs, which is inherent in every human being. Thereby, managers create a framework for workers to: a) develop their potential; and b) engage better with their work. “With previous employers, I experienced leadership more as a monitoring,” says Serdar Alkoyak, shift supervisor for the last year and in the company for four years. Dialogic leadership, on the other hand, feels more like “together we are strong.”

Following the 360-degree feedback, a dialogue with the supervisor starts about the most important areas of development. Together they set development goals on which the executive works. The personnel development supports the agreed-upon development goals with individual workshops, fresh-ups, or coaching. “We had similar offers for personal development even before that,” says Dr. Birgit Brander, head of the International Quality Unit. “But now these workshops are much more coordinated. Above all, in terms of personal management, you can select a task.”

After a period of 12 months, a new 360-degree feedback is performed. That gives the executives insight into what has changed in terms of “One Year of Conscious Leadership.” This is followed by another dialog with the supervisor, who then decides whether the leadership predicate is awarded. “It may well happen that an employee finds out that he is better suited for a specialist role than for a leadership role,” says Head of the HR Competence Centre, Heidinger. “By the end of 2015, all 200 managers should have acquired a leadership title within the German-speaking countries. However, the program is so well received that the number is likely to be higher. Already, even some of the temporary managers are knocking on our doors, wanting to participate.”

NATURALS BY WELEDA

Once the number went back into the black again and all the executives worked towards their predicates, the youngest people in the company received a very particular task from the new CEO. In the summer of 2013, Ralph Heinisch decided to establish their own junior company together with the trainees and students from Weleda. The underlying idea was that this was the best way for the young people to learn about the complexity of a company. Moreover, this kind of learning would provide them with insight into areas they would not gain by going through the traditional cycle of training.

In autumn 2013, the junior company, “Naturtalente (Naturals) by Weleda,” was founded. Even if the enterprise does not have a legal form, it is completely in the hands of nearly 30 apprentices and students who build their own business, from product planning to bringing it to market.

As early as summer 2014, the junior company intended to sell its first product. “It is surprising how much time you have to spend on product testing and the according authorities,” says Andreas Barth. At age 19, he is the youngest of the three managing directors, a first-year trainee of the start-up company. It is not only the authorities who make the process demanding. “I never realized that it would involve that many people for the development of a new product and to bring it to the market,” says his colleague, Alena Klinz. “We get quite a lot of confidence from our CEO and we are going about it with a lot of enthusiasm,” says the 20-year-old.

“From the beginning, values were important to us in our small company,” says Jung-Managing Director Klinz. “Besides the marketing and sales, finance, and product development, we also have our own ‘Value Team.’ It is the team’s responsibility to observe how we treat each other. For example, for each team meeting we have the “From the Heart Round.” This gives every employee the opportunity to say what’s on his mind, should there be something. Then it gets easier to talk about the business world.”

Having its own values is important to the junior company. It keeps the dynamic of the company together. Due to the particular dual roles of the “employees,” between high school or vocational school on the one hand and the practical phases at Weleda on the other, the fluctuation rate is very high. Once the training is completed, the trainees—even if they continue working at Weleda—hand over their jobs at Naturals by Weleda. “Every March, two-thirds of our marketing and sales teams changes,” says Antonia Jeismann, project manager, who is in charge of the junior company on behalf of the HR department. Therefore, flexibility is crucial, both in the structures and in minds.

In 2014, at the Regional Garden Show in Schwabisch Gmund, the junior company wanted to sell its own product, not in commerce but directly to the end customer. However, in such a short time it is impossible to develop a marketable natural cosmetics range. The product testing on its own takes months, if not years. Therefore, the young team borrowed a product of the mother company; the famous Calendula soap was completely redesigned, equipped with the newly created logo “Naturals at Weleda,” and repackaged. “Once our junior company brings its product to the market at the Regional Garden Show, it is sold in the Weleda shop,” says project manager Jeismann. “As Naturals, we will donate part of the turnover for the protection of bees.”

Just as in other successful companies, you can see in Weleda that a high level of trust in employees is powerful and inspiring. Staff learn that they are seen and that they have the power to co-create, which in turn gives them the strength to grow far beyond themselves. This approach sets free a high level of enthusiasm. The invisible takes on form, giving people the momentum to develop their natural potential accordingly.

The Generation Network is also enthusiastic; the first retired employees support the young people already as senior experts.

FIRMENFAKTEN

Weleda AG was founded in 1921 and is now the world leader in the manufacturing of holistic natural cosmetics and pharmaceuticals for anthroposophical medicine.

The company’s headquarters is in Arlesheim, a small suburb of Basel in Switzerland. The German subsidiary in Schwäbisch-Gmünd employs 750 of a total of 1,900 employees worldwide.

In 2012, the turnover of the Weleda Group was EUR 322 million.