Diversity & Inclusion is an important issue for us. With our company-wide diversity management, we promote diversity, tolerance and equal opportunities at DKV Mobility. To begin with, we would like to focus on the topic of women in leadership: Our goal is to increase the proportion of women in management positions to at least 40% by 2027.

To bring you closer to the topic of diversity, this year we will be conducting regular interviews with important stakeholders and role models at DKV Mobility. After you have already read the interviews with Peter Meier (CFO), Jana Eggerding (CHRO), Markus Präßl (MD Sales & Customer Service), Jérome Lejeune (MD Toll & Refund Services) and Sven Mehringer (MD EVS), we would now like to let our COO, Jesper Erichsen, have his say.

What is your motivation to drive diversity at DKV Mobility?

Diversity in all forms means that we allow for more perspectives and different input, we benefit from various competencies and diverse hard and soft skills. In summary, diversity in all dimensions, not solely in terms of gender, helps us make better choices, find answers to our questions and hear different viewpoints. Let me give you an example: In summer 2020, my team and I were discussing how to adapt our front end (i.e. the part of our websites that the customers can see). The discussion was going on and after we took a short break, someone in our group said: “Listen guys, are we really the right people to answer these questions?” When I looked around, I saw seven people, all male, all German (except for me) and on average over 50 years of age and our answer to the question whether we were the right people to discuss our topic was “No”.

This situation was one of a few eye-openers regarding diversity and if I had to summarize my motivation it would boil down to the fact that it is not only a tool to drive our success and reach our purpose, but also a societal duty we need to face.

What have you learned so far in terms of diversity?

I have learned that it starts in every single one of us. Everybody needs to do his/her share, but someone has to start, and that person is always yourself. I always considered myself very open to women in leadership due to my wife and my two daughters outnumbering me at home. But I had an interesting discussion with a female mentee of mine that made me think again: She asked me if I remembered a steering committee meeting, we both attended three weeks back and I agreed. She then briefly laid out the discussion again and told me that within the discussion she gave her input, and no one reacted. Five minutes later, a male colleague brought in almost the exact same thought, and everyone congratulated him on the great idea. She then asked me how I thought that this made her feel. In the steerco meeting, I had honestly failed to notice but I understood what she meant, and we actually discussed a few more examples.

What I learned from this is that this is not only about the number of women you have in your department, if you do not pay attention to the small things in daily life, we cannot drive the change.

What goals have you set yourself to advance diversity?

In my division, we are dealing with a very male-dominated field and therefore also very few female leaders, but if we want to change that, we have to take an honest look at the mirror and realize that it all starts with us, as individuals. We also have to admit, though, that the situation is not our current employees’ fault, so we need to find a balance in driving the change.

One very concrete aspect that we are focusing on right now is building a pipeline of (female) talents. In the SSC in Romania, we have got the chance to build something new and we wanted to change something – and it worked. Our MD in Romania is a woman, our finance manager is a woman, we have a female head-of department, female team leaders and are generally more diverse.

I have also already realized that our new part-time offer applying to all positions is helping us recruit women. We have now got two new female team leaders whom I´m not sure would have taken the job if we had not offered them the opportunity to work part-time. Another important aspect is that we win over a younger group of leaders by offering part-time thus not only increasing gender diversity but also age.

I have also adopted a habitus from an EB colleague: He told me that whenever we have a shortlist of candidates to fill a position, he always wants to speak to the best woman and the best man. Even if the female may be fifth on the list, he wants to talk to her as well. It is a very concrete and simple way to increase chances for women.

And finally, we are also sending two candidates for our Front Runners Program: one man and one woman. If it can be two women, that would be great, but it has to be at least one.

What is your tip for all women at DKV Mobility who want to advance their careers?

My advice would be to seize opportunities and apply for leadership positions. In my 30 years of leadership, I experienced that many women give a lot of thought into this decision wondering how they may deal with their small children and how this may affect their husband’s careers etc. They see challenges and obstacles and sometimes hesitate to assume leadership positions, whereas men are convinced they will overcome the problems and apply. We as a company will help you wherever we can, but we need to know your ambitions to be able to support you.

Unconscious biases are considered the biggest barriers to greater diversity in the company. Exactly which bias do you want to break?

I want to break biases in everyday life, such as the two examples I mentioned before. Therefore, I try to be much more alert and sensitive in discussions to ensure that people’s input, no matter their gender, is heard. My team and employees are also very interested in participating in the unconscious-bias trainings and we aim to get more people into these courses. What I would really like is that men in my field of responsibility also evinced interest in the topic and were willing to learn about biases and how to deal with them. This would really help support our overall and my personal diversity goals.