We are guided by our passion for people

Interview with Jana Eggerding-Tenhagen, CHRO of DKV Mobility

Jana, congratulations: DKV Mobility is not only a Great Place to Work, but has also been once again certified as Top Employer this year. These awards reflect a high level of satisfaction among your employees and the outstanding quality of their practices. What do you think characterizes DKV Mobility as a good employer?

Thank you very much. The certificates are above all an incentive! But of course, they are also confirmation that we have a whole range of areas in which we are already very good at: From our training and qualification opportunities to a great working environment, the latest technologies, flexible working hours, a strong team spirit, our constant appetite for innovation and new ideas and much more. In recent years in particular, we have made enormous progress in developing more flexible working hours.

Regarding flexible working hours: Something that is very important to many people today is the option to work remotely. How do you deal with this?

After the coronavirus pandemic, we introduced a hybrid working model in which every employee can decide for themselves, within certain limits, how much they work on-site in the office or from a remote location. Everyone is, of course, welcome to work 100% of the time in our extremely modern offices. There are those who come to the office every day. The general expectation is that 60 percent of the monthly working time should take place in the office and 40 percent remotely. This makes the working space very flexible, meaning I can choose to be in the office in the morning and work remotely in the afternoon. This allows us to meet the needs of parents or employees with family in need of care, for example. Working remotely could also be anywhere in Germany, not just home. A particular incentive for many is that our employees can also work remotely in other EU countries for up to 20 days a year.

Isn't there a risk that cohesion within the company and communication between employees will suffer if everyone is in the office at different times or working remotely?

At the beginning, we also asked ourselves whether the connection with the company and the exchange between employees would suffer. However, experience in recent years has shown that a good mix of remote and on-site working is actually more conducive for employee satisfaction, a high team culture and productivity. From a technical point of view, collaboration between on-site and remote working is not a problem for us anyway.

On the job market today, qualified employees often have a lot to choose from in terms of benefits from a variety of employers. Apart from modern trends such as the possibility of mobile working, what are you doing to attract people to the company and retain them in the long term?

It's true that we are dealing with an employee market in recent years. It's not the candidates who apply to the companies, it's more the other way around. For us, it's about mutual application process. We take a lot of time to get to know applicants to build a long-term, sustainable relationship. Our corporate culture is characterized by Passion for People - one of our four Leadership Principles. This passion for people begins in the application process and continues throughout the entire employment process. This means that we try to understand and support all our employees and their individual needs. Today, we have a very diverse workforce with very different cultural backgrounds, with a lot and little professional experience, older and younger people. We have set up many collaborative spaces and provided the necessary technology to work together in a wide variety of forms and formats. Everyone benefits from this.

Hardly any company today can do without a "purpose", the guiding principle for all decisions and actions within and outside a company. How important is this overarching purpose at DKV Mobility?

I have noticed that there is an increasing need for meaningful work. This is not only reflected in the desire for a good work-life balance. The majority, especially the younger workforce, expects their company to have a positive impact on global issues, the environment and/or society. At DKV Mobility, our purpose is "To drive the transition towards an efficient and sustainable future of mobility". Being able to actively drive and help shape the future of mobility and the energy transition obviously strikes a chord with many people. Doing something socially valuable is highly relevant for most people and has a very motivating effect. That also applies to me: I personally think our purpose is great!

What is DKV Mobility doing to promote women in particular?

We are also pursuing very ambitious goals in this area and have already achieved a lot. When I started here almost five years ago, we had a quota of 26% women in management positions across all levels. By the end of 2023, we were at 38%. The target is to be at least 40 percent by 2027.

What specific steps are you taking to achieve this goal?

Our two main levers are promotions and recruitment. We attach great importance to the targeted development of women in our company and preparing them to develop optimally in terms of their professional or leadership skills. We do this, for example, through talent programs, mentoring and individual development measures. However, the process begins even earlier, in the application phase. We work hard to find qualified women and motivate them to apply to us. With our flexible working models, we enable our employees to achieve the best possible work-life balance. In addition, we offer all positions at our headquarters both full-time and part-time basis. Recommendations from women who already work for us are also very helpful. And we offer concrete prospects: As a fast-growing company, we took 450 new employees on board last year alone and trained 150 managers. So, there are plenty of opportunities for development and promotion. This applies equally to women and men.

What challenges does the strong growth of DKV Mobility pose, including at numerous locations across Europe? How do you maintain a uniform corporate culture against this backdrop?

In recent years, we have learned that it is incredibly important to create loyalty within a company - to the company itself, and also among the people who work there. The company should also be a social meeting place for people. This bonding works particularly well in the office because you meet people in person, even those you have little contact with. But of course, you can also manage multiple teams virtually and across borders. We try to create this positive environment. Our culture, our Passion for People, makes a significant contribution to this.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing the way we work. The new applications are creating exciting new possibilities in many areas. However, they are also causing anxiety for many people, as traditional job profiles and career paths are suddenly being called into question. How are you dealing with the AI megatrend at DKV Mobility?

We have been working with AI in various areas for several years with very good results. However, the topic of AI has now become even more dynamic. We have responded to this by setting up our own AI department, among other things. AI is the future with endless opportunities. Against this backdrop, as an employer we see it as our responsibility to "enable" our employees, i.e. to put them in a position to use AI for themselves and their job. In concrete terms, we use Microsoft Copilot to make the daily work of everyone a little more efficient and easier. We recently offered two initial virtual info sessions on this. The interest was huge: 450 employees took part. As a second step, we are offering everyone voluntary training sessions for Microsoft Copilot, for which we already have over 300 registrations. These learning nuggets last around one and a half hours each. Around 150 managers have also been trained. As a company that acts responsibly, we also take a very close look at the ethical and legal aspects of AI. Personally, I am convinced that we will benefit greatly from AI if we use it responsibly.

Jana Eggerding-Tenhagen is Chief Human Resource Officer and Executive Board Member at DKV Mobility since October 1, 2019. Previously, she held various management positions in human resources at leading international companies. Her areas of focus include recruitment and development of talent and managers as well as further development of corporate culture.