How attractive has a cylinder manufacturer got to be in order to attract professionals and apprentices to join the company? We say: Very! Sometimes a simple slogan that encapsulates it all is enough to do the trick. In the current employer branding campaign of Montanhydraulik this slogan is “moving things”. 

On the one hand Montanhydraulik literally moves machines and plants with the help of its cylinders the world over. While on the other hand, young school leavers tend to want to be moving something, to be making a difference, once they have left school. They are keen to enter a profession that offers them a range of different perspectives. They want to have options that allow them to grow and develop further. They want to be proud of what they achieve within the company they’re working for. 

Starting out from these two positions, team:penta and Montanhydraulik have derived a core message during a branding workshop that actually manages to pinpoint the corporate culture perfectly: ““I want to set things in motion” That’s why I work for Montanhydraulik.” The campaign aims at highlighting the employer’s qualities, aims at increasing staff loyalty, the quality of job applicants and the company’s performance, whilst also making recruitment more efficient. 

The message explained in a brief statement together with personal profiles, which Montanhydraulik trainees have put together showing them in their workplace, creates the central theme that runs through the entire new trainee brochure. Transposed onto large-scale banners these images have already received many positive comments at the Vocation and Education Youth Fair held recently in Unna. 

The concept has greatly impressed staff and trainees alike. Accordingly, Montanhydraulik is well on course to strengthening its employer brand and to increasing its competitiveness.

Where does responsible corporate action actually begin? Where does it meet its limits? How can these limits be overcome?

We addressed these questions at the first CSR-DIA:LOG  – high above the rooftops of Dortmund at the Harenberg City-Center. Attendants were: three speakers from the companies KiK, Telekom and GS1 as well as invited guests from a range of industry sectors, the public health and education sector and from the corporate communication sector.

Admittedly, the first realisations were sobering. Stefan Schaller, Senior Project Manager Sustainability, ECR and Event at GS1 Germany illustrated to the floor, using the example of  “Bernhard”, an average Western European consumer, that we would require 4 ½ planets Earth to keep the current standard of living based on present consumption levels of the resources available to us.

However, since we only have this one planet Earth, we must – and this applies to consumers and companies alike – finally take charge and act in order to enable both our generation, and future generations, to live a good life within the limited resources that our planet is able to offer.

By way of reassurance: A small start has already been made by taking a few first steps – starting with recycled paper and health & safety in the workplace to CO₂ reductions. But no later than production abroad is thrown into the mix and difficulties start to become bigger rather quickly.   

Though every company can impose rules on its suppliers, here the same adage applies as is true for cooks: too many of them spoil the broth. According to Dr. Michael Arretz, Managing Director Sustainability at KiK Textilien & Non-Food GmbH, if companies truly want to take on the responsibility and real make a difference, there is one thing that matters above all else: “Cooperation and partnership are the success factors for sustainability.”  

A first conclusion – CSR doesn’t happen on its own accord. It must be a firm part of the corporate strategy supported by everyone – by management and employees alike. Sustainability can be achieved even more successfully if companies work together, learn from one another, create standardised guidelines for suppliers and jointly monitor the adherence to these guidelines in practice.