Double award for Hauff-Technik
Hermaringen – Hauff-Technik GmbH & Co. KG combines innovation with exemplary qualities as an employer – for which the company was honoured with two awards at the German SME Summit in Essen on 26 June. It was successful in the prestigious Top 100 and Top Job competitions. This means that Hauff-Technik is not only among the most innovative mid-sizedcompanies in Germany, but it also excels as one of the country’s best employers. At the German SME Summit, Hauff-Technik was being presented with its awards by Top 100 mentor Ranga Yogeshwar and Top Job mentor Wolfgang Clement.
Hauff-Technik GmbH & Co. KG, based in Hermaringen in southern Germany, is not just an outstanding innovator; it is also one of the country’s best mid-sized employers. It originally took part in the Top 100 in 2010 and this is the sixth straight year it has won an award. And now it has also achieved success at the very first attempt in the Top Job benchmarking competition. Hauff-Technik recognises that the more valued its employees feel, the more innovative they can be. This is one reason why the manufacturer of sealing solutions for cables and pipes scored particularly highly in the Climate of Innovation category. “Thanks to our flexible modular system, we are able to efficiently implement new developments no matter how small the production run,” commented sales and Marketing manager Horst Scheuring. “For the staff, it’s important that customers are completely satisfied with new developments. Nothing motivates us to work hard and innovate more than the positive feedback that they give us.”
To gives its 181 employees free rein to develop their ideas, Hauff-Technik provides them with creative spaces where they can rapidly share expertise. The company also excels in innovations marketing. Customers are involved in development at an early stage through pilot projects – meaning there is almost no chance of developing products that fail to meet the needs of the market. Strategic suppliers and key customers help to spread the word about new products.
In the Top Job competition, Hauff-Technik fared particularly well in the Culture & Communication category. The company, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, presents its corporate culture to employees in the form of six imperatives.
Appreciation and respect play a key role for this leading employer. This is reflected in its working time arrangements, for example: “We offer our part-time staff flexible hours,” said HR manager Heike Räuber-Schaber. “This gives women, in particular, the opportunity to resume their careers after having a child.” To make Reintegration as easy as possible, Hauff-Technik also offers CPD during parental leave.
“We are proud to have been honoured twice,” said managing director Dr Michael Seibold. “It shows us that innovation is mainly the result of having dedicated employees. I would like to thank each and every one of them for making this twin success possible. The results of the analyses are a valuable tool for making our HR work and our innovation management a little better every day.”
The two awards are based on demanding selection procedures. For the Top 100, Professor Nikolaus Franke and his team from the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business developed a two-stage analysis model. This year, Professor Franke and his team reviewed more applicants than ever before, with 234 out of a total of 302 qualifying companies making it into the final. After the finalists had been split into three size categories (maximum of 100 companies in each size category), 178 were awarded the accolade.
The Top Job companies are analysed by the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen, under the supervision of Professor Heike Bruch. Her researchers put a series of questions to the companies’ HR managers about the methods and tools that they use and also carry out a staff survey. Ninety-eight SMEs applied for the latest Top Job round. Eighty-two of them got the seal of approval.
Hauff-Technik is one of only four companies that made it into the top companies in both competitions.
The Top 100 competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the Top 100 seal of approval to SMEs with particular innovative capacity and above-average success rates for innovations. This project has been coordinated by Professor Nikolaus Franke from the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business since 2002. Professor Franke is one of the world’s leading experts in the field of user innovation. The Top 100 is mentored by journalist and television presenter Ranga Yogeshwar, and organised in partnership with the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research. manager magazin provides media support for the company benchmarking competition. Further information is available at www.top100.de.
The Top Job corporate benchmarking study
The Top Job seal of approval for exemplary HR practices in the SME sector has been awarded since 2002 and was one of the first such schemes to be launched. The benchmarking study is academically overseen and managed by Professor Heike Bruch and her team at the Institute for Leadership and Human Resource Management at the University of St. Gallen. Patron of the competition is Wolfgang Clement, Germany’s former Minister of Economics and Labour. The recruitment website cleverheads.eu and HR trade fairs Personal2015 Süd and Zukunft Personal 2015 are partner organisations. Going forward, the benchmarking of employers will be carried out by the former compamedia director Silke Masurat through her company, zeag GmbH – Centre for Employer Attractiveness in Constance. Further information is available at www.topjob.de.
compamedia – mentor to Germany’s top SMEs
compamedia GmbH, which was founded in 1993 and employs 15 people, organises the nationwide Company benchmarking competitions Top 100 (since 1993) and Top Consultant (since 2010). The company collaborates with prestigious universities on these projects.
Contact at compamedia
compamedia GmbH
Sven Kamerar
Nußdorfer Straße 4
88662 Überlingen
Telefon: 07551 94986-33
Telefax: 07551 94986-49
E-Mail: presse@compamedia.de
www.top100.de
Contact at Hauff-Technik
Hauff-Technik GmbH & Co. KG
Jutta Eichler
Robert-Bosch-Straße 9
89568 Hermaringen
Telefon: 07322 1333-171
Telefax: 07322 1333-999
E-Mail: jutta.eichler@hauff-technik.de
www.hauff-technik.de
