The Rhineland-based SME embodies what it means to be a modern employer

From the shortage of skilled workers to the desire for modern leadership methods, flat hierarchies, fast decision-making paths and flexible working time models, to the fulfilment of intergenerational employee requirements, social values have been having a growing influence on the labour market for years. Companies must be attractive employers in order to achieve good employee satisfaction; whether they succeed or not is clearer than ever in the age of digitalisation and the resulting increase in transparency. At Mäurer & Wirtz, interacting with employees and the associated forming of corporate culture and the employer brand are part of the corporate strategy. This is noticeable: as part of a survey by "Great Place to Work® Certified", 83 percent of the participating employees at Mäurer & Wirtz clearly agreed with the statement "Overall, I can say that this is a very good place to work".

Great Place to Work – A Fantastic Employer
Mäurer & Wirtz benchmarks itself against other companies every two years as part of the "Great Place to Work® Certified" certification programme by the international research and consulting institute of the same name, and incorporates optimisation and inspiration into the design of its own employer brand. The deep dive in the form of an internal survey of employees reveals that the family business performs better than the average of the participating organisations overall – the average value of the "Trust Index", which cumulates the satisfaction values across all factors surveyed, is 64 percent on average for the companies screened by Great Place to Work®, but 71 percent for Mäurer & Wirtz. This means Mäurer & Wirtz is officially recognised as an attractive employer. Despite various regional and global crises, Mäurer & Wirtz even managed to increase the overall positive mood for the preliminary survey by five percent.

Shaping a future-oriented workplace culture
“Great Place to Work® Certified” stands for a special commitment to the shaping of the workplace culture and is awarded according to a secure procedure. Components include independent, anonymous feedback from employees and the analysis of staff work measures and programmes. A good employer is characterised by the criteria of credibility, respect, fairness, trust, pride and team spirit under the certification programme. In the "Credibility" field of the "Integrity" category, the SME performs "excellently" by a large margin from the benchmark, indicating that the top executives demonstrate the best qualities to their employees and are true to their word. In addition, mutual trust in competent work is combined with plenty of scope to work independently, short decision-making channels, approachability of the management and flat hierarchies at the level of excellence. With an above-average approval rating of 83 percent, the employees of the fragrance producer are characterised by an outstanding willingness to recommend their employer.

"The success of Mäurer & Wirtz is based on the mindset of every employee. For me, leadership responsibility is about more than setting goals. It's also about providing stimulus to encourage the team to think and act responsibly. Every company needs consistency to ensure stability, but also openness to change and grow. We therefore continually observe and listen to the organisation in order to continually improve our corporate culture and team spirit through in-depth feedback. A decisive pillar of our success, which is reflected in the proud willingness of our employees to recommend our products."
- Stephan Kemen, CEO of Mäurer & Wirtz

Fostering lasting enthusiasm with diverse measures
There was also a positive development in the "Respect" field and the "Support" category for the 2020 preliminary survey by increasing the number of training and development opportunities. For example, employees at Mäurer & Wirtz are offered tailor-made, in-house, comprehensive training seminars for the various hierarchical levels, such as the "Grow" and "Advanced" programmes. These initiatives support the employees in their role and function, help them to develop professionally and personally and promote mutual networking. In addition, increasing the work from home split to 40 percent in the area of work-life balance was regularly highlighted as a positive in 2021. While physical safety has always been assessed at the level of excellence, employees perceive the increased relevance and care for mental and emotional health as positive. In the category of "fairness" in the sense of appreciative teamwork, regardless of gender, age, origin or sexual orientation, Mäurer & Wirtz consistently achieves "very good" to "excellent" level. Yvonne Jussen sees trust and respect as core values in an increasingly fast-paced world that is streamlined for efficiency:

"Employee motivation is essentially based on trust that the company is fundamentally pursuing the right goals. In addition, everyone should be able to know that their work performance will have a genuine impact on the overall success of the company and that they will be valued for their contributions. As an employer, we want to take the right steps on a daily basis, so that employees can make the best possible contribution. We support them, are in constant dialogue with them and give them the necessary freedom to develop. Respect and trust are, in our opinion, the key factors for meaningful and constructive collaboration – which is why we are pleased that the employees have given us excellent ratings in these areas of the survey."
- Yvonne Jussen, Director of Human Resources at Mäurer & Wirtz