Not relying on expatriates the station in Poznań became a regular company with warehousemen, executives in the warehouse, people for administration, controlling, human resource management, planning, computing, accounting, purchasing, technical administration, ... Thus it is an independently functioning company - set up as a Polish company with its own board of executives.
When establishing the station, Panopa was looking for a closer contact to the technical university and logistic institute. Installing all the cross-divisional supply chain functions it would have been a unique chance to bind junior staff members to the company. Being in the early stage of development it would have been quite easy to integrate students writing their examination paper who in return could have profited from the experiences of the experts responsible to build up the company. Unfortunately, Panopa did not succeed. The only student who was interested was a guy who had Polish roots but had grown up and studied in Germany.
A lose exchange with the German headquarter is established when Polish employees attend programs on how to meet the quality standard of calculating propositions. Therefore they visit the German headquarters and are introduced how propositions are made, which devices are used, how the program works, ... Based on the same idea the Polish man in charge for controlling spends several weeks at a time in Germany to watch and learn when new software was purchased.
Besides the technical aspects this sort of exchange is to get acquainted to the practices of doing things, to the way decisions are made... ("So das nach Möglichkeit die Standards und Entscheidungswege so wie wir sie hier haben nach dorthin übertragen werden." Dr. Hucht, 16.02 min.) This ensures a smooth working flow: a decision on investment in or for Poznań is a decision that has to be backed up by the German parent company as well. This means that the decision making process is initiated and prepared in Poznań, that the plan then is accredited by the board of executives and is afterwards - like all other projects of Panopa - passed to the German board of executives. Therefore it is helpful to work by the same structures and the same forms and preprints.
In the field of qualification management all employees are trained in Germany. Workshops are certified on a pan-European level and employees in all divisions and countries of Panopa can take part in a training run in Duisburg by the German headquarter. The participants then are observed by the responsible German employees of Panopa in an auditing at their respective work setting. Participating successfully employees can acquire a pan-European certificate guaranteeing quality management.
Besides this advanced training, Panopa conducts driving classes for forklift drivers. This is simply due to the fact that the company did not find enough employees in this field. Panopa also faced problems with fake documents ("Sie können in Polen nicht unbedingt glauben, dass wenn Ihnen einer einen Schein vorlegt, dass das nicht der vom Bruder ist." Vieth, 18.07 min.) Consequently every applicant gets to take driving classes to make sure he can actually drive a forklift. This training is completely financed by Panopa even though they are confronted with a high fluctuation rate: potential employees take the benefits of the extra qualification and apply at other companies. Nevertheless, Panopa sees this to be the only way to get qualified forklift drivers. ("Anders hat man keine Chance - sie kriegen keine Staplerfahrer." Vieth, 18.32 min.)
In general the workforce is characterized by a high fluctuation rate. Panopa tries to meet that by appropriate payments and by fair working conditions, thus keeping their staff happy. However, the extreme high fluctuation rate does not come about by employees switching to other companies in the area of Poznań but by the general shift of workforce towards other European countries, especially Ireland and England. Last year 8000 young people from the area of Poznań alone moved to work abroad. Having graduated from university and knowing English well enough they plan on two, three, four years abroad to earn the big bucks and to then return to Poland when the market has grown even more. By then they know perfect English, German already anyway and have a solid education. ("Die sprechen dann Deutsch, sprechen Englisch und haben eine entsprechende Ausbildung." Vieth, 19.29 min.)
Education in general plays an important role. Mr. Vieth says that he experienced the Polish staff to be extremely eager for knowledge. Being offered a training at the weekend Germany employees would ask for extra payment and a substituting day off, while Polish employees would only ask for the training's fee to be paid. ("Die polnischen Mitarbeiter, so wie ich sie da kennengelernt habe, sind unheimlich wissbegierig. Ich bring's mal knapp auf einen Nenner: wenn Sie in Deutschland ein Mitarbeiter fragen, ob er Samstag, Sonntag Zeit hat, dann ist meistens die erste Frage: 'Wie wird das vergütet?', 'Wann krieg ich dafür frei?' [...] In Polen ist die einzige Frage: 'Wer bezahlt den Lehrgang?' [...] Der Mitarbeiter will nichts haben." Vieth, 19.45 min. "Da ist der Wille zu lernen deutlich stärker ausgeprägt als bei uns." Vieth, 20.30 min. "Das ganze Ausbildungsgeschäft läuft Samstag/Sonntag, nicht unter der Woche." Vieth, 20.38 min.)
Meeting this eagerness to learn with additional training offers, Panopa manages to bind employees to the company and profits from the advantages of home-grown staff.
Nevertheless, Panopa has problems to find enough employees. Additional to the high emigration rate there is also a tight competition among companies because they are all looking for the same kind of employee. Even though they are partners Volkswagen and Panopa ran into problems building up their subsidiaries at the same time. While Volkswagen was stocking up their staff from 2000 employees to 5000, Panopa was complementing their staff from 130 to 700 employees nowadays. Consequently it was difficult to alone fill the positions but also to find good people for the managerial levels. To keep the people in the management level proves to be just as difficult for the very same reasons: the competition for good employees is high. But competing in raising the salary is difficult. The budgets are quite reduced since everybody tries to produce as cheap as possible. ("Das heißt, da war der Bedarf für Leute da, gleichzeitig der wachsende Trend ins Ausland zu gehen, gepaart mit anderen Unternehmen, die sich in Polen ansiedeln, das heißt der Wettberwerb um gute Leute ist schon sehr groß. Damit natürlich auch die Schwierigkeit, die dann über finanzielle Möglichkeiten - denn was anderes ist es im Endeffekt erstmal nicht - so zu motivieren, dass sie bei der Stange bleiben. Weil gleichzeitig unser Kunde natürlich nach Polen geht, um günstiger zu werden. Das heißt, es ist auch nicht so ohne weiteres möglich über einen festgelegten Preis pro Fahrzeug, den wir da bekommen für unsere Dienstleistung, jetzt zu sagen, ich halt die Führungskräfte indem ich finanzielle Zugeständnisse mache. Weil der Topf aus dem das bezahlt wird, der ist einfach mal fix. Unser Kunde wird da nicht sagen: 'Na gut, dann zahl ich dir auch wieder mehr, weil du jetzt mehr Geld ausgeben musst, um deine Leute entsprechend zu motivieren." Dr. Hucht, 21.36 min).
Talking so much about education, I wondered if many people take vocational retraining like it happened in Germany after the reunification.
Mr. Vieth says that actually a lot of people understand their German studies and their accordant language skills as a basis to work in a German company. Even though they are not qualified for any specific job. ("Viele, die Germanistik dort unten studieren, nutzen ihre Deutschkenntnisse, um in deutschen Unternehmen zu arbeiten. Das hat nichts damit zu tun, dass die vom Fach sind. Sie werden dort unten niemanden finden, einen Polen, der deutsch spricht und nebenbei perfekt im Buchhaltungswesen ist. Den werden Sie überhaupt nicht treffen. Den müssen Sie ausbilden. Die Bereitschaft muss man mitbringen, wenn man sich dort langfristig etablieren will und auch einen vernünftigen Stamm ausbauen will." Vieth, 22.40 min.)
In general there is no system of apprenticeship like we know it in Germany. While we run through a dual structure of training-on-the-job and additional school, people in Poland get into their jobs by additional training. If somebody might apply for a job in accounting that person would attend a three-week program in accounting. The workshops would of course take place during the weekend while the applicant learns the actual work on the job. ("Das läuft wirklich gezielt: So, sie soll jetzt in die Buchhaltung. Jetzt macht sie drei Wochen an den Wochenenden jeweils den Lehrgang, den Lehrgang, den Lehrgang." Vieth, 23.32 min. "Das läuft also nicht wie bei uns im dualen Ausbildungssystem mit Berufsschule und nebenbei arbeiten." Vieth, 23.53 min.)
At the same time Panopa employs quite some students. Financially limited most students have to work to afford their studies. Thus they work as forklift driver during the week and study at the weekend: up to 18 hours. ("Die müssen einerseits das Geld verdienen, damit sie ihre Wohnung, ihre Familie bezahlen können und das Studium läuft am Wochenende, Samstag, Sonntag: Samstag 10 Stunden und Sonntags acht Stunden. Da machen die jedes Wochenende 18 Stunden." Vieth, 2nd: 02.01 min.)
Thus working at Panopa is not seen as a basis for entering a career in the company - it simply pays money. On the other hand studying - as was mentioned before - serves first of all the purpose to obtain a certificate of higher education. Everything else can be arranged afterwards.
Most of the staff will not stay at Panopa once they finished their studies. The company simply cannot take so many employees considering that there are only around 60 positions in administration while the rest of the 650 jobs are merely operational.
When establishing the station, Panopa was looking for a closer contact to the technical university and logistic institute. Installing all the cross-divisional supply chain functions it would have been a unique chance to bind junior staff members to the company. Being in the early stage of development it would have been quite easy to integrate students writing their examination paper who in return could have profited from the experiences of the experts responsible to build up the company. Unfortunately, Panopa did not succeed. The only student who was interested was a guy who had Polish roots but had grown up and studied in Germany.
A lose exchange with the German headquarter is established when Polish employees attend programs on how to meet the quality standard of calculating propositions. Therefore they visit the German headquarters and are introduced how propositions are made, which devices are used, how the program works, ... Based on the same idea the Polish man in charge for controlling spends several weeks at a time in Germany to watch and learn when new software was purchased.
Besides the technical aspects this sort of exchange is to get acquainted to the practices of doing things, to the way decisions are made... ("So das nach Möglichkeit die Standards und Entscheidungswege so wie wir sie hier haben nach dorthin übertragen werden." Dr. Hucht, 16.02 min.) This ensures a smooth working flow: a decision on investment in or for Poznań is a decision that has to be backed up by the German parent company as well. This means that the decision making process is initiated and prepared in Poznań, that the plan then is accredited by the board of executives and is afterwards - like all other projects of Panopa - passed to the German board of executives. Therefore it is helpful to work by the same structures and the same forms and preprints.
In the field of qualification management all employees are trained in Germany. Workshops are certified on a pan-European level and employees in all divisions and countries of Panopa can take part in a training run in Duisburg by the German headquarter. The participants then are observed by the responsible German employees of Panopa in an auditing at their respective work setting. Participating successfully employees can acquire a pan-European certificate guaranteeing quality management.
Besides this advanced training, Panopa conducts driving classes for forklift drivers. This is simply due to the fact that the company did not find enough employees in this field. Panopa also faced problems with fake documents ("Sie können in Polen nicht unbedingt glauben, dass wenn Ihnen einer einen Schein vorlegt, dass das nicht der vom Bruder ist." Vieth, 18.07 min.) Consequently every applicant gets to take driving classes to make sure he can actually drive a forklift. This training is completely financed by Panopa even though they are confronted with a high fluctuation rate: potential employees take the benefits of the extra qualification and apply at other companies. Nevertheless, Panopa sees this to be the only way to get qualified forklift drivers. ("Anders hat man keine Chance - sie kriegen keine Staplerfahrer." Vieth, 18.32 min.)
In general the workforce is characterized by a high fluctuation rate. Panopa tries to meet that by appropriate payments and by fair working conditions, thus keeping their staff happy. However, the extreme high fluctuation rate does not come about by employees switching to other companies in the area of Poznań but by the general shift of workforce towards other European countries, especially Ireland and England. Last year 8000 young people from the area of Poznań alone moved to work abroad. Having graduated from university and knowing English well enough they plan on two, three, four years abroad to earn the big bucks and to then return to Poland when the market has grown even more. By then they know perfect English, German already anyway and have a solid education. ("Die sprechen dann Deutsch, sprechen Englisch und haben eine entsprechende Ausbildung." Vieth, 19.29 min.)
Education in general plays an important role. Mr. Vieth says that he experienced the Polish staff to be extremely eager for knowledge. Being offered a training at the weekend Germany employees would ask for extra payment and a substituting day off, while Polish employees would only ask for the training's fee to be paid. ("Die polnischen Mitarbeiter, so wie ich sie da kennengelernt habe, sind unheimlich wissbegierig. Ich bring's mal knapp auf einen Nenner: wenn Sie in Deutschland ein Mitarbeiter fragen, ob er Samstag, Sonntag Zeit hat, dann ist meistens die erste Frage: 'Wie wird das vergütet?', 'Wann krieg ich dafür frei?' [...] In Polen ist die einzige Frage: 'Wer bezahlt den Lehrgang?' [...] Der Mitarbeiter will nichts haben." Vieth, 19.45 min. "Da ist der Wille zu lernen deutlich stärker ausgeprägt als bei uns." Vieth, 20.30 min. "Das ganze Ausbildungsgeschäft läuft Samstag/Sonntag, nicht unter der Woche." Vieth, 20.38 min.)
Meeting this eagerness to learn with additional training offers, Panopa manages to bind employees to the company and profits from the advantages of home-grown staff.
Nevertheless, Panopa has problems to find enough employees. Additional to the high emigration rate there is also a tight competition among companies because they are all looking for the same kind of employee. Even though they are partners Volkswagen and Panopa ran into problems building up their subsidiaries at the same time. While Volkswagen was stocking up their staff from 2000 employees to 5000, Panopa was complementing their staff from 130 to 700 employees nowadays. Consequently it was difficult to alone fill the positions but also to find good people for the managerial levels. To keep the people in the management level proves to be just as difficult for the very same reasons: the competition for good employees is high. But competing in raising the salary is difficult. The budgets are quite reduced since everybody tries to produce as cheap as possible. ("Das heißt, da war der Bedarf für Leute da, gleichzeitig der wachsende Trend ins Ausland zu gehen, gepaart mit anderen Unternehmen, die sich in Polen ansiedeln, das heißt der Wettberwerb um gute Leute ist schon sehr groß. Damit natürlich auch die Schwierigkeit, die dann über finanzielle Möglichkeiten - denn was anderes ist es im Endeffekt erstmal nicht - so zu motivieren, dass sie bei der Stange bleiben. Weil gleichzeitig unser Kunde natürlich nach Polen geht, um günstiger zu werden. Das heißt, es ist auch nicht so ohne weiteres möglich über einen festgelegten Preis pro Fahrzeug, den wir da bekommen für unsere Dienstleistung, jetzt zu sagen, ich halt die Führungskräfte indem ich finanzielle Zugeständnisse mache. Weil der Topf aus dem das bezahlt wird, der ist einfach mal fix. Unser Kunde wird da nicht sagen: 'Na gut, dann zahl ich dir auch wieder mehr, weil du jetzt mehr Geld ausgeben musst, um deine Leute entsprechend zu motivieren." Dr. Hucht, 21.36 min).
Talking so much about education, I wondered if many people take vocational retraining like it happened in Germany after the reunification.
Mr. Vieth says that actually a lot of people understand their German studies and their accordant language skills as a basis to work in a German company. Even though they are not qualified for any specific job. ("Viele, die Germanistik dort unten studieren, nutzen ihre Deutschkenntnisse, um in deutschen Unternehmen zu arbeiten. Das hat nichts damit zu tun, dass die vom Fach sind. Sie werden dort unten niemanden finden, einen Polen, der deutsch spricht und nebenbei perfekt im Buchhaltungswesen ist. Den werden Sie überhaupt nicht treffen. Den müssen Sie ausbilden. Die Bereitschaft muss man mitbringen, wenn man sich dort langfristig etablieren will und auch einen vernünftigen Stamm ausbauen will." Vieth, 22.40 min.)
In general there is no system of apprenticeship like we know it in Germany. While we run through a dual structure of training-on-the-job and additional school, people in Poland get into their jobs by additional training. If somebody might apply for a job in accounting that person would attend a three-week program in accounting. The workshops would of course take place during the weekend while the applicant learns the actual work on the job. ("Das läuft wirklich gezielt: So, sie soll jetzt in die Buchhaltung. Jetzt macht sie drei Wochen an den Wochenenden jeweils den Lehrgang, den Lehrgang, den Lehrgang." Vieth, 23.32 min. "Das läuft also nicht wie bei uns im dualen Ausbildungssystem mit Berufsschule und nebenbei arbeiten." Vieth, 23.53 min.)
At the same time Panopa employs quite some students. Financially limited most students have to work to afford their studies. Thus they work as forklift driver during the week and study at the weekend: up to 18 hours. ("Die müssen einerseits das Geld verdienen, damit sie ihre Wohnung, ihre Familie bezahlen können und das Studium läuft am Wochenende, Samstag, Sonntag: Samstag 10 Stunden und Sonntags acht Stunden. Da machen die jedes Wochenende 18 Stunden." Vieth, 2nd: 02.01 min.)
Thus working at Panopa is not seen as a basis for entering a career in the company - it simply pays money. On the other hand studying - as was mentioned before - serves first of all the purpose to obtain a certificate of higher education. Everything else can be arranged afterwards.
Most of the staff will not stay at Panopa once they finished their studies. The company simply cannot take so many employees considering that there are only around 60 positions in administration while the rest of the 650 jobs are merely operational.
