What exactly do you all do? It’s one of the classic questions. After all, many of us don’t have a very clear or detailed idea about what many departments and units work on every day. Even though most of us obviously realize it has something to do with personnel issues, this is also somewhat the case for the Human Resources department.

“Sometimes people come to my team for help when they’re looking for a new employee,” Lennart says. “But we have experts for that elsewhere here in HR, to which we are more than happy to direct them.” In fact, recruiting is the responsibility of Marco Rudloff, Head of HR Services & Administration, and his team. 

Lennart and his team, on the other hand, are active in the field of People, Organization & Culture Development. This involves, among other things, personnel development for VTG’s employees, such as through seminars, trainings, e-learning and even coaching. “For us, that means building trust and, of course, dependably handling requests related to development needs,” Lennart notes. 

Not only traditional staff development 

“We now offer more than just the traditional staff development measures,” Lennart explains. “For example, we’re also responsible for contributing to the development of the company’s culture by making the new competency model and our new values more tangible. And we use employee surveys to help the organization achieve its goals and realize its ambitions.” 

Lennart and his team have a varied toolbox at their disposal and cover a wide range of topics. For example, the long list includes Culture Camps, change management and assisting with the annual PDDs, the employee appraisal interviews.

“Another thing we’re doing is assisting with the New Home project,” Lennart continues. “Although the move to the new building in Hamburg isn’t scheduled until 2026, we’re already helping out on a smaller scale with the associated change process.” This will also include the Lunch & Learn events, where things like project updates will be presented beginning in the fall of 2023. 

The huge importance of continuing education 

Since becoming his team’s leader in early 2023, Lennart has been able to rely on five staff members and a working student/master’s degree student to perform its many tasks. 

His unit’s importance is made even clearer by the North Star target, as doubling the size of the wagon fleet by 2040 will require employees who are continuously developing professionally and reflecting on their thinking patterns. On top of that, it is getting harder to find skilled workers owing to the massive ongoing changes in the labor market. 

”To achieve this goal, our employees are enormously important,” Lennart stresses. “Given the shortage of skilled workers in the marketplace, continuing education and in-house training will be critical. By fostering, developing and retaining our employees, we want to preserve and preferably even boost our expertise.”

Still a lot to be done

Even though several projects – such as New Home and the Culture Camps – are really only getting started now, Lennart is already looking toward the future. One reason for this is the fact that the large number of upcoming retirements is making it crucial to design and put in place a long-term and structured succession planning scheme. 

“There are a whole lot of levers,” Lennart explains. “And, here in the HR Department, we also aim to become more effective and faster so that we can help all our colleagues get their needs met in a more proactive and data-driven manner.” One tool in these efforts will be SAP Success Factors, which digitizes processes related to the so-called “employee life cycle” and eliminates the need for paperwork or Excel spreadsheets. 

At the same time, Lennart and his team also want to continue to grow together, to benefit from the experiences of their fellow team members, to exchange ideas and to gradually develop. And they will do so while cultivating the VTG DNA and passing it on – especially to new employees. 

This is particularly important because, going forward, the HR Development team wants to be viewed more and more as a value-adding partner and adviser to the operational units. “The earlier we are brought on board, the better we can advise and support – and thereby jointly ensure a good future for the company.”