Kerstin Hoffmann: Best practice first hand: Hello and welcome to a new edition of the brand ambassador interviews. Today I'm speaking with Tina Lenitzki, Director of Marketing at fme AG. Hello Ms. Lenitzki!
Tina Lenitzki: Hello Dr. Hoffmann!
Hoffmann: Ms. Lenitzki, I can still remember our very first contact. A colleague had told me about your culture book - I was just writing my current brand ambassador book. We spoke on the phone and I said I would like to talk to you about your brand ambassador strategy. And you said something like: "What - brand ambassador strategy? We don't have one." Then we talked and realized that you actually have a very, very good brand ambassador strategy, that you have had employees for a long time who show their faces for the company, and that it works even better for you than in many companies that explicitly call it that. What does or should a corporate culture look like in which corporate influencers practically arise on their own?
Lenitzki: That's a very comprehensive question. In fact, I think the corporate culture is very important, and that the management supports it. When I started here at fme in 2000, I got to know this corporate culture first hand. In the interview, certain questions were asked that my current boss, who is still with us, used to find out whether I was a good fit for fme, for the fme team. And that's still how we do it today.
This means that there is a fixed concept of values here that is also lived out. You can read about this on our website. These are company values, such as: open, honest and fair. You can ask questions at any time, even critical questions. You can get involved in the company. We want to work sustainably so that we have long-term success with our customers, so that we can retain employees. We have an open corporate culture here. This means that we have a social intranet in which we communicate cryptocurrency data regularly. We have company meetings in which we regularly inform our employees. In general: the focus on employees is and was already very high back then, so that employees have an environment in which they feel comfortable and in which they can get involved.
Of course, exciting projects with great customers are also part of it, so that motivation comes from work. But one of our company values is that we want to enjoy our work and that work can also be fun, so to speak, that it is not forbidden. And our colleagues from the HR department and we in marketing are working on this. All the managers too, of course. That the employees feel comfortable here, that they are trusted, that they can get involved, that they are part of the fme family at this point. And then it just happens that they are willing - back when we started the Culture Book - that the employees said: "Man, when I think of company culture, these three things come to mind, I'll write something about them." Or someone did a crossword puzzle, for example. They then wanted to contribute something to it. The employees feel valued here. And we have lots of colleagues who have been here for a very, very long time.
Hoffmann: You have already mentioned various key words. First, you look inwards, then you briefly described how you collaborate, which means that you have a social intranet. And you also talked about how management sets a good example. And you mentioned aspects of employer branding first. That means positioning as an employer brand. And you described how HR and marketing work very closely together. Now, beyond employee recruitment and retention: How much of a role does marketing play in terms of visible employees? In other words, do they also show themselves externally in customer acquisition, or how does that affect marketing?