Surprising and quite refreshing – that’s how Uhlmann employees described this year’s works meeting on July 15 at the Cultural Center in Laupheim. Because this time they expe­ri­enced a number of “firsts” both in terms of visuals and content. “We aim to improve every year and make our presen­ta­tions more inter­esting,” says Alexander Brücker, chairman of the Uhlmann works council, modestly. To this end, he and the works council members have put in quite an effort in recent years to raise the presen­ta­tion to a new level in terms of both design and content. “We all agreed that the past prac­tice of using a black curtain back­drop for presen­ta­tions was simply a bit old hat,” says Brücker. With the help of an external agency, the colleagues there­fore devel­oped a new, modern concept. Tables designed in the Uhlmann ‘look’ featuring the works council logo, a digital screen in the back­ground, and a display behind the lectern, now ensure a uniform and appealing appear­ance.

Talented, “home grown” moder­ator

A lot has changed – not only visu­ally, but also content-wise. Kim Neuge­bauer has recently been giving the event a fresh boost as its presenter. A natural talent on stage, the works council member clearly feels comfort­able in her role and hosts the event eloquently and profes­sion­ally. Alexander Brücker is also a big fan: “Kim has a very posi­tive, open, and charis­matic style that goes down very well with the employees. She’s really driving our works meeting forward again. We’re almost bit scared that she’ll start a second job as a presenter,” he adds with a laugh.

Current topics presented in a fresh style

A fresh wind is also evident as far as the evening’s topics are concerned, like in July where the agenda featured a role-playing game about Gener­a­tion Z.  Alexander Brücker explains as follows: “We always collect ques­tions from the work­force in advance and cluster them so that we can put them to the manage­ment during the works meeting and thus obtain infor­ma­tion on issues that are preying on many employees’ minds.” The works council usually receives between 600 and 700 ques­tions. Brücker adds: “In addi­tion, we want to increas­ingly include more general issues that may not initially appear to be directly related to Uhlmann, but which we all encounter to some degree. That’s why we decided to bring gener­a­tional change and Gen Z to the stage this year.” And that’s meant liter­ally – because instead of a pure lecture, trainees Selina Haber­mann and Anna Gayer, repre­sen­ta­tives of this young gener­a­tion, stood in front of the audi­ence and presented their views in a role-play with works council member Fabian Müller. An enthrallingly staged and topical issue which went down well.

A full house

Overall, feed­back on the works council’s new approach has been consis­tently posi­tive – as also reflected in the atten­dance figures for the last works meeting: 700 employees flocked to the Cultural Center, and almost as many joined digi­tally. “That’s a real record and means that we reached almost all employees,” says Brücker happily. “Initially, we were slightly concerned that no one would partic­i­pate in person if we offered a digital event. But as you can see, that concern was unfounded – the Kulturhaus was packed.” Actu­ally being there in person is some­thing else entirely, he says. And there’s an added benefit: the get-together after­wards provides an oppor­tu­nity to discuss topics in more depth in a relaxed atmos­phere and to talk to the works council and manage­ment. “The get-together is financed by manage­ment. And that’s a great example of our good coop­er­a­tion and shows our appre­ci­a­tion for our employees.”