Malzer's "Future Kneader" - with 150 ideas for a GREAT PLACE to WORK®

In autumn 2022, Backstube MALZERS set up a project lasting several months to further develop its attractiveness as an employer. Motivated by participation in the Great Place to Work® employee survey, a project group made up of employees and managers from all areas of the company drew up suggestions for improvement, which were implemented in individual projects. Organisational developers from noventum consulting supported the agile process. Following the great success of the first round, the second "Future Kneaders" group has been working at MALZERS since June 2023.

Founded in 1901, MALZERS Backstube is now run by the fourth and fifth generation of the Scherpel family. From its headquarters on Ulrichstraße in Gelsenkirchen, the bakery company with more than 2,800 employees including 100 trainees supplies over 150 branches in the Ruhr region with fresh baked goods every day. In 2022, turnover totalled 134 million euros. This makes MALZERS Backstube one of the most important employers in the region.

MALZERS Backstube competes for young talent and satisfied employees

The demographically induced shortage of skilled labour does not stop at the skilled trades. In order to survive in the labour market and attract new employees with attractive jobs, the management of MALZERS Backstube asked its employees about their satisfaction in spring 2022. The result of the participation in the Great Place to Work® Competition 2022 was not as positive as hoped and the question arose as to how to deal with it.

"Carry on as before?" Managing Directors Joachim and Christian Scherpel were not satisfied with this and recognised the need of the hour: "Unvarnished communication of results and active engagement with employee feedback. And we can only do that by involving them directly." Their approach was "an experiment with a completely open outcome. We formed a team of 14 employees, as varied and diverse as possible: colleagues from production, sales and administration; with company affiliations ranging from a few months to two decades; from different management levels." Christian Scherpel and HR Manager Jana Rutsch were actively involved in the teamwork, with Christian Scherpel taking on the role of the client in the Scrum process. This meant that the initiative was recognised and appreciated throughout the company right from the start.  After initial successes, the team also gave itself a motivating name: the Future Kneaders. An affectionate name for a working group in the bakery industry.

The mixed project team started with a challenging brief: "We are developing an environment to significantly improve job satisfaction, pride in one's own performance and loyalty to the company. This will enable us to retain our valuable employees and motivate them to carry the attractiveness of MALZERS as an employer out into the world with conviction. We want the company to continue to be successful in the next generation - and our employees are the key factor in this." The team was responsible for developing solutions to increase employer attractiveness.

The "Future Kneader" project

The project to develop employer attractiveness at MALZERS Backstube began in autumn 2022 and initially ran for a period of six months until spring 2023. The aim was to develop and implement measures based on the results of the GPtW® employee survey in order to increase MALZERS' attractiveness as an employer.

The work began with a two-day kick-off workshop in October 2022, where the core team came together to develop initial ideas and approaches for improving employer attractiveness. "14 smoking heads, 8 full pinboards and around 150 post its with ideas were the result of our kick-off workshop," recalls Christian Scherpel. The project group summarised the initial results in 6 work packages, which were subsequently approved by the management for further processing. These range from specific employee retention measures and projects to improve onboarding to improving the feedback culture in the company.

As internal projects often fail due to a lack of resources and rigour in implementation, each team member was given two working days a month off for the entire course of the project. Managing Director Christian Scherpel is very positive about the progress of the first phase of the project: "The project team has already made significant progress in a short space of time and is now continuing to work on implementing the measures developed in the second sprint. We are excited about the progress and results that will be achieved in the coming months and look forward to utilising the experience gained from this project to continue shaping the future of MALZERS."

The great success of the "Zukunftskneter" project was documented in an information sheet. This was accompanied by the recruitment of new participants - because the project continues. Since June 2023, the "Future Kneaders" have been at work with a second generation.

For the first time, a team based on agile project management worked with the "Zukunftsknetern" at MALZERS. A new experience for everyone involved and a great success.

Organisational consultancy noventum consulting supports with coaching and agile project management

In more than 25 years of work as IT management consultants, noventum consultants have accompanied a wide range of change processes and are familiar with the everyday life and challenges of their customers. As GREAT PLACE to WORK® ambassadors, noventum has been familiar with the topics of employee orientation and employer attractiveness for many years and was the ideal partner for the process at MALZERS Backstube.

noventum Management Consultant Jan Helmchen introduced the methodology, moderated the initial workshop lasting several days and supported and advised the project team over the following six months.