Personal Development Guidance for Production: Vitesco Technologies...

• From Pilot Project to Global Standard in Just 15 Months: First Wave of 14 Locations Successfully Completed
• Transparent Plan for Personal Development in Productionand Logistics
• The Aim is to Roll Out the Career Map to All Locations Worldwide - Adapted to Local Qualification Standards

Regensburg, April 19, 2021. What skills do I need, what qualifications are required, for professional advancement? For employees engaged in complex production, this can often be difficult to understand. But not at Vitesco Technologies: With its 'Career Map,' the company - a leading international provider of drive technologies and e-mobility solutions - has piloted an innovative project that has already been successfully rolled out at 14 locations worldwide: An open access and easily traceable overview of possible career paths in production and logistics, setting out the necessary qualifications as well as the specific requirements for further progress to a next-level position.
'This new transparency regarding development opportunities in production has noticeably motivated employees in the pilot project to engage with their own professional development and improve their own employability,' explains Ingo Holstein, chief human relations officer (CHRO) of Vitesco Technologies: 'In our rapidly evolving world, this is not just an advantage for employees themselves. It also leads to an improved level of qualification among the workforce as a whole.' The Career Map also includes a schedule for training sessions, which enable employees to meet the qualification requirements. This creates an incentive for further training and the addition of new knowledge.

The Career Map, which has already been implemented at 14 Vitesco Technologies locations (as depicted here in Changchun, China), is an open access and easily traceable overview of possible career paths in production and logistics, setting out the necessary qualifications as well as the specific requirements for further progress to a next-level position.

'With the Career Map, we can ensure that our employees in production are always up to date with the latest information,' explains Hans-Jürgen Braun, Senior Vice President Operations at Vitesco Technologies': 'The increasing digitalization and automation of production systems will mean that the areas of responsibility will undergo increasing change in the future. With the Career Map, we're creating a high level of transparency regarding opportunities for further education, so as to prepare our employees for the future and Industry 4.0.'

Based on a pilot project in Brasov, Romania, a team of junior employees and professionals from various disciplines has spent several months working on rolling out the Career Map system as a global standard. They analyzed the various different qualification systems and industry standards and compared them with the target in order to determine the need for adjustment in each case. Since the locations sometimes differ greatly from each other with regard to the products manufactured there, the location-specific Career Maps also vary - with different job profiles and requirements for expertise and qualification.

After 15 months, the first wave of implementation has been successfully completed and the career map is in use at 14 locations: in Pune (India), Juarez (Mexico), Wuhu, Tianjin and Changchun (China), Debrecen (Hungary), Amata City (Thailand), Frenstat and Trutnov (Czech Republic), Pisa (Italy), Icheon (South Korea), Boussens & Foix (France), Seguin (USA), Eisenach and Lohmar (Germany). Further locations will follow in the coming months.

The company also wants to document and measure how the Career Map is helping employees to develop in one of the four areas - leadership, technology, quality, and logistics. For example, by recording how many production employees followed the Career Map to obtain further qualifications, and how many of them were able to gain a higher-quality vacant position as a result.

'In the future, we also want to digitalize the Career Map, which to date has been a purely analog format in the production areas, so as to directly link vacancies in the company and the appropriate qualification opportunities,' explains Ingo Holstein. 'We also want to promote self-directed learning: Training for employees in production should increasingly be digital, on call and accessible from anywhere.'