Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor Relations Director, Evonik Industries AG
Dialog mit dem Vorstand: Thomas Wessel - Evonik News
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Transcript (8 segments)
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Host0:08
Welcome everyone. Around 1,500 colleagues took part in the third Dialogue with the Executive Board online last week with Thomas Wessel. As always, it lasted 60 minutes, and he answered 17 questions. Topics included future viability, Evonik Taylormate, climate neutrality, and securing our expert knowledge. Before the questions, our HR Director classified the latest financial figures from the third quarter. So small successes have been achieved, but the current economic situation remains a huge challenge. We need perseverance, but let's hear why Thomas Wessel remains optimistic.
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Thomas Wessel1:00
The good news is that despite the challenge, we are investing in products with sustainable solutions. I'm thinking of Schörfling, Austria and our hollow fiber membranes. We have invested in Slovakia in rhamnolipids, the first laundry detergent raw materials from fermentation using renewable resources, no longer based on petrochemicals. I can report that the project is on time and on budget, and we are now starting production ramp-up so that in 2024 we can deliver initial quantities to our customer Unilever. This is also a very important project for investment and the future viability of Evonik Industries.
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Host2:00
One of the first questions came from Essen and concerned the future structure of TI. How can employees be reassured that they won't be sold? Thomas Wessel again emphasized that it is an open-ended process.
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Thomas Wessel2:16
We have agreed with the co-determination that starting in early 2024, a commission will deal with the future issues of infrastructure and exactly those I just mentioned: a standalone solution within Evonik Industries, a partner solution, cooperative models, or cross-border infrastructure options that are opening up. We want to evaluate them from 2024 because we naturally want the best for Evonik Industries, for the employees, and if applicable for partners with whom we can open up such financing sources.
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Host3:09
Another important topic was the restructuring of our administration, keyword Taylormate. Leadership should be streamlined, hierarchies reduced. A colleague asked whether our current leadership culture is prepared for this. Wessel put it this way:
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Thomas Wessel3:30
When we come to fundamental organizational changes, when we want to become more flexible, more digital, more agile, that always goes hand in hand with changed attitudes. That's why change management is a very important, indispensable instrument in such organizational changes, which we always practice in all organizational changes.
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Host4:05
Then there was a question from a colleague from Krefeld, leftover from the last Dialogue with the Executive Board. It was: how do we secure the expert knowledge of colleagues who will soon retire? The next Dialogue with the Board will be next spring. Until next Wednesday, we'll listen.
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Thomas Wessel4:31
That's a question that has been with me my entire professional life as an HR person. You can support it systemically, you can develop databases, our ESN as a tool for exchanging experiences and knowledge in communities helps. But I also say very clearly: it is the responsibility of every single employee, every single manager, to regulate this as best as possible for their area, their organization.