New support in employee-coaching …
What do “Wälder”* traditional crafts and employee coaching have in common?
* specific Austrian dialect word for the people living in the Bregenz forest region
Bernhard Dünser
In the spring of 2017, Bernhard experienced our work during an internship. Now we were able to win him over as a colleague in the BIC.
He enriches our team with this special sense of humor, his experience and his expertise in the areas of employee service and employee coaching. Welcome aboard and good luck in working with us and all colleagues at Blum!
– HomePage Editorial Team –
Olá, Servus, Zdravo, Hallo – Welcome on Bord!
Fresh international impulses for our BIC-Team
In connection with our own OD-process we have discovered that we need support in the following areas:
- International Coaching
- Social and economic trends and developments
- Organisation and service
- Knowledge and learning
Now we are happy that we have found 4 international team members as personnel reinforcement to support us in all upcoming topics and challenges in the fields of personnel- and organizational development.
Welcome!
Amela Hamzic-Rieser – Bosnia
Jan Sebastian Schneberger – Germany
Ana De Bastos Mota – Portugal
Eva Flatz – Austria
(from left to right)
– HomePage Editorial Team –
Find the place you need …!
We try out a new approach – and invite others to watch us at work!
A few months ago we declared our Personnel Development Department a “flexible work area”. Shortage of space and the need for communication zones and marketplaces prompted us to rethink our approach and not kit out the free space with desks. We’ve dispensed with a rigid grid and introduced various working zones. Under the slogan “Find the place you need”, our employees now use the space they find most suitable for the tasks in hand. In the middle of this flexible work area, we have five “permanent workplaces”, so we’ve created a mixed office landscape. The first outcome is that we have far more different layouts for work and collaboration within the same office space. We believe this is a good start. But the new approach has not only created more possibilities. It has also given us the opportunity to reflect on various questions:
- Is my daily search for a workplace liberating or does it impede my productivity?
- Does this freedom increase or stifle creativity?
- Does this mode of work promote or reduce dynamism?
- Is it beneficial or detrimental to team cohesion?
- …..
We are glad to share our experiences and impressions with various departments from BLUM, whose teams have already visited us and watched us at work! – HomePage Editorial Team –
Personnel and organizational development day 2016
Managers’ Challenge Cup – Quality Assurance Team Workshop
Not long ago our Quality Assurance managers spent an interesting day at St. Arbogast Education Center, discussing in greater detail the future role of Group Managers. The objective of the strategic workshop was to facilitate an exchange of expectations between members of the management team, create a shared understanding through the definition of roles, heighten an awareness of management responsibility and support ongoing personnel development.
In the evening, participants had the opportunity to show off their billiards skills at Patrick’s in Rankweil. The first Managers’ Challenge Cup turned out to be a real sporting highlight! The final was a nail-biting affair which Heimo Masser (QMT Group Manager) narrowly lost to Andreas Quendler (BIC employee) – who had luck on his side and managed to pull off a surprise victory.
We enjoyed the intensive exchange of ideas and exciting tournament and are all looking forward to the next Challenge Cup. (Andreas Quendler)
Esteem – an underestimated motivator
Esteem is a positive appreciation of others. It is based on your inner attitude towards them and applies to the person as a whole, to their nature. It has less to do with the person’s actions or performance although these factors influence your subjective assessment of the person and consequently your regard for them. (Translation of the definition of “Wertschätzung”, Wikipedia)
There is no doubt that esteem is a source of motivation. People are social beings, and esteem presents the typical human desire to be accepted and valued. Other forms of showing positive regard for others are, for example, saying “please” and “thank you”, looking others in the eye, treating them like equals, paying attention to what they are saying, listening to them, asking questions or smiling. It’s the small gestures that have the biggest impact.
We believe that this video shows well what effect “positive regard” can have. See for yourself … (Karin Steffan)
We’ve moved to our new homepage …
We moved into our new office in spring, and our new homepage has also just gone live. Both now have “a keener core and a new look”. It wasn’t until we started lugging around boxes that we realized how much these two large-scale projects have in common. Actually, both changes prompted more or less the same questions.
You know the feeling when you’ve just moved into a new environment, you’ve settled in, found a place for all your possessions, and the most important things start to work again? You’re glad when your PC is up and running. And even if there are still a few hidden building sites, you can slowly begin to relax and breathe out again.
And that’s exactly where we are today with our homepage – we hope we’ve made only a few slip-ups! When you move offices and launch a website there’s the big day when the removal vans drive up to the entrance, and the big day when the site goes live – there’s no way back!
What other analogies are there? Well, it’s the first impression that decides where your interests will lead you. You cannot but get a feeling of what is to come – further encounters and clicks expand the picture you get step by step. Slowly but surely you see the extras and understand that most of the work lies in the detail!
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- Our shoes …
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- colorful and varied …
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- like our team!
You need to deal in depth with the real needs, admit your strengths and weaknesses and heed important details. Only then will the performance and service offering be an authentic and credible promise between service provider and client. You need time, commitment and readiness to capture the essence. What do we really want? What do we want, what can we, and what must we dispense with?
We’ve done our best – the office provides the right framework and supports our workflows optimally. But what’s most important is that we feel at home.
Our new homepage reflects our identity – it’s paid off to have a clean-out, to re-focus and reorganize ourselves – it’s been well worth the move.
And now we’ve arrived and are still
We look forward to hearing what you think: www.blum-ic.com
(Editing Team)
Office concept “Smart Working”
Spaces, which adapt to people … change perspectives and create a new freedom. With this in mind, we developed the concept for our new office design. We were eagerly waiting to move in to our new premises and questioning ourselves how the concept could be implemented in daily practice. In March 2014 time had finally come. Meanwhile we have made our first steps in the new environment. Read on
“A future-oriented office provides a spatial environment and a technical infrastructure, which enables employees to optimally unfold their performance potential, whereas the physical and mental health remains unharmed. The workplace is flexible, so it can be adapted to changing requirements of the organization “- Schwehr, Peter: Research Project on Human building, Lucerne 2009 –
We places … this area is reserved for our flexible workplaces. They are assigned to team members, who are often traveling on business. During their absence, these workplaces can be used by all other employees at any time.
This of course requires a “clean desk approach” and the willingness of the team to consciously break up with habits and to use other locations for working.
Me places … here are the fixed workplaces of our team members. Through the clearly structured arrangement and the separation from the open communication zone, we wanted to create a space for quiet and concentrated work in this area.
Working space … this is our creative open work and communication area. The different zones offer various options to choose the work environment according to our needs, may it be for a short chat, exchange of ideas, working out concepts or the preparation of a workshop.
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- Communication zone
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- Conference room
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- BIC – column
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- Lounge
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- American diner
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- Creative zone
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- High Desk
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- Library
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- Team compact
When we implemented the “Smart Working” concept, we had to think in new directions and be open to try different ways of working. After a short adaptation phase we felt at home in the new environment. We more and more appreciate and make use of the potential to choose our workplace in the different zones according to our tasks and individual requirements. This experience is very much in line with the original intention that spaces, which adapt to people change perspectives, create freedom and have a positive influence on the working climate and the quality of work. (Editing Team)