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How are Degussa's employees motivated?

The change in shift patterns caused some discontent and low morale amongst some workers. The company knew that it had to find ways of motivating staff and boosting morale. One of the ideas was to divide the workforce into teams and try to ensure that various motivational techniques were cascaded down through the teams.

The company has also introduced a programme called the Leadership Competencies Programme to enable staff to demonstrate different leadership styles to get things done. The employee is assessed against it and receives a bonus in relation to this.

Salaries and salary packages are used to attract new staff to the firm. Sometimes, more generous packages need to be offered to attract particular talent to the business. Because of this, salary details are not disclosed, or fixed, for particular areas of the skilled work force. The market place, to a large extent, will determine the staff salaries at the plant - if there is a shortage of a particular skill, that tends to mean higher salaries are needed to attract a worker with those sort of skills.

Other motivational techniques employed on site include bonuses linked to both financial performance and production targets, (i.e delivery on time, within specification, and the correct quantity). Team-building programmes are run on a regular basis, both within specific management and shop floor levels, and across levels.

There is also a very active social club on site, where all sorts of group activities are arranged and subsidised.

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