When we say ‘One Big Team’ we mean it
IMI Alpen Germany recently celebrated a decade of a remarkable community inclusion project
IMI’s unifying purpose is Breakthrough Engineering for a better world. “This means a better world for our customers as well as a better working world for our employees,” says IMI Group HR Director Liz Rose. “It means being reflective of the society that surrounds us.”
The business is committed to an inclusive and diverse culture that delivers real impact. During 2021, a working group of colleagues from across the organisation identified three core themes: supporting employees through change, valuing each other and advancing inclusion of under-represented groups in engineering, including people with disabilities.
An example of this in action is the partnership between IMI Alpen Germany and Spix, a local non-profit, community organisation, to offer people with learning disabilities access to the regular labour market.
A learning curve
“We’ve partnered with Spix for many years, starting off by providing work for 10-12 people in an external workshop,” Torsten Norff, General Manager at Alpen, explains. Spix and IMI then moved to fully integrate a small team into the culture and operational processes of the business. “This was a challenge,” says Torsten, recounting the health and safety processes they went through over many months so a group of 12 employees and their supervisor could work at the plant.
“Although it was a learning curve, on any given day now we have around 17 Spix employees working with us. We created one of the biggest internal inclusion programmes for people with learning disabilities in our region,” he says of the project that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Good business results
“While the goal is inclusion, the Spix team has also been delivering good business results,” explains Torsten. “The work might involve putting a magnet on a valve or picking parts. In the past, prior to the Spix team joining us, we would occasionally have quality challenges. We then introduced a Poka Yoke approach [a Japanese process to avoid errors] and handed this over to the Spix team. Since that time, we’ve not had a single failure.”
It’s a relationship that suits everyone. “The Spix team has told us that people feel totally integrated and this boosts their self-confidence,” Torsten says.
Breaking the norm
The collaboration with Spix is “something that gives us a sense of pride,” says Liz Rose: “It shows the caring side of IMI in the way that we look after our people. It’s not about profit or PR. We do it because we believe it’s the right thing for us as an organisation and, as an engineering organisation with a rich heritage, it’s breaking the norm.”
The Spix programme also ties with the wider work IMI is doing on mental health, particularly relating to stress and burnout. Liz explains: “We’re very attuned to the fact that the ongoing pandemic and the crisis with Ukraine and Russia are having a massive impact on employees and their families. We’ve launched a global Wellbeing Framework to ensure that we give access to mental health provision for all our employees globally.”
Building a community
The annual IMI Way Day, when everyone comes together with their teams to share their thoughts and experiences, is a further chance to discover what more can be done to create a better working world. “As part of this, every location embarks on a community activity,” says Liz. “We work with local initiatives and projects. It fits with our purpose and aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
A new internal communications platform – One Big Team powered by Workplace – is another example of the way the organisation is evolving. “It’s been transformational,” Liz says, “allowing everyone to have meaningful conversations and giving everyone a voice.”
So much so that the One Big Voice survey of employee attitudes reflected high levels of engagement in the business. Likewise, the IMI Way Day group worksheet survey demonstrated that employee engagement has increased from 73% in 2020 to 80% in 2021.
“Activities like these have made a massive difference,” says Liz. “It’s not top-down messaging. We don’t do greenwash. We don’t always get it right, but we learn from our mistakes, pick ourselves up and move on to the next challenge. There’s been a powerful shift in the organisation as we’ve built our IMI community.”
Core values in action
The work with Spix is about inclusion and community. But, as Margret Sanders, Head of the Labour Department at Spix cautions, it can only lead to success if the company is fully behind it.
“It stands and falls with the working environment, which has to be ready to meet people with disabilities at eye level and with respect, and to perceive them as colleagues,” she says.
“This has been achieved brilliantly at IMI Alpen. Everyone feels completely part of the company.”
Torsten agrees: “When you go to the Spix department, it’s peaceful and quiet with concentration. We see highly motivated, consistent and reliable employees working with us every day.”
And as Liz says: “Our work with Spix resonates with the core values of the organisation. When we say One Big Team, we really are.”
