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TAF and Salesforce: intercultural award

04.12.2020

Cosmopolitan, international and shaping a real integration: For this entrepreneurial achievement, TAF mobile GmbH today received in the category "SMEs - small and medium-sized enterprises" and Salesforce.com Germany GmbH won the i-work Business Award in the category "large companies". The award for exemplary intercultural opening in companies from Jena and the region was presented by Jena's Lord Mayor Dr. Thomas Nitzsche and Dr. Claudia Hillinger, Head of the International Office of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, during a live broadcast from the university's multimedia center. The competition was organized for the fourth time by the Jena Economic Development Agency (JenaWirtschaft) and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena.

The patroness of the competition, Thuringian Minister of Employment Heike Werner (DIE LINKE) emphasized during her welcoming address

"The award is under the motto 'Economic success through cultural diversity'. Against this background, both companies have launched exemplary concepts and measures, how the everyday working life of people with and without a migration background can be shaped in a collaborative and sustainable manner".

According to the Minister, both companies - and all 11 participants in the competition - had convincingly demonstrated in their applications what great added value is gained through cultural diversity.

The jury was particularly impressed - consisting of international employees as well as representatives of the economy, the state, the university and JenaWirtschaft - the approach of both companies, strategically and long-term oriented, is to involve the entire team in the process of arrival and to help shape the local conditions.

A total of nine companies and, for the first time this year, two research institutions had applied for the awards and the decision was difficult, said jury member Dr. Claudia Hillinger.

"All companies and institutions - not only from the IT sector, but in all industries - implement a broad portfolio of intercultural and integrative measures for and with their employees. Therefore, the jury would have met for a third session this year to make a final decision on the two prizes. "Especially with the applicants, who have already applied several times, we see the comprehensive efforts to develop further", Hillinger explains. "This impressed the entire jury very much."

The software company TAF is happy about the award in the category "small and medium-sized enterprises". "Under the motto 'International Diversity as a Growth Engine' we set out in 2018 and were able to expand our team from 13 to 24 through the targeted recruitment and hiring of international employees," says Sandra Melle, authorized signatory, Finance & Administration at TAF.

"We see ourselves as a TAF family and want our new team members to feel at home from the very beginning," says Sarah Nuschke, Office Manager at TAF, describing her self-conception and motivation for taking care of all local concerns. "We support the preparations in the country of origin as well as after arrival here in Jena. Since last year, we have developed further, particularly in the area of employee retention, by conducting structured preliminary interviews and exit interviews and by involving the partners who are moving along with us in an even more targeted manner. We also wanted to show this to the i-work jury and have therefore applied again".

For Salesforce as a two-time award winner in the category "large companies" - the company had already won in 2017 - international work and an international background of the team members is part of everyday life.

The advantages are obvious for location manager Björn Leonhardt: "Equal opportunities and the representation of the diversity of society are the prerequisites for us to develop innovative products and to provide our international customers with the best possible advice. In the process, processes within the Group are constantly being put to the test in order to ensure equal access for all employees," says Leonhardt. "This includes training to minimize prejudice in recruitment, as well as transparent promotion structures and equal pay regardless of origin or gender. Social commitment also plays a very central role for us, because integration happens on the ground.

The topic of "internationality" is also on the long-term agenda for business development. Wilfried Röpke, Managing Director at JenaWirtschaft, mentions various goals that go hand in hand with the award of the intercultural company prize:

"The adjusted results of our skilled worker study Jena2030 further confirm that the skilled worker demand of the local economy can only be covered by immigration, i.e. people with a migration background. Corona will not change this. To achieve this, we must jointly design and communicate Jena as an attractive and cosmopolitan location. This also includes an actual culture of welcome in the companies and institutions, regardless of the nationality of the employees," says Röpke. "With the i-work Company Award, we want to make visible how international the Jena region and the companies are already, to show which exemplary measures already exist and how everyone can benefit from greater diversity in companies and society".

Further information: www.jenawirtschaft.de/i-work

The following companies and institutes had applied:

  • Accenture GmbH
  • FBGS Technologies GmbH
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering
  • Jenoptik AG
  • Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technologies
  • JIGS UG & Co KG
  • JustOn Ltd.
  • Salesforce.com Germany GmbH
  • TAF mobile GmbH
  • TD Software GmbH
  • VITROMED GmbH