Career boost

With the self-nomination process, MAN Diesel & Turbo has created an innovative platform for employees who want to advance their careers. The success of the pilot project speaks for itself.

Launched by Human Resources Development at the end of 2016, the self-nomination pilot project gave employees the chance to present their own talent with confidence and further their ongoing personal development. Nearly 90 colleagues from all over the world underwent the strict selection process, which involved a self-assessment test, a video interview and face-to-face interviews with HR generalists. Eighteen candidates made it through to the final selection and were invited to the talent conference in Düsseldorf on 7 April 2017, which was also attended by Executive Board Member Wayne Jones, among others.

The event served two purposes: Firstly, to give the finalists another opportunity to showcase their qualifications. Secondly, the talent scouts – managers from Sales and PrimeServ – presented their spheres of responsibility as a way of competing for interested talent. The two groups then got to talk to each other during the speed dating and networking sessions. Carola Schäfer, who played a leading role in developing and supervising the pilot project, was delighted by the very positive response. “Both the talent and the talent scouts were full of praise for this innovative process.

MDT is a pioneer in Germany in this respect.” In May and June, the talent received feedback on performance, individually tailored development plans and, in some cases, a definite job offer. Carola Schäfer’s team also analyzed everybody's feedback with a view to determining how to optimize the self-nomination process in the future. Following the successful pilot phase, the project is definitely sustainable, however.