OPINION! Sabine Hansen Peck, CEO Amadeus IT-Group: Diversity, shortage of skilled workers & promotion of women in personnel development

In an interview, Sabine Hansen Peck, Senior Vice President Human Resources, Brand and Communication at the Amadeus IT Group, talks about women on the board, the advancement of women and the shortage of skilled workers in human resources development and family policy.

Sabine Hansen Peck holds a Master's degree in Catholic Organizational Psychology University calibration In addition, she has an MBA in International Business Management by Thunderbird, School of Global Management (USA). Since November 2009 she has been Senior Vice-President, Human Resources, Brand and Communications at Amadeus and worldwide for human resources and internal Communication responsible. The Amadeus Group, with headquarters in Madrid, Nice and Erding and with 71 other locations worldwide, offers ITSolutions for the tourism industry. It employs around 13.000 worldwide Employees and generated a total turnover of 2014 billion euros in 3,4177. Hansen Peck is based in Madrid and is a member of the Amadeus Executive Management Team. Previously, she held senior human resources positions at Citigroup and Gate Group, among others, and was an Executive Director on the Board of Directors of Bank Handlowy.

Mrs Hansen Peck, in Germany yes very controversial, whether we are at all skilled laborers, the last row was even the Association of German Engineers, How are your experiences?

In fact, there is a global shortage of skilled workers Problem, it is only particularly noticeable in Europe and the USA.

Overall, there are not enough promising ones Candidate on the job what some Industries particularly hits.

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Now your company is headquartered in Madrid - and Spain is considered a country with high youth unemployment. How does it fit together?

For one, we are represented at 74 locations worldwide. On the other hand, especially in the IT sector, the specialists are missing.

For example, the extremely strong interest in the topic of "data" has recently led to a lack of data scientists who can analyze big data and transfer it to strategic management tools - a serious challenge for them, by the way Future.

This complaint is often heard by companies, especially in the fast-moving IT sector. If you ask more closely, they often do not like to invest in the training and further education of their employees. What does it look like in Amadeus?

It is regrettable that not all companies use the German training system, because it is one of the success factors on the German market.

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Unfortunately, copying was not done in other countries. At Amadeus, there are currently training programs at our German headquarters in Bad Homburg and Wurselen near Aachen.

In 2014 we spent 7,2 million euros in the Further Training promising employee invested. This includes the corporate social responsibility program “Knowledge and skills transfer” and Amadeus Leadership Development program for AmadeusExecutives in cooperation with renowned universities.

Which universities are they?

In Germany, for example, we are working closely with RWTH Aachen in Aachen for our subsidiary TravelTainment and with the dual university of Baden-Württemberg (DHBW) for our subsidiary Amadeus Germany in Bad Homburg.

In Spain, we work with the universities of Instituto de Empresa (IE) and Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (ESADE), as well as with the universities of Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya.

But of course we also train our employees within the Company – both through e-training and through classic face-to-face seminars. Amadeus also offers mentoring and Coachingprograms, as employee development and retention is a very high priority for Amadeus.

How many employees do you train from? How many percent will be taken from a training year?

More than half of the global Amadeus workforce has already participated in the company's comprehensive training offerings.

Several of our managers have developed into our current function within our company. A good example is Holger Taubmann, since 2011 our Senior Vice President Distribution. His professional career began with a three-year 1988 training at Lufthansa, 1997 joined Amadeus as Manager Business Control, 2004 became Managing Director of Amadeus Germany and 2010 Vice President of the North, East, Central and Southern Europe Region.

How do you recruit employees?

As already mentioned, we rely heavily on education and training Further Training, in order to retain and further develop employees who are already with the company. For internships we maintain agreements with several top universities around the world Welt and organize hackathons, for example at MIT in Boston.

For approximately 20 to 30 percent of the positions, we employ personnel recruiting, human resources consultancy or social media to find employees.

What kind of training do they recommend young people to qualify for a job at the Amadeus IT Group?

There are many ways to come to Amadeus and there is a wide range of vacancies. Think Suggestions an Boy people is one Job to choose who really is them Fun might. Because where we develop passion, we are also successful and enjoy our work.

I also recommend staying curious. Things to Learn is a lifelong process and does not stop when you leave school. Anyone who does not forget how to learn has an important skill to adapt to a changed environment or different framework conditions in today's world.

In Germany there are also several initiatives designed to get women interested in technical jobs. But they don't seem to want it.

I can not confirm this: more than a quarter of our technical workforce are women. And in our top management there are next to me with Julia Sattel and Ana de Pro still two more women.

We to organize together with universities Girls Days at our largest development location and to plan Women's hackathons in our development centers with the Objective, the attractiveness of a job in the IT industry for women increase.

We also just appointed a Chief Diversity Officer. And Headhunter we oblige, for each position also female Candidates to recommend.

Sounds good. The public discussion shows, however, that women are facing a serious conflict of interest between work and children. Or is this a specifically German phenomenon?

This is neither a specifically German problem nor new. Government policy and employer policies can set the framework, but in the end, the particular situation of a couple or even an individual is the important factor. Germany has set up one of the most generous paid parental leave in the world. And, of course, Nordic's family policy is even better.

But not every good example from one country can work in another country. In many European countries there are positive Developments in relation to parental leave. In Spain, for example, fathers can now also take part of their parental leave – this was previously only possible for mothers. And there is no direct connection between parental leave and, for example, the number of women in leading position.

Do managers with adequate financial resources find it easier or harder to combine work and family?

It's not easy finding the balance between one Career and raising children - or caring for elderly parents - no matter what position you are in. It always means juggling time and commitments and reaching compromises – what female executives with available resources Income might be easier.

There are some well-known examples of women leaders who successfully the right Balance have found, such as Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook, two children, Christine Lagarde, Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, two children, Susan Wojcick, YouTube Chief Executive Officer, two children, or Ana Patrica Botin, Santander Chief Executive Officer, three children.

I don't think financial or fiscal either Ask play a central role in deciding whether or not to have children. Many more employers need to understand and own the circumstances of their employees and provide them with support and flexibility at all stages of life. mine Opinions After that, not only a different policy is needed, but also a change in the minds of all those involved.

What does it look like in Amadeus?

That is exactly our goal at all Amadeus locations. We work hard to provide our female employees with opportunities for professional development while leaving room for the Family remains.

In Bad Homburg, one of our main locations in Germany, 20 percent of our managers are female and, as mentioned earlier, a quarter of 500 employees enjoy flexible working hours.

At other locations, we offer, for example, flexible employment contracts and times, home office options, comprehensive support for personal and family issues, tax-privileged daycare and kindergarten fees, parental leave for Mothers as well as for fathers and much more.

What has been the result of these efforts?

In addition, there are several initiatives to increase the number of women at Amadeus, particularly in the Features with technical reference. For example, we support the Amadeus Women Network, which was founded in 2014. The aim of this program is to support the professional and career development of women at Amadeus as well as the Work-Life-Improve balance.

At Amadeus, there are also successful female executives who pursue their professional careers while raising children. These include Ana de Pro, our Chief Financial Officer, and Cristina Fernández, our Head of Investor Relations, to name but a few.

What are the benefits of a company to promote women?

A number of studies have shown that a mixed board will benefit a company in every respect and lead to better business results. As far as women on the board is concerned, however, there is still a long way to go, despite many progress over the past few years.

The Amadeus Executive Committee is 30 percent women and indeed we bring different experiences, mindsets and problem-solvingStrategies to the board table. All of this flows positively into the discussions. In addition, 30 percent means enough critical mass to drive the change in corporate culture towards more diversity.

Because an aging population with declining birth rates will force companies to do more creativity to show when it comes to attractiveness for new employees. This is one of the reasons, though not the only one, why diversity is so important. We need men and women, different cultures and multiple generations in the workplace.

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