Employees

THE KEY TO OUR SUCCESS

Ernsting’s family employees are the key to our success. With outstanding team spirit, passion, and a mass of creativity and innovative energy, our employees have been the driving force behind the company for the past 50 years and have transformed Ernsting’s family into one of the most successful retailers of affordable and high quality family fashion. One of the main challenges we are faced with is to enable employees to constantly identify with the company and to provide them with security and reassurance while also expanding the “family” with new competent and passionate members.

Employees

MANAGEMENT

For us, management is all about supporting our employees and teams in wanting independence, individual responsibility and self-determination in their work. We have set firm guidelines for this and established processes to implement them. All Ernsting’s family managers have received extensive training for this purpose. New employees that work in human resources follow these training courses as part of their onboarding process. Ernsting’s family managers provide their employees with guidance and valuable feedback. They inform them about any changes, ensure transparency and make comprehensible decisions. Employee surveys are carried out every two years and provide us with feedback on leadership. Our managers know their employees’ needs and potential inside out. They are committed to their further development and create the conditions necessary for a successful work-life balance.

Employees

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

We view education and training as key to our competitiveness and to enabling us to be innovative. We therefore place particular emphasis on training our own staff and managers and on encouraging the further development of all our employees. Through our internal development programme, particularly talented employees have the chance to pursue interesting career paths and of course we keep all employees constantly updated through training courses, seminars and various further training opportunities. We also offer financial support for any employees that wish to pursue part-time studies. All managers receive training on “Leadership and Change”. Project managers receive coaching on project planning, communication, project documentation and resource planning. Sales assistants are trained in omni-channel service and we employ single mothers as part-time sales trainers.

Employees

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Ernsting's family offers its employees the ideal work and employment conditions for every stage of their lives. Offering individual solutions for an optimal work-life balance is a key aspect of our family-conscious HR policy. We believe that it is important to carefully balance the needs of the company with the employees’ wishes. As such, we offer a wide range of working time and part-time arrangements, a model for a smooth transition to retirement, structured discussions for expectant parents, attractive parental leave arrangements and opportunities for remote working. Even the littlest members of our family are taken care of. Up to 35 children of employees and non-employees from the surrounding area can be looked after at the “Lillyfee” family day care centre on our head office site in Coesfeld-Lette.

Employees

DIVERSITY

We firmly believe that diverse teams enable us to make better, balanced and forward-looking decisions based on humanity, respect and tolerance and hold great potential for us as a company. We will only be able to understand and serve the needs of our diverse stakeholders if the company itself is diverse. By doing this, we are acting according to our convictions and achieving a clear competitive advantage at the same time. Interaction among all ages, as well as among genders and different cultures, is encouraged – not least by the creation of diverse teams.

WORKING CONDITIONS

Modern and safe workplaces are essential to achieve outstanding work. As such, we continuously invest in improving our working conditions in all areas of the company.

HEALTH

All our processes and structures are regularly analysed as part of our occupational health management to ensure a healthy working environment for our employees.

COMPANY CULTURE

The company culture at Ernsting's family is characterised by a sense of family, personal contact and job satisfaction in flat hierarchies.

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AT ERNSTING’S FAMILY

OUR EMPLOYEES SHOULD BE ABLE TO FEEL GOOD IN THEIR WORK.

Ralf Schillmüller, Head of Social Affairs & Employee Satisfaction (Ombudsperson)