A thoroughly sporty company takes care of the fitness of the entire team.
Family Minister von der Leyen visits model entrepreneur Gisela Pieron
When Gisela Pieron became Businesswoman of the Year, Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited the Bocholt company. There she gave a speech to around 500 people on “Family as a success factor – a strategy for social and economic growth”. At this event, Gisela Pieron also gave a speech on how, as an entrepreneur, she ensures that her employees can have a family and continue their careers at the same time.
Gisela Pieron (left) in conversation with
Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen
When a company deals with indestructible springs – steel ones, not the fine plumage of birds – it is not such a stretch to also devote attention to the resilience and elasticity of muscles, namely those of its employees.
So when Gisela Pieron, Managing Partner of Pieron GmbH, was chosen as Bocholt’s Businesswoman of the Year in May 2005, she pondered for quite a while what to do with the 5,000 euros in prize money. It had to be something meaningful and lasting – and above all benefit the whole team, because the more than 200 women and men in the production halls and offices in the Schlavenhorst business park are the company’s greatest asset.
Should it be invested in further training? “But we do that anyway,” said the boss. And she is right: the company is currently training 15 excellent apprentices. The solution was finally found: a fitness room was needed, equipped with the best machines available on the market.
No sooner said than done. A large room was found that could be renovated for this purpose. It was filled with two cross trainers – the machines that work arms and legs at the same time – two multi-gyms for muscle building and two exercise bikes. Since the beginning of 2007, as the sign-in book confirms, it has been busy during breaks and after work. Perhaps new fitness equipment will be added soon – the health-conscious employees and their boss are still facing the difficult choice between a treadmill and a rowing machine.
In general, Pieron GmbH is a thoroughly sporty company. Its own company football team regularly takes to the pitch in its smart kit at tournaments – and not only the men play, but young women also outwit the opposing defence. The Pieron eleven is a welcome guest at numerous charity tournaments and tournaments for people with disabilities. In this case, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: in his free time, works council chairman Hans-Dieter Ernst coaches a team of people with mental and physical disabilities.
Sporting activities do not stop in winter either, as the employees then take to the ice and prove themselves at ice stock sport – a sport you would expect to find in Bavaria rather than where the western Münsterland meets the Lower Rhine.
Gisela Pieron is, of course, delighted that the fitness room has been so well received. But her initiative for the health and well-being of the workforce is far from exhausted: “Next, we will offer a free medical check-up that allows everyone to assess their physical fitness – and at the same time provides warning signals if there are any deficits.” Incidentally, the boss assures us, the employer does not get to see any of the results: “It serves solely for personal preventive health care.”
At the award ceremony, the “lived and exemplary corporate culture” at Pieron was particularly highlighted – and this also includes exemplary family-friendliness.
This is no wonder, as the Managing Partner knows from her own experience what it is like to raise and care for three children in addition to a responsible job in the company. All three sons have turned out well: Sven and Björn work in the company, and Lars has successfully set up his own business.
So it is no wonder that Federal Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited the Bocholt company on 17 October. With its stamped and wire bent parts for the electrical and electronics industry, compression, torsion and double torsion springs and clamping rings for automotive engineering, and springs for sports and leisure equipment, it supplies the whole world.
In front of almost 500 listeners, the minister spoke on “Family as a success factor – a strategy for social and economic growth” in the goods receiving hall, which had been cleared for the occasion.
The event was hosted by the CDU district association of Borken.
Gisela Pieron spoke about how she ensures in her company that none of her employees has to give up their job because young children need to be looked after in the family. The company not only trains women in so-called male professions, but also gives in-depth thought to reconciling work and family life. For example, there is the option of working from home or teleworking, and both working hours and break times can be arranged individually.
A joint nursery with other companies in the industrial estate is also currently being considered. Meeting the individual needs of mothers is a central concern for Gisela Pieron.
In her speech, Federal Family Minister von der Leyen explained that it is society’s task to enable families to combine raising children and working. Most young people want children, von der Leyen emphasised, yet Germany has one of the lowest birth rates in the world because children make life more difficult.
When it comes to the proportion of working women with children, for example, Germany lags far behind in a European comparison. The framework conditions must change, said the minister. At least the “European standard” for nursery places, with a coverage rate of 35 per cent, should be achieved.
Von der Leyen pointed out that business can benefit in many ways if it makes it easier to reconcile family and work. With regard to the company nursery in the Bocholt industrial estate, von der Leyen offered support: from 2008, the Family Ministry would provide start-up funding for such projects for the first two years.
Afterwards, the minister, the deputy CDU district chair Martina Schrage, Gisela Pieron and IHK President Hans Dieler discussed the topic of “family and work”, moderated by Dr Norbert Tiemann, editor-in-chief of the Westfälische Nachrichten.
Rainer Rehbein, UVG