No newcomers from outside, better internal management:Volkswagenwants to save even more staff, without endangering the conversion to e-mobility and digitalization. “The board of directors will stop hiring until at least the end of the year because of corona and securing liquidity,” said works council chief Bernd Osterloh (63) of the VW company newspaper “Mitbestießen”. “I think that puts pressure on an issue that we urgently need: transformation. We have to think about what is essential.” The new brand boss Ralf Brandstätter (51) pointed out the weak business: “So we decided not to get any new people on board for the time being.”
The manager, who replaced CEO Herbert Diess (61) in the management of the VW main brand on July 1, emphasized that the employment guarantee would continue to apply until 2029. However, the temporary waiver of external hires would mean clearer human resource priorities strived for – and also a better balance between the loss of old and the creation of new jobs.
Osterloh admitted: “We have invested too little time in the topic of transformation.” Now VW is at a new point: “To say that you are no longer hiring externally naturally means that you have to think more about how I can develop employees.”
According to Brandstätter, the automaker must be careful: “It is really important now to turn every euro before we spend it – and to work with absolute cost discipline. (…) The company is in a really difficult situation.” It is important to “continuously take the workforce with you”. A spokesman said there was no additional staffing – new hires are “kept to an absolute minimum”. Apprentices are excluded. At the same time, the internal further qualification will be expanded.
Full stock, few customers
The auto industry is under pressure because of consumer reluctance. The stores are full and it is difficult to sell finished models. “Corona will continue to demand a lot from us – this is where my full attention goes,” said Brandstätter. CEO Diess sees slight signs of improvement, but the financial losses remain enormous. “We have a recovery that is still far from the pre-crisis level,” he said in a roundtable at the auditing and consulting firm PwC.
VW is also feeling a lively order intake in mass business. But the financial situation is tense. “We are losing substance,” said Diess. For the current year, the company initially calculated that it would use up to 10 billion euros in liquidity reserves.
According to Osterloh’s assessment, the VW Group – the largest car group in the world – should “of course not come back to 11 million vehicles again this year and lose noticeably in the brand”. In the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung” and “Braunschweiger Zeitung” the head of the works council spoke of a realistic annual production of just over half a million cars at the main plant. Originally, around 700,000 vehicles should have been manufactured in Wolfsburg.
Osterloh reiterated demands that the headquarters need another model. He also worries about suppliers. After the short-time work expired, there could “still be brutal insights”: “If key suppliers are insolvent and have to be processed, we may not get any more parts.” Brandstätter said about the capacity utilization: “We want to find an optimal solution for all plants.”
“Full union support” for CEO Diess
There had recently been a heated argument about management communication about the slow start of the Golf 8. Many employees felt left alone. The conflict had escalated so much that Diess had to explain the technology and software problems in the supervisory board. Osterloh warned: “We have to be more honest internally about what is not going and where we are not yet at the booth that we actually want. That is also a management task.”
Diess explained the software problems with new models with the high level of complexity. It is one of the reasons why VW is developing more of its own IT systems, also in the software organization that has just started. This is now to be headed by Audi boss Markus Duesmann (51), who will replace Christian Senger (46). Duesmann is already responsible for the overall coordination of research and development in the group.
Osterloh had taken Diess hard because of his management style. Most recently, Osterloh stood behind the CEO in a survey by investors. He gave him the “full union support“Acknowledged and emphasized that IG Metall and management had the same strategy, it was said in the analysis of a financial service provider. The” Wirtschaftswoche “had previously reported on it.
Brandstätter said about consultations with IG Metall shop stewards: “It was a good meeting.” He claimed to have a say in the workforce. “We have to resolve issues in the interests of the company and then communicate them cleanly to the workforce. Co-determination and also the intensive dialogue with the works council are part of Volkswagen like the Beetle, the Golf and the VW Currywurst.”