Award-winning work at circular knitting machine and braiding machine manufacturer in Albstadt: Mayer & Cie. is one of Germany’s best SME employers

Albstadt-based Mayer & Cie. has been named by the Centre for Employer Attractiveness (zeag GmbH) one of the most attractive SME employers in Germany. This accolade for the textile machinery manufacturer is based on the findings of an external survey of employees and management. The Top Job award is presented by former German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. Marcus Mayer, one of Mayer & Cie.’s two managing partners, received it on 24 February, in Berlin.   

Well known for special working environment 

“We have long been aware that we have a special corporate culture,” says Marcus Mayer, one of Mayer & Cie.’s two managing partners. “We are told that both by employees, some of whom spend their entire working lives with us, and by business partners. The external survey has now scientifically confirmed this ‘intuitive knowledge’ by underpinning it with figures.” 

Top marks for “culture and communication” 

The employee survey on which the Top Job award is mainly based is undertaken by the director of the Institute for Leadership and Human Resources Management at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, Professor Heike Bruch. The survey is carried out online and anonymously. Existing personnel management measures are also analysed. 

The experts gave Mayer & Cie. an especially good rating for “culture and communication”. Employees of the long-established company said they particularly appreciate the innovation-friendly, motivating and dialogue-oriented atmosphere. The textile machinery manufacturer is open to new ideas and facilitates formal and informal exchange across all levels as a matter of principle. By the same token it is convinced that the professional and personal further development of each and every individual is important.  

A family firm in the best sense of the term 

The external experts also confirmed the family working atmosphere at Mayer & Cie. The company is owner-managed in its fourth generation and thus a family firm in the best sense of the term. “Respect, trust and mutual esteem are the basis,” Marcus Mayer states, “both in our ‘corporate family’ and as we practice it in our own, private family.”  

This getting on well with each other ensures a powerful identification with the company and its products. Some members of staff are second- or third-generation Mayer & Cie. employees. They like to meet each other for lunch, at the bumper summer festival or for free training in the fitness studio after work.  

Award and incentive 

Praise aside, the external feedback includes homework assignments for the Albstadt-based textile machinery firm. Marcus Mayer sees them as a privilege: “In the further development of our circular knitting machines and braiding machines we fundamentally see a good result as an incentive. We are looking for approaches to further improvements. Thanks to the external survey we are now aware of the adjusting screws we can turn in the human resources sector, and we have every intention of turning them because committed, motivated employees are of decisive importance for a company’s long-term success.” 

In good company 

Top Job award winners can lay claim to the Top Job seal of quality for the next two years. Sixty-three per cent of these employers are family firms. Twenty-eight per cent are national and four per cent international market leaders. On average they have 250 employees. All award winners are listed on the www.topjob.de website.