Bringing corporate values to life.
The purpose team days of Helvetia Austria are inspiring, motivational and emotional.
Text Simon Pöhl, Bianca Herzog-Planko Photos Helvetia
“The strategic focus defines the goal, the helvetia.way describes how we will achieve it”, explains Bernd Allmer, Head of HR & Corporate Development at Helvetia Austria. And it is essential that we shape the latter on the basis of our corporate values in a manner that is true to life. To this end, purpose workshops were launched for all teams across Austria in 2023. “While the team days should be a source of inspiration and fun, they should also bring us closer together and into contact with our corporate values of trust, dynamism and passion. For us, the workshops represent a valuable and long-term investment in our corporate culture”, says Allmer in describing the intention behind the concept.
“Raise your hands” is the motto for anyone who would like to communicate using sign language.
The big picture
Each workshop lasts a day and starts with a special intervention that offers a new perspective. The activity is different for each team and is designed to inspire and be memorable. In the second part of the workshop, the teams are familiarised with the helvetia.way, including the corporate values and the company’s purpose.
Particular focus is placed on how the team can implement the helvetia.way in their own professional context. Even the best values cited in the annual culture survey will remain nothing more than theory if they are not embraced and filled with life. For this reason, the third part of the workshop creatively illustrates the content developed under professional guidance. “How am I there for others? Are we there for each other as a team? What will we need from each other in the future?” The answers to these questions are worked out together in the team and visualised in a so-called purpose image, which together with all other images form the so-called purpose map. This online whiteboard shows the results of each team interactively in the form of a poster and a one-minute film and can be viewed by all employees in Austria.
Opening up new perspectives
It’s 7 a.m. as the alarm clock goes off. This is a normal start to the day for many Helvetia employees. This also applies to deaf people, even if their alarm clock doesn’t ring in the conventional sense. As part of the Helvetia purpose workshops, some teams decided to take a trip into the world of silence. “Our environment is unfortunately little adapted to the needs of deaf people. This is why a strong community has taken shape that sticks together and stands up for one another”, explains Elisabeth Zenz-Röhrbacher, project manager of the interactive HANDS UP exhibition. All of the guides who take guests around the premises of the Vienna-based association are deaf. In order to make the experience tangible for hearing guests, they are provided with soundproof headphones prior to the tour commencing. “Hardly anybody can imagine what it really means to be able to hear little or nothing at all. The barriers faced in everyday life can be overcome, but it is important to build understanding and reduce the fear of contact”, she emphasises. For many, a visit to HANDS UP represents a lasting experience that they later share with colleagues, friends and family.