Employer of Choice
ByAcademy promotes talents
Every day, 3500 employees do their best for Bystronic. Several years ago, in order to support our talents in a targeted manner, we founded the ByAcademy. In this way we are attaching even greater importance to training and further education.
The ByAcademy is our internal talent development platform. It offers employees from all areas a multifaceted range of training and further education courses. It covers internal technical and methodological competencies as well as language, personal, social, and leadership skills. Moreover, we also support advanced further education courses offered by external institutions, ranging from specialist courses to PhD programs.
Our Training Centers
The Training Centers in Niederönz and Gotha offer several-day courses for service technicians, service managers, and staff in sales, the back office, product management, and development. The participants gain insights into product management, our portfolio, and our support and manufacturing processes.
In total, at our Training Centers in Niederönz (cutting), Gotha (bending), Cazzago San Martino (tube processing), San Giuliano Milanese (automation), as well as in the United States, South Korea, and China, 14 instructors share their knowledge of Bystronic systems. They are supported by our trainers around the globe.
Black Belt and Green Belt training
Within the framework of the Business Excellence (BEX) initiative, we are training so-called Black Belts and Green Belts. With BEX, we are promoting, among other things, a collaborative culture based on personal accountability and shared success. After completing the course, the staff are deployed in initiatives around the globe to help the business units to respond to new requirements in a flexible and speedy manner. The BEX organization facilitates international, cross-divisional knowledge transfer and the sharing of experience. Currently, some 30 employees around the globe are taking part in Green Belt training courses.
Leadership Development Programs
With our Leadership Development Programs, we help our managers to master the challenges they face on the job. For this purpose, we have developed dedicated training programs.
Leadership Development Program 1 & 2
In 2017, we launched the Leadership Development Program 1 (LDP 1) for junior managers and employees who are assuming a new management function. In addition, since 2018, the LDP 2 has been available for managers with between 12 and 20 years of work experience. Since then, more than 100 employees have benefited from this program.
The participants of both programs gain insights into the Strategy 2025, the concepts of service and solutions as a business, as well as operational excellence. The workshop also covers topics such as intercultural competencies, change management, communication within teams, conflict management, leadership, and dealing with stress during day-to-day work.
LDP 2 is structured as two modules, each lasting five days. In the six-month project phase between the two modules, the participants form groups of four and jointly develop a concept including an implementation scenario for a topic relevant to business. In the second module, they present their projects and run a business simulation in order to apply in practice what they learned in the first module.
Since one focus of our Strategy 2025 is regionalization, we want to increasingly support managers in their native language. In 2021, Bystronic China conducted the first locally oriented Leadership Development Program. The six-month course, which kicked off in mid-October, is being attended by staff in cross-functional positions.
Leadership roles in service
With the “Manager Self Development Program” (MSDP), which was launched in 2019, we develop the leadership skills of service managers. These are the people who are in day-to-day contact with our customers. Since some 30% of all Bystronic employees report to a service manager, leadership skills are a key aspect of this function. Since the program was introduced, it has been attended by some 100 employees worldwide who have a leadership role in our service operations.
Leadership curriculum
A leadership curriculum for managers is now available at our headquarters. This enables the participants to master the challenges of the future. They learn the principles and modes of action of future-oriented organizations, how to deal with complexity and change, and can actively shape the path to a culture of feedback and learning from one another. The focus is on a growth mindset, service orientation (alignment with internal and external customers), the ability to change, interdisciplinary leadership and collaboration, communication and reflection, and self-leadership.
Bright prospects for apprentices
Vocational training has always taken a high priority at Bystronic. Today, we train young people in eleven different professions. Currently 55 apprentices in Switzerland, 41 apprentices in Germany, and around 100 apprentices worldwide are completing their apprenticeships with us.
We are delighted about numerous completed apprenticeships: 20 apprentices in Niederönz and two in Gotha successfully completed their training in 2021. After their apprenticeship, approximately 80% of the young professionals have the opportunity to stay on with us for a bridging year.
At the same time, new talents are joining our ranks. In August 2021, 17 apprentices started their training at our headquarters in Niederönz. A special aspect this year: Some of the new apprentices are joining us after already having gained several years of professional experience. Over the coming three to four years, we will offer our young colleagues vocational training in the following professions: plant and equipment technician, commercial specialist, logistics technician, design engineer, polymechanic, IT technician, automation technician, electronics technician, and mediamatician.
At Bystronic Maschinenbau GmbH in Gotha and Bystronic Deutschland in Heimsheim, nine apprentices embarked on their apprenticeships last year. Over the coming three to three and a half years, they will complete their training in the following professions: metal technology specialist, industrial electronics technician, construction mechanic, cutting machine operator, mechatronics technician, process mechanic for coating technology, and office management specialist.