“What’s important is that they are open and direct when talking to one another, that they come up with suggestions for improvement, and that they present these to their superiors. This is what we are seeking to achieve in the career development workshop.”

Bożena Baldysz, Head of Training and Individual Development in Gliwice

“A large company like Opel is constantly evolving. This means that conditions at the workplace are changing all the time for employees, an area where open dialogue is necessary.”

Anna Buba, participant

The huge number of post-it notes on the wall is evidence of the extensive brainstorming session that just took place. Eight employees from Manufacturing Engineering joined the workshop. The topic is career development at Opel, or put differently: How is my career developing? What’s going well, and what are the obstacles I face? And last but not least, how can I improve my current situation? Each of them poses these questions and addresses the issues most important to him or her as an employee.

The employees collect topics that help or hinder their careers.

The different colored post-it notes represent the three different groups: yellow for the ‘glads’ (I’m happy about…), blue for the ‘sads’ (I’m sad about…), and red for the ‘mads’ (I’m annoyed about…). Key words on the post-it notes guide the topics of discussion. For example, Tomasz Kozera comments that he “would like more support from the company in planning my long-term career goals at Opel.” The current situation belongs in the ‘mads’ category, according to Kozera. “Good prospects to move up at the company,” he says, “and the chance to continually develop skills are very important to us as employees.”

Kozera’s comments are put to debate. Is there enough money in the budget to cover continuing education programs run by outside providers? How good are the foreign language courses? Is Opel able to offer its employees enough incentives and opportunities? The employees  have very different opinions and start a lively debate.

Summarized insights: the glads, mads and sads.

Bożena Baldysz, Head of Training and Individual Development in Gliwice, is the person responsible for initiating the workshop. “What’s important is that they are open and direct when talking to one another, that they come up with suggestions for improvement, and that they present these to their superiors. This is what we are seeking to achieve in the career development workshop.”

Baldysz had pondered ways to identify and address the difficult day-to-day challenges faced by employees. She found inspiration in Rüsselsheim, Germany, where she took part in a training seminar on group activation. “This was where I came up with the idea of trying out a new and intriguing method,” she explained. “Its aim is to identify the parts of our job that make us happy, annoyed, or anxious, as these make our everyday work routine that much more difficult.” Baldysz explains the principle behind the workshop: “We talk about the things that help and hinder someone’s career. Anyone can add a post-it note and briefly describe what they find stressful or what shouldn’t be changed.” Most important is that they are honest and forthcoming when expressing their feelings. “You can see that this works, as there are lots of bads and sads alongside all the glads.”

Anna Buba, who attended the workshop for Finance Department Employees, thinks that the concept behind it is great. “A large company like Opel is constantly evolving. This means that conditions at the workplace are changing all the time for employees, an area where open dialogue is necessary.”According to Bożena Baldysz it is the duty of any responsible company to improve working conditions for employees. She stresses that “all the ideas and suggestions from the workshop are analyzed to determine whether it would be at all feasible to implement them.” And then the action plan is prepared and implemented.