Barbara Burkon

Episode 5: Barbara Burkon, Head of Human Resources

It's never quiet in the HR department - especially not in a medium-sized company like the RATHGEBER Group, with four locations and various business units. "Each unit has different requirements and a special culture," says Barbara Burkon, Head of Human Resources. And this was also one of the reasons why she joined the RATHGEBER Group five years ago.

"Diversity in medium-sized structures and continuously developing the work culture and HR processes for all units and colleagues" is something that Barbara Burkon and her entire HR team are passionate about. On the one hand, the HR department works very individually to meet the needs of the individual companies, such as smart-TEC, while at the same time seeking to unite and support the group as a whole. "We have jointly developed an internal group mission statement for cooperation across all companies, which gives us orientation and guidelines for our actions in our day-to-day work."

The topic of sustainability also supports the HR department in its daily work: "In job interviews, we can always get applicants excited about our sustainable projects and campaigns."

Sustainability is also very important to Barbara Burkon in her private life: "Enjoying regional and seasonal food is very important to me. I buy vegetables, dairy products and meat mainly and preferably from regional producers, farmers and farm stores. Cooking and enjoying food is simply more fun when you know where the carrot comes from. I love to cook - and in the current coronavirus times, I'm cooking far more than I would like."

Three questions for Barbara Burkon, which she answers spontaneously:

Question 1: What does a typical working day at RATHGEBER/smart-TEC look like?

Barbara Burkon: "The motto is "structured & flexible"! Structured, because we have everything in the wide range of HR work from administration, payroll, training and recruiting to organizational and cultural development and we always follow the common thread in all topics. This means, there is a theoretical topic plan for each day and usually also a little buffer for urgent and important topics that come in at short notice. These then have to be flexibly prioritized, whether big or small. Sometimes we also have to change things around completely."

Question 2: What is your favorite project at RATHGEBER/smart-TEC and why?

Barbara Burkon: "My favorite thing is working on cross-group HR projects, so I come into contact with all company units. These can be labor law or cultural issues. It's great that all colleagues can usually get involved. The last major HR project was the development and introduction of a new flexible working time model for all commercial employees. I am currently working on the creation of the RATHGEBER Code of Conduct. This is not purely an HR project, but it has a lot of overlap with HR and also with my personal attitude. It's really fun to work with colleagues across the Group."

Question 3: How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

Barbara Burkon: "sustainable, holistic, humorous"

Finally, Barbara Burkon reveals her fun fact:

"We have to think anyway. So why not be positive?"
- saying of our neighbor's children -

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