You came to Compart in 2013. What induced you to take over the HR department of Compart?

The attitude of the management was decisive for me. During the application process, I had the opportunity to talk to all four board members. I realized how much heart and soul this company puts into it, which long-term visions are behind it, and how important the employees are. I also learned a lot about the values of Compart. All this coincided very well with my personal beliefs. I knew that I would be able to achieve my goals of making a decisive contribution to the success of the company, gaining over very bright minds and developing the potential of people holistically and in the long term.

What have you been able to achieve at Compart since you joined?

Together with the HR team, we have rebuilt the department, as HR at Compart previously consisted of external consultants. We have laid a solid foundation in administration and redefined the entire HR processes. A special focus was placed on recruitment, because the knowledge, innovative power and motivation of our employees are decisive for the quality and efficiency of our products and thus for the success of Compart. We have begun recruiting worldwide in order to attract the best specialists. And also essential: we have supported employees and managers in their holistic development – through language courses, which make our international communication possible, through technical training, which increases the expertise of colleagues and through seminars in the soft skills area. A year ago, we even founded our own Compart Academy to consistently offer top-class training courses in-house. From the positive responses we can see that we are on the right path. We are very proud of the steadily increasing number of training days and the great feedback from our employees.

In recent years, Compart has repeatedly been recognized as a top employer. What makes Compart a good employer in your eyes?

I mean, it is the overall portfolio that Compart has to offer. It is based on an industry with great future prospects, innovative products, a worldwide customer base and a long history of success. Behind this is the will of the founders and the company management to shape and form the IT market with high-quality software development. In my opinion, long-term investments in customer and employee relationships are also crucial.

We try to offer our employees more than just a job. For us it is essential that they can feel that they are important to us: that we see their abilities and offer them opportunities to use them, that their suggestions and opinions are taken seriously, that we care about their health and further education. We also create a pleasant working environment through our various practical offers. We are very committed to our work together and our goal is for employees to find their job homebase at Compart.

Each individual is important to us: their professional contributions, but also themselves as people with their expectations and wishes. We invest a great deal of creativity and energy to create individual solutions for the long-term satisfaction of our colleagues.

From an HR perspective, what is one of the next biggest challenges, that Compart is facing today, and how do you, as Head of HR, proceed to meet this challenge?

One of the great challenges for an international workforce, which is increasingly working virtually, is to lay a common foundation through our Compart values. To be flexible and yet stable. To achieve this, we increase the intercultural competence of our managers and employees through training. This enables us to understand each other much more and to respond to each other better. We also try to make our values come alive and tangible for employees through our everyday actions and various activities. And, while we are open to change and like to explore new paths, we take care to preserve what is valuable to us and what makes us successful. Another challenge, in the midst of the general shortage of skilled workers in Germany and especially in the IT industry, is to find and recruit the right people, who will make Compart successful through their contribution. In Böblingen we are surrounded by a multitude of Goliaths such as IBM, Hewlett Packer, Daimler and Bosch. My approach was and still is to search for talents also outside Germany's borders. That is why we recruit worldwide and our employees come from Brazil as well as from Siberia to span the arc from west to east. If someone brings the suitable knowledge, experience, flexibility and above all an inner attitude that makes a lot possible, then they are right for Compart and at Compart. Nevertheless, not everything happens by itself. That is why we have declared Compart to be a bilingual company, in which everyone speaks English at least at B1 level to ensure that communication flows. We also support our colleagues from abroad with German language courses – and offer English courses for German colleagues. In addition, a training course on international competence, which everyone attends at Compart, is now standard. In doing so, we increase mutual understanding for cultural differences and consideration. An important role in this context is primarily attributed to the managers, who manage everyday life between many cultures and build bridges in the process, with a great deal of tact and sensitivity. Our special reward in this context is the enrichment we experience through the diversity of approaches.

"At the beginning of 2019 we founded our own Compart Academy in order to consistently offer top-class in-house training. We are very proud of the great feedback from our employees."

What are the secrets of success at Compart?

Hands on mentality, pragmatism, constructive solution orientation, objective arguments, initiative, willingness to perform. The magic word is investment: my time, my strength, my knowledge, my skills, my commitment. Today, many people ask the question: what do I get? But I am still convinced, that what we have to give makes us successful.

Brigitte Bottesch, born 1970
Head of Human Resources

With a Master's degree in Business Administration, Brigitte has already passed through various professional stages in Germany and abroad before joining Compart, from start-up to international medium-sized companies. She contributes many years of management experience and has developed a lot of new divisions over the years. She joined Compart in 2013 as Head of Human Resources and has been shaping the HR department with great commitment and passion ever since. Brigitte sees herself as a lifelong learner with the goal of constantly expanding her own personal horizons. Together with a team of 3 employees, she puts her ideas and initiatives into practice for Compart every day. Always driven by the goal of offering Compart employees more than just a job.