SEDIMA: First meeting of the steering group in Dortmund

As part of the project ‘Key Stages in Employment Histories as the Basis for Tailored and Sustainable Diversity Management’ (SEDIMA), the painting firm Markus Massmann from Lüdinghausen, rku.it from Herne and Dortmund Hospital are exploring ways to tackle the shortage of skilled workers. In four experimental spaces, diversity management tools addressing different stages in employment histories are being developed and tested. After the companies, together with the Social Research Centre as their academic partner and the Offensive Mittelstand initiative as their transfer partner, had assessed their current situation regarding diversity management and identified specific challenges, objectives were drawn up for the individual experimental spaces and the first implementation steps were defined.

On 1 July, the pilot projects were presented to the steering group members who had travelled to Dortmund: Geske Houtrouw (Handwerk NRW), Britta Tigges (G.I.B. NRW), Bärbel Sumagang and Klaus Waschulewski (DGB Dortmund-Hellweg), Andreas Höffken (DEHOGA North Rhine-Westphalia), Ma Markus Götz (NeuroCatalyst) and Michal Niehaus, the project supervisor from the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAUA), were introduced

In the experimental space ‘We want diversity! Attracting and retaining skilled workers’, master painter Markus Massmann and his team are developing approaches to recruiting foreign skilled workers and retaining them in small craft businesses. 

rku.it has named its experimental space ‘Together through working life as a mixed bag’ and intends to develop into a diversity-conscious organisation, with the aim of retaining employees with a migrant background at the medium-sized company for as long as possible, ideally until they reach retirement age.

As a large organisation with a professional recruitment team, Dortmund Hospital has already recruited a three-figure number of foreign nursing staff. The experimental initiatives run by the hospital – “Nurse Career Navigator” and “Culture Connect Club” – aim to retain these individuals in the long term through measures promoting sustainable professional and social integration.

On behalf of sfs,  Dr. Peter Ittermann, Christina Meyn, Jens Maylandt, Ellen Hilf and Celine Dora (student assistance) are active within SEDIMA.

For more information about the project, visit the following websites:

INQA

Offensive Mittelstand