Interview with a first-time customer

In October 2022, ValueQuest GmbH celebrates its 20th anniversary. We are delighted to conduct an interview with Steffen Volz to mark the occasion. 20 years ago, as a project manager at La Suisse, Mr. Volz was the first customer for whom the newly founded company ValueQuest conducted an employee survey. And exactly 20 years later, he is working with us again, this time as part of a 360-degree leadership feedback.

Dear Mr. Volz, we are very pleased that you are willing to answer our questions about your experiences with ValueQuest.

Why did you decide to conduct an employee survey back then?

• At my former employer, we were on track with the European EFQM quality management system. Employee involvement and commitment are a key aspect of this system. We therefore needed an instrument to measure employee satisfaction and commitment and to define improvement measures on this basis. This was probably the main reason for an employee survey.

What do you remember about the project back then?

• What particularly interested me at the time was being able to show the causalities and the correlations or dependencies between different key figures. ValueQuest was the ideal partner for us in this respect because we looked at things in a very similar way.

You have been working in HR for over 20 years now. What do you do today?

• After an intensive "corporate" career in various industries, I decided 4 years ago to go into consulting. Today I accompany and support people, groups and organizations who want to move forward in the areas of leadership, collaboration, employee and organizational development.

In your opinion, how has human resources changed over the last 20 years? What trends do you see?

• In all the years in which I have dealt with the topic of HR and also met many HR professionals, I have become somewhat sober about it. I sense a lot of resignation and frustration. Many people get into this industry because they "like people" and realize that they can do very little for people. And rightly so: it's the direct line managers who should primarily look after "their people", not HR. I think the time is ripe to fundamentally rethink the "HR essence", perhaps even abolish it as it is currently set up. The challenges in the area of "human resources management" will increase massively in the coming years. I don't think we have really prepared ourselves for this.

What prompted you to work with ValueQuest again 20 years later?

• I was recently approached by three different clients on the subject of "360° leadership feedback". The need for a holistic or broadly comprehensive assessment of leadership competencies in organizations is present. Some clients start with an available online tool, but then feel that it is difficult for them to make something useful out of the results. And so I was asked if I could recommend a tool to them. Since my experience with ValueQuest has remained positive in my memory, I knocked on ValueQuest's door again after all these years.

How would you describe the collaboration with ValueQuest? Then and now?

• Strong customer focus, extremely cooperative (it's a joint project every time), sound and a very good price/performance ratio.

And finally, what arguments would you use to recommend an employee survey or 360-degree management feedback to other companies?

• I can't imagine any company management today in which employees are not part of it. The employee survey is a minimum requirement. Of course, it only makes sense if something is done with the results, if you expose yourself to continuous improvement. In my opinion, measuring and managing employee engagement is a cornerstone of corporate management. With 360° feedback, you go one step further. It signals to the workforce that they can actively participate in the further development of leadership skills.

Thank you very much for your interesting and exciting answers. We are delighted to be able to accompany you once again in a very exciting process.