Great Place to Work is an international research and consulting institute that supports companies in around 60 countries in analyzing, developing and making visible their corporate and workplace culture. The certification is based on an anonymous employee survey and an audit focused on corporate culture. "Over three quarters of our employees took part in the anonymous survey. That is a great score. The Great Place to Work award confirms our intensive commitment to a modern and employee-oriented management and corporate culture, which we have been promoting for several years. We are therefore all the more pleased that our initiatives have also been well received by our employees," explains Dr. Niclas Müller, CEO of VDM Metals.

• The knowledge of all employees is our future
• People are at the heart of everything we do
• We lead by example
• We all work towards common goals

These are the guiding principles of the VDM Metals Leadership Compass, which exemplifies the way of working together and the culture at VDM Metals. The leadership compass was developed in 2018 by managers from all hierarchical levels and parts of the company and has since been brought to life in practice. "The certification by Great Place to Work represents an important milestone that we can be proud of together," explains Marcus Brinkmann, Head of Human Resources and Social Affairs at VDM Metals: "Every employee makes a valuable contribution to our company. We can only be successful together. That's why we see the Great Place to Work award as an obligation to continue on our chosen path and, in particular, to use the results of the survey to derive measures to further improve our corporate culture and cooperation." In the coming weeks, the results will be presented to the individual departments for this purpose.

According to Great Place to Work, a trust-oriented and high-performance culture not only ensures motivation and loyalty on the part of employees, but also makes a significant contribution to successfully managing change processes and strengthens the economic performance of companies. In the past, companies recognized by Great Place to Work have been able to increase their applicant rate fourfold and reduce staff turnover and sick days by over 40 percent.