The construction industry brings up the rear in Germany when it comes to the proportion of women. The rate is 13 percent. As a digital platform for the rental of construction machinery and technology, Klickrent has set itself two major goals: to drive forward digitalization in the construction industry and to inspire more female talent for this sector.
In a company that is largely made up of IT specialists and sales employees, that seems like a tall order at first. But just two years after the spin-off from the Zeppelin incubator Z Lab, Klickrent has already achieved a female quota of 47 percent. In the meantime, the People & Culture team has switched from female recruiting to diversity recruiting in order to ensure equality of all genders in the company.
Lisa Alkofer, Recruiting & Talent Acquisition Manager at Klickrent, reports on how she and her “People & Culture” team were able to attract female talent to the construction industry and create conditions for successful equality at Klickrent:
1. the basis: equality is a living corporate culture
The added value that a diverse team brings to a company was always clear to the management and all leading employees at Z Lab and later at Klickrent. This attitude of equality has been part of our corporate culture from the very beginning and has been our focus. We experience in our work how useful diverse teams are for our corporate goals and current studies confirm our experience: People with different perspectives and approaches broaden our horizons. They enrich each other and the company.
2. personality before professional competence
Our corporate culture has a very high priority. We want to hire people whose personalities fit into the Klickrent team. We therefore value personality more highly than professional competence, which can still be developed over time. It’s not just about giving all genders the same opportunities for a position. Above all, it is important for the development of a diverse team that all employees can identify with this corporate culture. We believe that this team spirit is a very important factor, especially in sectors that are still heavily dominated by men.
3. targeted approach in job advertisements
It sounds banal: If you would like to hire more female or diverse talent, you should make this very clear in the job advertisement. Many women are reluctant to apply for a position in an industry that is so heavily dominated by men. They need a signal that they are wanted and welcome. Our clear wording “we need more female power and welcome female support” was the biggest lever for us to attract female talent. About a year ago, we changed the wording and are now positioning ourselves more strongly as a company that stands for a diverse culture and equal opportunities overall.
We have also checked all the wording in our job advertisements with the help of an AI tool and replaced strongly “masculine wordings” with “feminine” or more neutral ones.
4. mindful decisions in the selection process
Each of us has certain thought patterns and is socialized in a certain way. Prejudices are therefore also human and unconscious to a certain extent. We do two things to ensure that they do not come into play in our recruiting process: We inform ourselves about these biases and make ourselves aware of them in order to make mindful decisions for our talents and our company. In addition, we include as many different perspectives as possible in the selection process and ensure that the decision is made by different people and genders.
5. authenticity: communicate attitude on all channels
It is not enough to demonstrate equal opportunities in job advertisements if this corporate image is not also reflected on social media channels, the website or other public appearances. The company’s attitude must be authentic. If the company is currently undergoing a change process, it makes sense to communicate this openly and transparently in order to attract applicants.
Conclusion
A “People & Culture” team can initiate, address, change and implement many things. However, the indispensable basis is the corporate culture, which must be supported and practiced by all employees. This is the only way to achieve true equality and create teams that focus on a common corporate goal.
Clickrent
© Klickrent GmbH
Klickrent GmbH in Berlin is a developer and provider of digital solutions for the rental of construction technology. Its aim is to make rental processes faster, more efficient and simpler. One of the solutions is Klickrent.de, a manufacturer-independent rental platform for construction machinery and construction technology. Klickrent rents out the entire portfolio of cranes, work platforms, containers, construction machinery, power and lighting technology, refrigeration technology, construction heaters and storage technology available on the German market and offers everything from a single source, from consulting to invoicing. Machines and technology are provided by a network comprising 3,000 partners and 4,000 rental stations throughout Germany. To this end, Klickrent relies on the high level of professional consulting competence and expertise of its service staff, who accompany the customer on every rental. Klickrent GmbH’s second digital product is Klickcheck: an app that makes it possible to document the condition of rental properties easily and digitally via smartphone.
Klickrent GmbH was founded in October 2021 and is a subsidiary of the Zeppelin Group. The Klickrent.de platform and the Klickcheck app have been developed since 2015 within the Z Lab, Zeppelin GmbH’s incubator and innovation space. Klickrent currently employs 80 people under the leadership of managing directors Tim Hinrichsen and Tobias Sudbrock.
Web:
klickrent.de