Swoboda produces high-precision components and systems for automotive manufacturers and suppliers. The company employs 4,200 workers at twelve locations worldwide. More than 1,100 people work at the headquarters in Wiggensbach in the Allgäu region, including 60 trainees and several dual students. The employees belong to 20 different nationalities.
"Our employees give our company a face and our products excellence. Only through their unconventional ideas, their well-founded know-how and their willingness to perform at their best, we’re that successful worldwide. This is why our employees are important to us and why we invest in training and further education," says Managing Director Klaus Rudolph. There are a number of family-friendly regulations in the company to retain skilled workers and recruit new ones.
"Flexible working time models are very common here, especially among the employee range. Anyone who cares for children or elderly relatives can rely on our consideration," reported Joachim Pape, the personnel manager in an interview with the delegate of the parliament. "We have to adapt to the different life situations of our employees. For example, we offer company-wide employment opportunities after maternity leave or parental leave for full and part-time employees, whereby we take the wishes of our employees into account according their to location and number of hours per week wherever possible.
Swoboda has received several awards, including the Bavarian Medium-Sized Business Award and Bavaria's Best 50. The company has a works council and provides information internally via its intranet, infoboards and the "inside" employee newspaper. Some employees have already been with Swoboda for 45 years and in some cases several family members work for the company.
Ulrike Bahr, member of the Bundestag, thanked Swoboda for the intensive insight into the company and paid tribute to the management's commitment to family friendliness.
