Engineering and IT conference 2021 in Chemnitz with a focus on transformation

At this year’s engineering and IT conference of Hans-Böckler-Foundation and IG Metall in Chemnitz (09/29 – 10/01) experts from companies, works councils and science discuss possible solutions in order to set up the necessary processes together and to make the transformation successful and sustainable. Dr. Uwe Horn, Member of the Board of Management and Labor Director at IAV, and Mark Bäcker, Chairman of the General Works Council at IAV, will give impulse presentations to get you started on the two days of the conference.

As an overall solution provider for the automotive industry, IAV is at the forefront of the impact of the massive and rapid changes in the industry. Transformation is the key lever for IAV to successfully manage the profound change in the company. The topic of qualification is of central importance here. In spring, IAV and IG Metall agreed on a comprehensive budget for the qualification of their employees as part of an in-house wage contract for the company. It is crucial to respond more quickly to changing market conditions in the future and to focus qualification and recruiting activities on future fields.

In addition to the individual transformation, the change at IAV takes place on a team level both independently and in an organized form. The Works Council and IG Metall provide great support here, and have made quick decisions and their pragmatic implementation possible in the employment service. Since this summer, the transformation process has been managed holistically by an agile “project office” with representatives of all relevant stakeholders at IAV.

Johannes Katzan, IG Metall district management for Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt: “This is a great opportunity to accompany a company such as IAV in the midst of structural change and to help ensure that the topic of employee qualification is co-determined within the framework of technological change.”

Mark Bäcker, Chairman of the General Works Council at IAV: “IAV is something special: We have had an in-house tariff agreement for about 30 years. This is anything but self-evident, especially not for our competitors. Co-determination in the company is more pronounced than elsewhere. This is also why the Chemnitz conference sends a good signal to the east of Germany, where co-determination at company level is not yet so widely anchored.”

The Berlin engineering specialist IAV, on the other hand, is also a co-operation company in the “newly formed German states”. At the locations Chemnitz/Stollberg, Dresden and Rostock, where the mobility of the future is also being worked on, employees participate in the workplace.

Since 1 June, 2021, IAV has successfully transformed over 200 employees into future areas of the company. This is the manifestation of the constructive cooperation that has grown over the years between the managers, employees, the works council and the IG Metall. In addition, IAV supports the transformation through the CHANGE@IAV program, with which the company effectively accompanies the strategic realignment to become a tech solution provider with the participation of the participants and at all levels of the organization.

With more than 8,000 employees, IAV is one of the world’s leading engineering partners to the automotive industry. The company has been developing innovative concepts and technologies for future vehicles for more than 35 years and generated sales of around EUR 896 million in 2020. Its customers include all major automobile manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. Alongside vehicle and drivetrain development, IAV entered the field of electromobility and autonomous driving at an early stage and is now one of the leading development service providers in these fields. Alongside its development centers in Berlin, Gifhorn and Chemnitz/Stollberg, IAV has further locations in Munich, Sindelfingen and Ingolstadt, among others, as well as in Europe, Asia and North and South America.