01/16/2018

Group-wide Exchange through Bertelsmann Exchange Initiative

Anna Mozolina, Chris van Wijnen

Subject: Employees
Country: International
Category: Project

Working at a different Bertelsmann company anywhere in the world for as long as twelve weeks, gaining experience, exchanging knowledge, making contacts, getting to know other cultures, perfecting language skills: All of this is now possible for all Bertelsmann employees worldwide. After a pilot project yielded convincing results, the Bertelsmann Exchange Initiative is now a permanent offer across all divisions. After the Bertelsmann Exchange Initiative pilot project, launched at the beginning of 2016, received a positive response from the participants, it is now an integral part of personnel development at all divisions. As part of the initiative, anyone who meets the application criteria can apply to work at a different Bertelsmann company around the world for up to three months.

Valuable experience for the workday routine

“The pilot project was very well received by the 16 participants selected,” says Hays Steilberg, EVP Corporate HR, Executives and Talent at Bertelsmann. “During the pilot project, there was great interest in switching, for a maximum of three months, from the Corporate Center in Gütersloh to a profit center or vice versa. As a result, we received a lot of applications from many countries – including Spain, the U.S., Malaysia and Russia.” The feedback was also gratifyingly positive, he says. All the participants were very satisfied with the Exchange Initiative. “Based on this, we have now designed the project in a new and more extensive way in order to roll it out in all of the company’s divisions worldwide,” says Steilberg. After all, he says there are almost limitless opportunities for gaining professional experience at another company across national and regional borders in a company as international and broad-based as Bertelsmann – thereby promoting cooperation within the Group as a whole.

One of the Exchange Initiative participants was Anna Mozolina, Account Manager at Arvato Russia in Yaroslavl. She spent two months with Bertelsmann Accounting Services in Rheda as part of the initiative. Her international background was a great help, and she worked on presentations in an English brochure for international use. “Here in Gütersloh, I realized just how big Bertelsmann really is. In Russia, this plays a minor role in day-to-day life, but I am proud to be part of such an international group,” she said at the time, adding that she was able to gain a lot of valuable experience and learn to take a bigger perspective.

Relevance to the business is important

Chris van Wijnen, then Senior Consultant Strategy & Business Development at RTL Nederland, joined the Bertelsmann Education Group team in Berlin after four years at RTL and supported his colleagues in the online education business in Europe. He expressed his conviction that both sides benefit from the exchange. All in all, van Wijnen says he considers the Bertelsmann Exchange a great opportunity “to find out what an international career really means.”