EIZO Technologies: From production company to attractive employer

The brand

EIZO Technologies is a mid-sized technology company from Geretsried south of Munich. The roughly 100 employees at the plant design, conceptualise and produce special monitors for particular purposes such as air traffic control, industrial applications or busses. Since 2009, the SME has been part of the Japanese EIZO Group, one of the world’s leading providers of monitors and displays.

The goals

To significantly increase attractiveness as an employer, to make headhunters obsolete, to retain top performers and to build a framework for growth by establishing a leadership culture that managers and employees can identify with.

The starting situation

Today more than ever, brands must be attractive to applicants and employees, not just customers. And at its location south of Munich, EIZO Technologies has more than its share of competition for qualified employees. Headhunters are often the only way to find trained staff. But the mid-sized employer is not just concerned with the skilled workers of tomorrow, but also with the top performers of today. EIZO Technologies has grown significantly in recent years, so the company is now particularly keen to develop a leadership culture. But how can the producer of monitors set themselves apart from other employers? It quickly became clear that EIZO Technologies as an employer is something special. The long tenure of some employees speaks to their unusual spirit. But how can this spirit be expressed succinctly, embedded across all departments, and made transparent to applicants? Managing Director Andy Kürz was looking for an ID toolbox that bundles all the instruments needed for company development and makes their unmistakable DNA tangible.

The development process

1. In-depth interviews with applicants and employees
2. Analysis of the brand experience for applicants and employees
3. Development of a clear positioning and inference of good reasons to work for EIZO
4. Development of an ID toolbox with all the building blocks of the EIZO Technologies DNA
5. Establishment of a new approach for identity-oriented employee reviews
6. Translation of the employer positioning into all relevant applicant touch points, from website to job interview
7. Making the results tangible for all employees in a unifying hands-on event
8. Multi-step training for managers on applying the employer DNA in their day-to-day work

The result

EIZO Technologies is the perfect employer for those who appreciate the directness of a mid-sized company, the security of a group, and the challenges of a world market leader. By consistently training all managers and establishing a unified leadership culture with regular employee reviews, EIZO Technologies was able to take a grand leap forward in all relevant indicators of employee satisfaction. For example, their recommendation rate as an employer among the staff improved by a whopping 15% within two years, and the rating of employee management increased by almost a whole grade point (measured by means of an anonymous, representative employee survey in January 2022). Identification, pride in one’s employer and internal communication also made strides – despite the fact that since the last employee survey there had been a pandemic and a strenuous move to new premises.

Thanks to the clear positioning as an employer, the new leadership culture and the modified applicant experience, EIZO Technologies is becoming less and less dependent on headhunters.