one: Mr Azhari, you were nominated for the prestigious Supermarket of the Year industry award with your store in Sinzig - partly because of your "multicultural team". How is your team made up?

Parviz Azhari : Around 50 employees from eight nations work hand in hand in Sinzig, including from Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Syria. There are also Yazidis from Syria, colleagues with a Turkish or Polish background and native Iranians like me.

one: How does this "mix" come about - and how is it received by customers?

Parviz Azhari: By chance, friends of employees, recommendations... It's important for me to emphasise: When applying for a job, I don't look at where people come from. I need people who can lend a hand.

But of course I make sure there is a certain balance, that our team is a good mix. Our clientele is also multicultural, yes. But 70 per cent are German. So I put myself in everyone's shoes and rely on my instincts when it comes to the composition of the team. Parviz Azhari mit der stellvertretenden Leiterin seines Sinziger Marktes, Günay Altunbas

one: Have you ever had any negative experiences because of your migration background?

Parviz Azhari: No, I've never actually had any problems with it. I've certainly been "picked on" from the side once or twice, but I don't think that had anything to do with my background, but with the fact that I am who I am. That's why I've never felt disadvantaged. I have so many positive experiences here, and the negative ones are everywhere, even in my country of origin. That's normal in my eyes, I can easily look past it. You have to remember that we weren't invited, we came here ourselves. But we were treated with dignity here, which we didn't necessarily have in our own country, in Iran at the time.

one: How do things work between the nationalities in your team?

Parviz Azhari: Very easy. I treat everyone equally fairly. And just as I live it and set an example, so do my employees. Only sometimes I have to scold a colleague who has been here for years if he asks too much of a newcomer with language problems.

one: Why do you intervene then?

Parviz Azhari: You have to give time and invest time. You might be lucky in the end and gain a good employee. But good employees need to be trained well. For some it's quicker, for others it takes time. We have a colleague from Belarus who came to us as a temporary employee with almost no language skills. But she quickly learnt what to do, can now communicate well, is reliable and works well. The time we invested in training her has paid off. Today she is a permanent part-time employee.

In any case, language is the key to success, I tell everyone who has language problems when I recruit them. I tell them: "You have to learn the language, otherwise you won't get anywhere". I speak from my own experience. When I came here, I only knew one German word: "Achtung!".

one: It is certainly also due to the labour shortage that you are investing more time in new employees these days. What is your tip?

Parviz Azhari: In the past, applications used to pile up on the desk. If I were to sort them out today on the basis of nationality or language skills, I wouldn't get any further, none of us would get any further. That's why we have the trial period, during which we see whether someone is capable of learning and wants to progress. You should try things out and give people opportunities. And of course, colleagues have to give the green light before the probationary period ends. I may be hiring, but the store management team ultimately gives the green light - or not. And if a new employee doesn't understand a customer straight away, they call in a colleague who can help them. There have never been any complaints from customers.