Whether they are committed employees, future line managers or long-standing senior managers, women at REWE Group are now offered a holistic and comprehensive development programme. Programme manager Iris Nguyen explains why this is important, what role male mentors play and why women should focus on their own strengths.
one: Iris, REWE Group has a development programme for women called Women's Drive. This concept has now been comprehensively expanded. How and why?
Iris Nguyen: Women's Drive accompanies, encourages and supports female employees to take on a management position or to develop further in this position. Anyone who came to Women's Drive in the past had already embarked on this leadership development path. We have therefore sharpened the profile of Women's Drive. Now there is Women's Drive Start for women who have 1 to 2 years of professional or disciplinary leadership experience or who - as a result of the STEPs discussions - will be embarking on this path in the foreseeable future.
Women's Drive Advanced is a programme for experienced female senior managers at management levels 3 and 4. This programme focuses on disciplinary leadership. For all former Women's Drive participants, we now also offer an annual follow-up programme with a changing focus.
However, there are of course many committed women at employee level who are interested in further development but do not yet know exactly where their professional journey will take them. For them, we offer the Know Yourself and Develop Yourself programmes, which are the step before Women's Drive, so to speak. Like Women's Drive, these programmes are also widely accessible to the Group.
one: What distinguishes these programmes?
Iris Nguyen, expert in the area of CoE talent management
Iris Nguyen: With all these programmes, we provide women with holistic support in their further development and we expand the Group's own network. All of these programmes work with peer counselling and group coaching. In the protected space of the programmes, the women tackle issues together and support each other so that they can ultimately pursue their own development path with greater strength.
one: The mentors are a special feature of Women's Drive Start. What motivates them and how do you get in contact with them?
Iris Nguyen: Initially, we approached them, but now the programme is so well known that they also approach us, and some even want to take the time to do it several times. Whether they are men or women, many are motivated by the fact that they would have liked such an offer for their own career start. However, I find the term "career" too one-dimensional and prefer to talk about a development path. And many want to use their mentorship to anchor and promote what is written in the mission statement within the company, namely: "More women in management positions"
one: How do mentors and mentees come together?
Iris Nguyen: We put the mentor and mentee tandems together in such a way that they have as few professional points of contact as possible, i.e. different areas of work, different sales lines. This promotes networking and thinking outside the box.
one: Around half of the mentors are male. How does Women's Drive change their horizons?
Iris Nguyen: One mentor said after the introductory meeting that he didn't know who would learn more here, him or his mentee. That sums it up quite well, because Women's Drive is not a one-way street, but a two-way development process. Of course, the mentor has the leadership experience, but the mentee also brings her own perspective to the table. And some things are approached completely differently by men. However, Women's Drive is not about women becoming like men. Rather, we want to encourage them to be who they are and to be aware of their own personal strengths and competences and to use these on their development path.
one: So female senior managers should not become like their male colleagues?
Iris Nguyen: No, they should become aware of their own female leadership competences and show that they work and lead differently. A programme like Women's Drive can provide good support here.
one: Speaking of support: shouldn't we get to the point where we simply no longer need development programmes for women?
Iris Nguyen: Yes! My goal is actually that at some point it will no longer be needed. Although we are on the right track, there will probably be a few more Women's Drive years.
Iris Nguyen, an expert in CoE talent management, is the contact person for Women's Drive and the REWE Group's women's network, f.ernetzt.
Women's Drive in a nutshell
Since the start of Women's Drive in 2017, over 170 participants have completed the Women's Drive programme. The twelfth round of the programme is currently underway. Each participant, known as a mentee, is paired with a mentor. A total of 130 mentors accompanied a mentee through the programme. The mentors were made up of relatively equal numbers of women and men, and some of them volunteered to accompany mentees several times. For some time now, an increasing number of former Women's Drive graduates have been supporting the programme as mentors.
Women's Drive International
REWE International is also focusing on more women in management positions with the help of Women's Drive: "A look at our store managers, branch managers and team leaders shows that the majority of them are female at around 60 per cent," says Alexandra Draxler-Zima, Managing Director of REWE International Dienstleistungs GmbH. "However, the proportion of women at management and department management level at the head office is still significantly lower. We are taking measures to counteract this imbalance of women and men in higher management positions." These measures also include participation in the Women's Drive programme. As a result of this programme, REWE International has now developed a new group management position in the area of goods flow control with a woman at the top. Another example: the promotion of a group manager to divisional manager.
Although more than two thirds of REWE Group employees are female, women are still underrepresented in upper management positions. REWE Group has therefore set itself the goal of promoting its female employees and bringing them into management positions so that they become more "colourful". In order to achieve this goal even better, there are now redesigned and more holistic development programmes that focus on all women: From those who are at the beginning of their development path to those who have already covered quite a few kilometres on it. The focus is not on climbing a classic career ladder, but on developing and promoting the entire personality as well as the opportunity to network well within the large, diverse REWE Group.
To this end, an overall picture of five different programmes was created, which can be selected according to the respective development path and booked separately from each other.
Registration
For Know Yourself and Develop Yourself: via PRIMUS or lernen@rewe-group.com
For Women's Drive: Nomination for participation in the REWE Group's Women's Drive programmes is made by senior managers in consultation with the HR manager. If you have any questions, please contact Iris Nguyen. Further information on the development programmes for women can be found in the Learning Catalogue.
