Social

Representation of interests, fair pay and social security

We want to offer our employees secure jobs that are fairly paid. Salaries are determined exclusively by the field of activity and the qualification of the person employed. When it comes to its contractual arrangements, GARANT is not bound to any collective models, but uses Windmöller & Hölscher KG’s in-house collective agreement as a guideline. With this approach, we intend to safeguard fair working conditions and fair remuneration.

The interests of our employees are represented by a works council. In addition, we actively support the social security of our employees with various measures. These include offers such as capital-forming benefits and a company pension scheme.

More information about Benefits at GARANT: Company & Benefits .

Flexible working time models and mobile working

During the day-to-day working life, we want to grant our employees the greatest possible degree of flexibility. In this way, we aim to facilitate and encourage various forms of personal and family circumstances. After office workers temporarily worked from home during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, remote working was incorporated into an official internal works agreement in June 2022. Since then, employees have been able to work remotely from a flexible location up to three days a week – if sensible and feasible.

At the start of 2023, another works agreement was established to increase the flexibility of working hours. Traditional core working hours were scrapped and replaced by basic and functional working hours. Flexible time regulations also apply in the commercial sector if the specific areas of activity allow. Furthermore, employees are able to request an individual part-time model; so far, these requests have always been approved within a few days.

Reconciling work and care

GARANT wants to actively support employees who have caring responsibilites for family members alongside their job. To this end, a GARANT employee underwent external training to become a qualified “Pflegelotsin” (an occupational care guidance counselor) in 2021. She now acts as an in-house contact for all questions related to caring for family members. As a care guidance counselor, she is able to provide quick and competent support and put employees in touch with external advisory services if necessary.

In 2022, GARANT also became one of the first companies in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia to sign the charter on the reconciliation of work and care. This charter is part of the state-wide "Reconcilation of Work & Care” program, which was initiated by North Rhine-Westphalia in 2022 and which we have been involved in ever since. By signing this charter, GARANT has committed itself to improving conditions for employees with caring resposibilities in the company. In addition to appointing an in-house care guidance counselor, we increased the flexibility of our working hours in 2023. As previously mentioned, we also offer our employees the opportunity of flexible working time models.

Education, professional development and training

Professional development and knowledge management are pioneering and crucial for an innovation-oriented company like GARANT. At GARANT, professional development is primarily provided by the WINDMÖLLER & HÖLSCHER Academy. The W&H Academy is a company in the W&H Group that deals exclusively with training and professional development within the WINDMÖLLER & HÖLSCHER Group and therefore bundles all activities related to the topic of “education”.

In 2022, GARANT began developing and standardizing training management. The goal of the new training management system is to standardize in-house training on technical topics and enhance training courses for customers and external partners.

GARANT supports the W&H Academy’s training processes. Apprentices are trained in the W&H Academy on a cross-company basis. Some apprentices from the W&H Academy can complete their 3rd year of apprenticeships at GARANT. The interests and concerns of apprentices in the W&H Group are represented by a separate youth and apprentice representative.

Find out more about apprenticeship at W&H: Apprenticeship at W&H (German)

Students’ final theses at GARANT

Since 2021, GARANT has regularly offered theses for Bachelor's and Master's students. A win-win situation from which GARANT also benefits: GARANT is able to work with young, motivated students on innovative topics that would take up a lot of time in their day-to-day work and examine projects from both a scientific and a practical perspective. In turn, the students can gain valuable practical experience in an international company and write an academic thesis with practical relevance.

Find out more about theses currently offered: Vacancies .

Supporting voluntary work of employees

We have many committed employees at GARANT who volunteer their free time for social and environmental projects. GARANT has been supporting the impressive commitment of our employees for many years with monetary donations to express the management's appreciation and provide financial support for the projects. Each year, an employee's voluntary project is selected for this purpose.

We have lots of engaged employees here at GARANT who voluntarily spend their free time working on social and ecological projects. GARANT has been supporting its employees’ impressive efforts for a number of years with monetary donations to reflect the managing directors’ appreciation and respect and to provide the projects with financial support. Each year, one employee’s voluntary project is selected as a beneficiary.