From allowance claims to the management board

Mandate

Reduce dependence on agency staff and build one people framework across two countries' labour law and collective agreements.

Outcomes

• Cut call-ins from rostered days off from 3.8 to 1.1 a quarter
• Reduced agency and temporary staffing spend from €4.9 million to €1.6 million
• Supported 31 employees with foreign nursing degrees to recognition as registered nurses
• Brought an 8.7 per cent therapist pay gap within one evaluation band down to 1.6 per cent

Decisions in context

The role was created at management-board level when the family shareholders decided that staffing, not referrals, limited the group's growth. I report to the chief executive and attend the group supervisory board, where works council delegates hold one third of the seats. My first task was to make the cost of shortage visible: agency invoices, overtime, cancelled days off and closed beds had been reported in separate places. Since then I have negotiated roster agreements in both countries, ended a recruitment channel that conflicted with our standards, funded recognition for staff with foreign degrees and regraded our therapists. I lead six direct reports covering recruitment, pay, training, payroll, occupational health and the two country human resources teams. The clinic directors own their staffing plans; my team sets the framework, measures adherence and tells the board plainly where the plans are failing.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; seeking one compatible independent supervisory board seat alongside it.

Mandate

Professionalise human resources for the Bavarian clinics and integrate an acquired orthopaedic clinic.

Outcomes

• Integrated the acquired clinic's 190 staff under a harmonised company agreement
• Shortened the average time to fill therapist vacancies from 21 to 13 weeks
• Concluded the first works agreement on roster publication in the Bavarian clinics

Decisions in context

I joined to build a human resources function for clinics that had relied on a payroll office and the goodwill of ward managers. Rehabilitation taught me that therapists are as hard to replace as nurses, and that a patient's three-week programme collapses if the physiotherapy timetable does. I introduced structured recruitment for therapists, with school partnerships and paid placements, and concluded the first works agreement on roster publication. The largest task was the 2017 acquisition of an orthopaedic clinic with 190 staff and its own company agreement. Instead of imposing our terms, I negotiated a harmonised agreement with its works council over nine months, protecting existing pay while aligning allowances and leave. That patience delayed some savings the business case had assumed, but the clinic lost only four staff in the first year after the acquisition.

Reason for the move

Appointed group chief human resources officer when the role was created at management-board level.

Mandate

Stabilise nurse staffing and build a human resources function beyond payroll administration.

Outcomes

• Brought 34 nurses qualified abroad through recognition into permanent posts
• Reduced nurse vacancies from 29 to 11 posts
• Concluded the hospital's first works agreement on occupational health measures

Decisions in context

Amperwies brought me back to patient care after nine years in manufacturing. Nurse vacancies were the hospital's main operating risk, and the personnel office had been organised around payroll. I built recruitment, onboarding and a structured route for nurses qualified abroad, working with the state recognition authority and arranging adaptation placements on our wards. I recruited directly, without agencies, and the hospital paid every cost of the process. I also concluded a works agreement on occupational health that gave the occupational physician a regular place in ward reviews. The managing director expected weekly vacancy figures, which taught me to report staffing as an operating measure. I left after five years because I wanted to work across several sites and to understand rehabilitation, where the staffing questions are different and the therapists matter as much as the nurses.

Reason for the move

Joined Zirbenau to lead human resources across several clinics in rehabilitation.

Mandate

Support production and quality through a capacity expansion while keeping GMP training and shift arrangements stable.

Outcomes

• Negotiated a three-shift system for the cleanroom lines with the works council
• Recruited and qualified 85 operators for a new filling line
• Reduced first-year operator turnover from 22 to 12 per cent

Decisions in context

A new filling line doubled the cleanroom workforce's shift requirement, and the existing two-shift pattern could not cover it. I spent eleven months with the works council and the production director on a three-shift system. The council wanted predictability and limits on consecutive nights; production wanted flexibility for campaign changes. The agreement published shifts a quarter ahead and paid a premium for short-notice changes, which production disliked and later valued. I also recruited and qualified 85 operators, working with quality assurance so that nobody entered the cleanroom before passing observed gowning qualification. First-year turnover fell from 22 to 12 per cent once new operators were paired with experienced colleagues for their first three months. The role taught me how much product quality depended on stable teams, a lesson I took directly into hospital work.

Reason for the move

Returned to healthcare provision, where staffing was becoming the central constraint.

Mandate

Replace document-based GMP training with observed competence assessment.

Outcomes

• Introduced observed gowning qualification for all cleanroom staff
• Moved deviation-related retraining from signatures to supervised practice
• Completed the next authority inspection without a finding on training

Decisions in context

I moved from Austria to Bavaria for this role because it combined human resources with quality systems. The company's training records were complete but mostly consisted of signed reading lists. With the head of quality assurance, I introduced observed gowning qualification, periodic requalification and practical assessments for line clearance and cleaning. I also reviewed deviation reports with the Qualified Person and noticed how often human error closed an investigation without a question about staffing or instructions. We changed the form so that every such conclusion required a note on shift conditions. That small change produced uncomfortable data about night-shift staffing, which the production director then had to address. The next inspection by the authority produced no finding on training. I learnt that a training system earns trust when people can see it also examines the conditions around them.

Reason for the move

Promoted to human resources business partner for production and quality.

Mandate

Administer working-time records and allowances accurately under public-sector pay rules.

Outcomes

• Cleared a backlog of unpaid night and weekend allowance claims
• Prepared monthly working-time reports for the works council
• Moved ward roster records from paper to a shared spreadsheet

Decisions in context

My first post was administrative, and it taught me the details on which trust in an employer depends. Night and weekend allowances had to match the rosters actually worked, and a backlog of unpaid claims had made several ward sisters suspicious of the personnel office. I cleared the backlog by reconciling claims ward by ward with the sisters themselves, and I prepared the monthly working-time reports the works council used to monitor overtime. I had no authority over rosters, but I saw how they were made: by telephone on Friday afternoons, with the same reliable nurses asked first. When I moved our roster records from paper to a shared spreadsheet, the pattern became visible to the head of nursing. I left because I wanted broader human resources work, and a manufacturer's training role offered it.

Reason for the move

Moved to Bavaria for a manufacturing human resources role with a larger training remit.