kress pro: Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster is an attractive and popular employer

Consistent promotion of young talent, employee-oriented management by qualified department heads and editors-in-chief, a whole bundle of measures to reconcile work and family life, attractive salaries and a corporate climate in which employees feel comfortable.

These five measures make the Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster an attractive and popular employer, according to the industry service „kress pro“. These activities are largely responsible for the fact that the Landwirtschaftsverlag and its digital subsidiary LV digital rank among the top employers in the media industry in kress pro's employer ranking (kress pro, issue 5/2022). Currently, Landwirtschaftsverlag has an overall score of 4.3 (out of 5) and a recommendation rate of 90% on the kununu rating platform, LV digital even 4.6 and 100% recommendation.

“We not only do a lot for our employees, we also try to get a lot of qualified applications for every job advertisement,” Cord Brandes, Human Resources Manager at Landwirtschaftsverlag, describes another field of action. Brandes names six fields of action that pay off:

• close contact to universities with a wide range of scholarships, internships and interesting topics for Bachelor's and Master's theses, preferably for students from the fields of business administration, marketing and agricultural sciences,
• addressing applicants in a target group-oriented manner, e.g. via Facebook, Xing and Linkedin,
• attractive advertisements that attract attention,
• professional selection procedures with detailed feedback, even for those applicants who do not make it,
• intensive “onboarding” with a lot of communication in the entry phase, and
• close cooperation between management, executives and the HR department in the selection and integration of new employees.

“The bundle of measures pays off,” Cord Brandes is convinced. “There is less fluctuation, fewer separations after joining and better performance.“

Communication and staff retention are emphasised throughout at Landwirtschaftsverlag. „We always stay in touch with our employees, even if they are not in the company, as is the case during parental leave,“ Dr Ludger Schulze Pals and Malte Schwerdtfeger, managing directors of Landwirtschaftsverlag, explain the strategy. Those on parental leave keep their laptops and access to the publisher's networks. Employees on parental leave receive the minutes of team and department meetings and other important information. They receive further training vouchers and can participate in webinars, online seminars or even face-to-face events. And there is a regular exchange with the responsible manager. “This way, the young parents stay in touch with “their” publishing house and are ready to work immediately after the time out. That's a win-win for both sides,“ Schulze Pals and Schwerdtfeger are pleased to say.