At Viessmann, corporate culture is an ongoing transformation

There’s a spirit of togetherness that defines our culture at Viessmann: As the nature of work and business changes rapidly in the 21st century, we ensure that our employees feel up to speed. Responsible, team-oriented, and entrepreneurial: our core values act as anchors and provide structure to guide the members of our big Viessmann family. Here, our open and progressive corporate culture gives team members room to explore, try new things, and figure out a way to align their personal priorities with the overall goals that we share.

Viessmann has undergone a comprehensive transformation over the past few years, and our workplace will keep evolving in the future. However, these changes were not change for its own sake. Instead, we renewed our corporate values, improving on what existed at the Viessmann Group, and maintaining those which worked well over the years. We respect our company’s heritage and traditions, and we leave no one behind: At Viessmann, everyone is working towards the same future.

”Our values were designed to move and guide our culture to where we want it to go,” says HR Business Partner Diana Buckless, who developed our ViDays program. The collaborative daylong workshops help lay down the roadmap for Viessmann’s culture with the help of our family members. It’s a company-wide experience: When ViDays were first introduced, all employees were in attendance, and these workshops have since become a key part of our onboarding process — it’s how we welcome new colleagues into the family.

Diana also finds that many people haven’t had the chance to reflect on what matters to them, so ViDays are also a time for employees to define their own values. The guided sessions help people derive purpose from their work across departments and teams by providing the tools to evaluate their priorities, motivations, and goals. Over the course of a ViDay workshop, our new family members are given an opportunity to develop a deeper relationship with the meaning of responsible, team-oriented, and entrepreneurial on both an individual and organizational level.

The personal relationship between Viessmann’s family members and Viessmann’s values is one that is transforming rapidly. “Responsible, team-oriented, and entrepreneurial” were once words on the screensaver of every computer in our offices. Now they are an integral part of each employee’s experience thanks to initiatives under the direction of CEO Max Viessmann in past years. This includes the State of the World meetings, a monthly gathering for the entire company to touch base.

During these meetings, our executive board takes center stage. It’s an opportunity to present recent news and exciting developments — to model the team-oriented and transparency approaches we hope to inspire in our employees. Vice-versa, employees have the opportunity to address questions directly to the CEO and board. The meetings are held on a first-name basis, as is standard in our offices. They are also a time to appreciate Viessmann employees: At many meetings, board members take advantage of the platform to congratulate staff members and teams for their hard work and tireless efforts. 

Open communication is central to the ongoing transformation of practices and principles at Viessmann. The approach privileges leading by example, and acting on the values that are nurtured in the workplace. In 2020, we have shown a lot of courage from dealing with COVID-19 to building the solution organization—and we want to keep building on that. We aim to make courage an inherent part of our culture, one to be proud of!