DIVERSITY DIMENSION: GENDER

The mission of Bestmann Akustik? Create an equitable work environment!

Bestmann Akustik GmbH & Co. KG is the first family-owned business in our portfolio with a woman in the executive management. Looking at the top 500 family-owned businesses, only 12% have a female CEO (Tagesschau).

All the more reason for us to be delighted that Managing Director, Alina Bestmann, took the time to share insight on how she used our plattform to analyse gender equity and how it has influenced the company culture.

Case Study - Bestmann Akustik x Diverlyze

“The tool enabled employees to express their opinions anonymously and also allowed me to view their opinions based on data in the dashboard. This is important because many people lack the courage to speak openly about diversity topics, which can lead to valuable insights being lost or even employees leaving the company.”

Alina Bestmann in a green cardigan, laughing with her arms folded.

Alina Bestmann,
Managing Director @ Bestmann Akustik GmbH & Co. KG

Bestmann Akustik employees stand in a circle, laughing and clapping, while Jens Bestmann carries out a basket of goodies.

About the company.

Bestmann Akustik GmbH & Co. KG has been a family-run business for over 30 years. Bestmann Akustik implements customer projects throughout Germany, providing the perfect spatial acoustics, state-of-the-art conference technology and extensive office equipment. The company has its headquarters in Naumburg, Hesse, and employs nearly 30 people.

What challenge was there to be tackled?

Jens, Managing Director of Bestmann Akustik, and Kim, Managing Director of Diverlyze, met at an event. It quickly became clear that nothing stood in the way of collaboration. Why they were intereseted in a collaboration:

“We were keenly interested in where we currently stand - in terms of gender equality. How do the employees feel? Are there perhaps issues that we don't even have on our radar?”

Alina Bestmann

What was the current situation when you first started working with Diverlyze?

“We have always been very diverse. However, we never actively talked to employees about diversity, equity & inclusion, so we didn't have a clear picture of whether there were any hidden concerns or wishes. This open communication is more than important in this day and age, isn't it?”

What was your ideal vision of DEI at Bestmann Akustik?

“Quite simply, that everyone is open-minded and accepts people for who they are, regardless of gender, age or other factors.”

How did Diverlyze help tackle this challenge?

Our platform's survey tool was used to collect and analyze the diversity dimension gender.

Time period

> 12 months

in 2023/2024

Collected Data

2.500 data points

53 % men / 47 % women
Average response rate: 69%
Number of comments: 353

Result

Gender Equality Score 7.8/10

as of July 2024

The results of the assessment.

Around 2,500 data points were collected over a 12-month time period. The results show that employees perceive themselves as being equal, particularly in the areas of “Working Conditions”, “Work-Life Balance” and “Team Leadership” (score > 7.9). There is also a strong perception of safety: no discrimination, external appearance has no influence on perceived competence, employees know where they can report discrimination, discriminatory jokes are not tolerated.

Particularly noteworthy are flexible & family-friendly working hours, a healthy work-life balance, that management handles DEI issues extremely well, that gender plays no role in teamwork and that employees can simply be themselves in the office. In addition, the company is free of barriers and is committed to supporting socially disadvantaged individuals; stereotypes are not reinforced. The analysis also showed that mutual respect exists regardless of gender.

There is potential for improvement in the constructiveness of feedback (for the female gender), in the expansion of the gender-neutral language, in the lack of DEI guidelines and in further training opportunities on DEI topics.

Areas that scored well:

Working conditions
Work & personal life
Team leadership
Sense of security

Areas for improvement:

Affiliation
Career path

What did you like about the platform?

Tailored pulse checks

“The tool allows you to set how often the survey should be sent out per week. Over time, we have reached 3 questions per week. In addition, the questions are sent at different times to avoid overloading our servers“

Comment function

“Over the course of our collaboration, a new function was introduced, the ‘dialog’. This makes it possible to respond anonymously to employees' individual answers. As a result, we were able to exchange information anonymously and delve deeper into problems.”

Fast support

“Diverlyze always responded quickly to our questions and also implemented our individual wishes when customising the tool.”

What positive effects did the collaboration with Diverlyze have for Bestmann Akustik?

Alina responded: “For the first time, employees had the opportunity to express themselves anonymously. This was extremely appreciated. In addition, the results and comments received repeatedly provided starting points that could be incorporated into the to-do list. This made it possible to continuously improve the status quo in small, less time-consuming steps.

After the review meetings with Diverlyze, we took the key points and the presentation into our internal meetings and brought the management team on board. We examined how we could improve our communication structures. Additionally, we actively integrated the analysis results into the annual employee discussions to reflect on them and gain a precise understanding of their need and expectations toward management.”

“Our collaboration with Diverlyze was extremely positive. What stood out the most were the constructive and insightful update discussions, as well as the tool's clear and user-friendly design. What I found particularly great was the ability to actively contribute to shaping the tool. I would do it again anytime.”

Alina Bestmann,
Managing Director @ Bestmann Akustik GmbH & Co. KG