DIVERSITY DIMENSION: GENDER

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

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

We are all the more pleased that director, Alina Bestmann, gave us an insight into how she analyzed gender equality using our tool and how the culture in the company has consequently changed.

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 crucial because many don't have the courage to talk about diversity issues in a personal dialogue through which important insights could be lost or employees could even turn away.”

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

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, where it quickly became clear that nothing stood in the way of working together. The motivation was as follows:

“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 you solve the issue outlined above?

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

Time frame

> 12 months

in 2023/2024

Data basis

2.500 data records

53 % men / 47 % women
Average activity: 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 sets 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; no stereotypes are conveyed. The analysis also showed that mutual respect exists regardless of gender.

Potential for optimization can be found 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 particularly like about the platform?

Individual pulse check mailings

“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

“In the course of the partnership, 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 customizing the tool.”

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

Alina's answer was as follows: “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 issues and the presentation to our internal meetings and got the executive staff on board. We looked at how we could change the communication structures. We also actively incorporated the results of the analysis into the annual employee reviews in order to reflect and determine exactly what they wish for and what their expectations of their managers are.”

“The collaboration with Diverlyze was highly positive. The constructive and helpful follow-up discussions and the clarity of the tool are particularly noteworthy. And what I found particularly appealing was that you could actively contribute to shaping the tool. I would do it all over again at any time.”

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