DIN Group is unknown as an employer, especially to the young Y&Z generation.
As a group of companies that has been successful for many years and is also expanding sustainably, DIN would like to make its attractiveness as an employer in Berlin more visible to university graduates and young professionals. Because as a provider of high-quality services and products, the demand for well-trained graduates is constantly increasing.
DIN primarily wants to raise its profile to be seen as a potential employer. At the beginning of the project, the student Design Thinking team conducted interviews with employees within the group - DIN e.V. and its subsidiaries, Beuth Verlag and DIN Software - and job seekers, such as political scientists, engineers, and designers. It quickly became apparent that it is challenging to "put DIN on the map." Most potential applicants know DIN by its A4 format, but not as an innovative institution and attractive employer.
The primary goal of the student team was to break down the cliché that it is monotonous and boring to deal with the creation of norms and standards. Instead, it is an interesting interaction of many interest groups from business, science, and politics.
The DIN Group is active in diverse areas. It brings these different interest groups together in a network, in particular, to establish innovative topics such as sustainability, resource efficiency, circular economy, hydrogen, and artificial intelligence, to name just a few issues in standardization. The strongly socially relevant orientation of the DIN Group's services and product ranges offers many points of contact with the main interests of the younger generations and highlights the company as an attractive employer.
But how do you appeal to these young candidates?
With 'unbeDINgt jetzt', the Design Thinking team developed the idea for a podcast that would address its target group with the topic of sustainability and show that the DIN Group is anything but boring.
The podcast could consist of individual interviews with experts who talk about important topics in the field of sustainability. At the same time, the DIN Young Professionals (DYP) network, a network for those who want to start getting involved with standardization, can be expanded, and social media activities strengthened to generate interest in working for the DIN Group and the wide range of innovative topics.
This suggestion by students at the HPI D-School provided the right impetus. Amelie Leipprand, responsible for the DIN YP network at DIN, worked with colleagues to design and implement a podcast.
The podcast, entitled "Menschen sind keine Ameisen" (People are not ants), already comprises 12 episodes, exists in German and English, and inspires "young and old". The foundations have been laid for the future production of another podcast series. Interesting for potential applicants is that Amelie is by occupation actress and mechanical engineer; with DIN many graduates of different fields of study can find their calling.
You can find further information about the podcast at https://www.din.de/de/mitwirken/young-professionals/normen-podcast.