10
SCHWERPUNKT
_INTERVIEW
PERSONALquarterly 01/18
their careers. It is important that we have the right infrastruc
ture in place that everybody can ‘lean in’. It is important that
we also have a strong female talent pool we can select for lead
ership positions. That’s something we are focusing on because
we clearly haven’t done enough in the past.
PERSONALquarterly:
Is it still difficult for women to boost their
career like you did and to go to different markets? And is it still
helpful for the career?
Karen Parkin:
First I think it’s the same for everybody, no matter
if you are a man or a woman. Living and working abroad is a
brilliant experience, I would encourage everyone who has the
opportunity to go and live in a country that is different to the
one that they grew up in. Is it easy? Of course it’s not always
easy. But today is different than when I started my career.
Today we have good programs in place to support you on that
journey. We support our employees and their families as much
as possible in the relocation so they can concentrate on their
work and enjoy the experience. The talent carousel is a pro
gram we established to give our young people the opportunity
to work in another country and function. After two years they
can decide whether they want to continue on that journey and
go to another location or if they want to come back to their
home location. We have an infrastructure in place that provides
maximum support.
PERSONALquarterly:
You are happy to be in a young company, but
what is about the older ones, are there any employees at Adidas
who are 55 years or 60?
Karen Parkin:
We have a lot of young people working at Adidas.
This is mainly because of our retail organization. About half
of our employees work in our own stores. Here the people
are usually a lot younger than in the office locations. Today
we have about five generations working at Adidas. We talked
earlier about diversity. Next to gender and culture, generation
is an important factor in our diversity strategy. We want to
provide an environment that suits all generations. Our goal is
to provide an attractive environment everyone loves to work
in. An environment that embraces diversity. An environment
where you can share your experiences and where you can
grow together. Every generation has a role to play, whether
you are the Millennial or whether you are the Gen-Z that is
just joining the workplace or whether you are my generation.
There’s a wealth of knowledge the older generation has. It is
important to collaborate. We encourage exchange through our
mentorship programs.
Last year we did a survey amongst the generations 45 and
plus. We wanted to know from this group what they are mis
sing, what they want us to do, because we want to keep them.
We are not trying to exclude anybody. Our work/life integra
tion programs are for everybody, but they mean something
different to each generation. We offer one global work/life
integration program. But the utilization of this program is
different across the generations. Younger generations might
want to go for sabbaticals, older generations might want to
have a balance between work and slowing down and the
middle generations want time to look after their family or
their elderly parents.
PERSONALquarterly:
What kind of experience do you expect from
the older ones in the digital world? Often they have no expe
rience.
Karen Parkin:
Let’s not be too black and white. Just because we
might be older doesn’t mean we haven’t embraced digital tech
nology as it’s come along. From my perspective experience is
about life, and that is something a 25/30-year-old has not had
the opportunity to have yet. We have experience in developing
a career, in balancing family and work and so on.
PERSONALquarterly:
Employees bring another kind of experience
into the company if they have a handicap. Adidas supports the
Paralympics, but what kind of jobs do disabled persons have in
Adidas?
Karen Parkin:
Again, we do not want to exclude anyone. We want
to have a balanced workforce and that includes people with
disabilities. The athletes of the Paralympics are role models
for us. These people show us how sport can change lives. They
teach us how to overcome challenges and be successful. Do
we actually have a lot of disabled people working for Adidas?
Unfortunately not. It’s certainly not that we don’t try and work
with groups and associations to excite people to come and work
for Adidas.
PERSONALquarterly:
Do you fulfill the five percent mark of disabled
employees in Germany?
Karen Parkin:
No, we are not at that five percent, but it’s some
thing that we note every year and it’s something that we strive
to work with agencies to help us get better. We welcome every
one to join our company. We encourage everyone to apply if
they think they have the right skills for a position. Our goal is
to always recruit the best person for the job. No matter if that
person is disabled, black or white, male or female.
PERSONALquarterly:
In order to avoid advantages if being female,
disabled or part of the LGBT community, do the employees then
build special groups at Adidas?
Karen Parkin:
Grassroots, as I call it, are part of our diversity
strategy. It’s very important to have such networks in our
headquarters and main office locations. At Adidas we have a
women’s networking group, an LGBT networking group and
since this year we also have an experienced generation net
work in Germany. And we have a race network group that start
