insights

Colorful day of action under the sign of the Studierendenwerk

This year saw the first “Student Union Day”. A premiere for the Studierendenwerk Day: in the Mensa am Aasee, the “Hier und Jetzt” café and the Grand Café, students were able to experience a varied program on 21 November 2024 that focused on the various offers and services provided by the Studierendenwerk.

Various information stands were set up in the Aaseesaal: Colleagues from the Counselling/International/Culture department, the Kita Chamäleon and Tausendfüßler daycare centers, Student Financing and Student Accomodation informed interested students about their services. They were supported by walking acts, colorfully dressed men and a woman who mingled with the students and advertised the Studierendenwerk’s services with the slogan “More than just a canteen” on their suitcases. At the same time, the burger-building competition between five selected participants took place in the Hier und Jetzt. Each of the burgers will then run for a week in the Hier und Jetzt program from February next year. The burger that sells best in 2025 will be offered in the Hier und Jetzt for a month. The day’s program was rounded off with a wheel of fortune, a photo box, free popcorn, non-alcoholic punch, mulled wine and a freshers’ exchange. In the evening, various artists performed on stage in front of a large audience at the Open Stage, showcasing their various talents. Afterwards, the students celebrated with the band “Pejman” and DJ Marius Marc at the Students Welcome Party.

“For me, it was a good event for the first time,” summarizes Oliver Valerius, Head of Social Affairs. “The day was a joint effort by many employees from our entire institution. It showed how well we can work together across departments. We can be really proud of that!”

For more visibility: new radio commercials

In order to make Studierendenwerk Münster even better known in the region, an advertising spot was placed on the local radio station Antenne Münster and its partner stations in the local area for the first time this year.

The 22-second spot was played on the radio several times a week and pursues several objectives: Firstly, to raise public awareness of the Studierendenwerk as a regional company, and secondly, the commercial is also aimed at potential employees. “We hope that this will enable us to fill positions even more effectively and quickly,” explains Susanne Elpers, Head of the Organization – Human Resources – Legal Department. The spot will continue to be played on the radio in 2025. In this way, Studierendenwerk Münster will remain present in the ears of the region – both among students and future colleagues.

New workshops for a sustainable management culture

Following the successful completion of the leadership development program, which aimed to train new managers in their leadership skills, experienced department, division and canteen managers were to be given the opportunity to expand their knowledge in a targeted manner and further develop their skills.

An internal needs survey revealed that the topics of “employment law”, “team development” and “job interviews” were of particular interest. “These topics are particularly important for our workforce because there is a great desire for optimal cooperation,” explains HR developer Kathrin Aupers. “It is essential to be trained in conducting job interviews in order to identify suitable employees so that they can be well integrated into existing teams and feel comfortable in the long term. It is also important to learn how to recognize conflicts in a team and how to positively influence the team.”

Learning to lead in challenging everyday working life

In 2024, workshops specially tailored to the needs of the Studierendenwerk on the topics of “Team development” and “Job interviews” were successfully held. These included both theoretical content and practice-oriented exercises. For example, managers were trained to recognize different types of employees in order to identify individual strengths and create synergies. Another important topic was application training, in which managers were able to slip into the role of applicants with the help of job advertisements and at the same time learn more about the internal recruitment processes. The participants became particularly aware of the need to actively take time to lead – a challenging task in the hectic pace of everyday working life.

Desire for a continuous offer

The success of the previous training courses was confirmed by the extremely positive feedback from participants. The last workshop on the topic of “Employment law” for managers is planned for 2025. “We want to establish a sustainable and continuous range of workshops,” emphasizes Kathrin Aupers.

Introduction of a new locking system

Studierendenwerk Münster has been using a new electronic locking system for access control since January 2023. The aim of the changeover was to make key management more efficient, increase security standards and reduce maintenance work and costs in the long term.

The new system does not require batteries – the required power is generated directly when the key is inserted. The cylinders used have a modular design and can be flexibly adapted to different door situations. This design and the absence of wearing parts make the system particularly low-maintenance and sustainable.

Central control possible

Electronic key management allows centralized control of all access rights. Access can be granted or withdrawn quickly and selectively – for example in the event of staff changes or key loss. A lost key no longer needs to be physically replaced, but can be blocked by software.

Currently, 1054 doors have been converted to the new system. Further areas are being planned. The feedback from the workforce so far has been very positive.

Driving sustainable change: New sustainability manager at the Studierendenwerk

Catharina Calvez can already look back on a long career at Studierendenwerk. She began her career in 2017 with an apprenticeship as a system caterer. After graduating with distinction, she worked as a clerk in the catering facilities until the end of 2023. Since the beginning of the year, she has now been the sustainability manager at the Studierendenwerk. A challenge she is happy to take on.

Climate balance as a task

“The Studierendenwerke in NRW have jointly decided to be climate-neutral by 2030. As Sustainability Manager, my job is to draw up a carbon footprint for our company in order to derive measures to help us achieve this goal,” says Catharina Calvez, explaining her new position. “My tasks also include preparing the sustainability report.” The topic of sustainability is also important to the Münster native outside of work: “Over time, I’ve become increasingly interested in the topic in my private life,” she says. “That’s why I’ve been looking more and more closely at topics such as consumption and nutrition. I wanted to find out for myself what I think is justifiable and what is not.”

Her superiors in the catering establishments also noticed her interest – and so Catharina Calvez was given the opportunity to complete a further education course in sustainability management at the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM) from 2020 to 2021. She is now looking forward to her new position as Sustainability Manager. “My time in the catering establishments was very instructive for me and I am very grateful for that,” she says, looking back. “But I’m looking forward to everything that comes next – especially the opportunity to drive something so good forward with so many different people.”

Studierendenwerk Münster now also on TikTok

In addition to Instagram and Facebook, Studierendenwerk Münster has also been represented on TikTok since mid-May of this year. With short and funny information videos, the public relations department wants to reach the upcoming Generation Z even better. “TikTok offers us the opportunity to provide information about our offers in a creative way and at the same time be visible and approachable for the young generation, who may later become our target group, the students,” explains Head of Public Relations Katrin Peter. To achieve this, the department specifically picks up on current trends. And with success: the account has generated over 770 followers within a year (as of 28.2.25).

New solar system put into operation

In 2024, a new solar system was installed on the roof of Bismarckallee 5, the main building of the Studierendenwerk. It now supplies the buildings at Bismarckallee 3, 5, 11 and 11b as well as the student residence on Scharnhorststraße with sustainable electricity.

Challenges during installation

With an output of around 74 kWp, the system can produce enough electricity for around 15 single-family homes in optimum condition. Although the capacity is not sufficient to cover all of the Studierendenwerk’s needs, this is an important step towards the use of sustainable energy.

In addition to installing the solar panels on the roof, extensive work was required in the basement. Around 100 meters of cable had to be laid from the roof through a pipe on the outer wall to the main connection room. Planning the drilling points posed a particular challenge due to the building’s structural design. Despite these difficulties, the system was connected to the grid on schedule at the beginning of October.

New "How's it going? Talks on cooperation" (GzZ for short)

Establishing a culture of open discussion and developing shared perspectives between managers and employees are some of the aims of the new discussions. HR developer Kathrin Aupers explains the ideas behind them.

The HR department has designed and introduced a new concept for employee appraisals – why?

Until 2015, traditional annual appraisals were conducted at Studierendenwerk Münster. However, this previous format was associated with a great deal of respect – and in some cases insecurity – among many employees, as they felt judged by the evaluation forms with grades or later with letters. We wanted to change that. Our aim was and is to create an open and trusting culture of discussion within the company. That’s why we developed a completely new concept in the HR department to replace it: the “conversations on cooperation”.

How does the new format differ from standard employee appraisals?

The most important difference is that it is no longer about evaluation. The focus is on the cooperation between manager and employee – with the aim of reflecting on this and improving it together. What is going well? Where is there room for improvement? The discussions are also intended to consciously look ahead. In which areas can the employee develop further?

The new interview form was deliberately designed as a completely new start without reference to previous templates. The discussions continue to take place in a direct exchange between managers and employees. However, they are much freer and without fixed discussion guidelines, so that each discussion is individually tailored to the manager and the employee. In order to distribute the workload evenly, we have decided that each manager will conduct a maximum of 15 meetings.

How were the managers prepared for the new concept?

All managers were intensively trained in full-day seminars, including in interview management. They also received guidelines and a brochure summarizing the concept in compact form. A supplementary video on the intranet explained the background to the new format – it was important to us that employees realized that they need not have any concerns.

How was the format received internally?

There was some skepticism at first – the memory of the old annual talks was still present. But after the first round, the feedback was positive: Many employees were pleased that their manager had deliberately taken time for them. This was an important signal, especially in areas where there is often too little interaction in everyday working life. Some student assistants were also included in the new format – something we expressly welcome.

What’s next for the format?

In future, we would like to support our managers further by training additional employees as discussion leaders and deploying them as multipliers. In the catering facilities, for example, it became apparent that the high number of employees is almost impossible for managers to cope with. We are therefore also planning to train chefs as contact persons for kitchen staff. For us in the HR department, the introduction means that we need to reflect even more: What can we improve further? As many managers are already very busy with day-to-day business, we want to create the right framework conditions to enable them to give the necessary importance to discussions on cooperation