Insights
New Board of Directors constituted
The Administrative Board of the Studierendenwerk has been reorganized. Following the departure of long-standing Chair Fabian Bremer, Madita Fester was confirmed as the new Chair.
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Other new members are Mirjam Holle and Florian Becker, both students at WWU Münster (University of Applied Sciences Münster since 01.10.2023), as well as Nadine Pantel, who holds a degree in social education and is responsible for international students and supporting guests from abroad at the University of Applied Sciences Münster’s International Office. She was elected to the Administrative Board as a public figure. In order to welcome the members of the new Administrative Board and give them a good introduction to their new role, a joint seminar was held in August 2023 with the participation of the Executive Board and the first management level. Topics included the tasks, focal points and challenges of the Studierendenwerk.
The members of the Board of Directors 2023-2025:
- Mr. Florian Becker, student at the University of Münster
- Ms. Madita Fester (Chairwoman), student at the University of Münster
- Ms. Mirjam Holle, student at the University of Münster
- Mr. Marc Wiegand, student at the University of Applied Sciences Münster
- Mr. Dipl.-Kfm. Guido Brebaum, Chancellor of the University of Applied Sciences Münster
- Ms. Dipl.-Soz. Päd. Nadine Pantel, employee at the International Office of the University of Applied Sciences Münster/ public figure
- Prof. Dr. Michael Quante, University of Münster
- Mr. Markus Becker, employee of the Studierendenwerk Münster
- Ms. Cathrin Fahrig, employee of the Studierendenwerk Münster
New Chairwoman of the Board of Directors
At its constituent meeting on April 18, the Studierendenwerk Administrative Board elected Madita Fester as its new Chairwoman. The 28-year-old is studying for a Master’s degree in Political Science and a double Bachelor’s degree in Arabic Studies, Islamic Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Münster. From October 2021 to October 2022, she was AStA chairwoman as a member of the Juso university group. At the beginning of August 2022, she presented the results of the online survey on the offers of the canteens and bistros, which was initiated by the AStA and then designed together with the catering facilities.
Erika: The new employee app
During the coronavirus pandemic, many colleagues were on short-time working and difficult for the Studierendenwerk to reach from home. This gave rise to the idea of offering a communication platform that would allow all employees to be reached even without a PC workstation.
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The advantages of an app were obvious: independent of the office computer, installable on both private and work smartphones, low-threshold. In order to enable all employees to install Erika on their private smartphones as well, it had previously been decided to include it in the official app stores. The additional benefit: in order to be available in an official app store, Erika also had to be available to external users and contain relevant information that differed from what was offered on the homepage, even without registration. This gave the Studierendenwerk another channel through which it could address students and external target groups.
On the 101st birthday of the Studierendenwerk, ERIKA was warmly welcomed as a new colleague at the Studierendenwerk. By the end of 2023, the employee app had reached a registration rate of over 50% of employees with 311 registered internal users. According to the app developers at the manufacturing company, this is a respectable achievement within the time frame to date. To encourage even more employees to use Erika, further internal campaigns are planned, such as separate information events for employees without a PC workstation, advertising campaigns for Erika at internal company celebrations, the introduction of a soccer betting game and the continuation of the quiz with prizes for employees in the app. We will also continue to promote the app to external users, for example by distributing giveaways in the Mensa am Aasee.
Erika is a big step forward. It provides access to all important data and current information and supports open and transparent communication – whether in public groups or privately in the chat.”
Natascha Mersch,Purchasing
The Erika is an important and correct step into the future of digitalization. With images and videos, communication is now more appealing.
Niklas Gruchmann
Administration Gastronomic facilities
“My highlights are the introductions of new colleagues from all areas and the posts about team activities. That’s exactly the personal touch we were missing!”
Stefanie Janzen
Organization – Human Resources – Legal (OPR)
Health team reorganized
The Health Management department has been fully staffed again since fall 2023. Yvonne Worms and Robin Drees are now jointly responsible for occupational health and safety and health management.
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Robin Drees has been the Managing Director’s new representative for occupational health and safety and health management since October 2023. He is supported by Yvonne Worms, who previously worked as an assistant in this area. For the qualified physiotherapist (Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy), the aim is to make the topic of occupational health and safety visible and transparent for all colleagues once again. For him, health management comprises several pillars: workplace health promotion with internal offers, then preventative measures and health in the workplace.
“In my opinion, health management starts early so that employees don’t have to go to physiotherapy in the first place,” he explains. “The challenges at the Studierendenwerk are huge, because the conditions in the canteen kitchen are completely different to those of the gardeners or the administration.”
For Robin Drees, co-determination and communication are the means of involving employees in his plans and taking them on board in the long term: “The employees are the experts in their own workplace, so my plan is to visit as many different colleagues as possible and take a look at the situation directly on site. This is the only way we can come up with targeted and sustainable measures that help everyone.”
Robin Drees completed his Bachelor of Science in physiotherapy in 2017. He then worked for three years in Marl at Evonik Industries AG’s in-house fitness studio as a personal and fitness trainer, where he also gave seminars on health topics. In March 2020, he moved to Westfälische Verkehrsgesellschaft Münster as health manager. With Corona, he became a kind of pandemic manager there, he looks back. He then coordinated occupational health and safety there during this difficult time. Drees is currently completing a part-time distance learning Master of Health Management course at the Apollon University of Applied Sciences in Bremen.
