“The transformation of Audi into a premium digital car company is also changing the way we work,” stated Joachim Kraege, Head of Organization and Consulting at AUDI AG. “In addition to graduates in engineering and business management, IT experts are increasingly influencing our corporate culture. This is why we have now for the first time analyzed in detail what drives and interests young specialists in this field and what they would like Audi to offer as an employer.”
For this survey, Audi polled almost 5,000 members of “Generation Z” (born in or after 1995) and “Generation Y” (1980 to 1994). The company mainly surveyed its own employees, trainees, bachelors and masters students, persons on dual courses of study, and interns. Responses from almost 900 external students were also included in the study. In a separate evaluation, a comparison was made of the information received from students and graduates in IT, engineering and business management.
The results show that far fewer young IT experts than engineering and business-management graduates plan to pursue a career in management. While 41 percent of the surveyed business-management specialists and 39 percent of the engineers look forward to a traditional management career with the associated responsibility, the proportion for informatics students and graduates is only 32 percent.
However, the desire for highly flexible working models is particularly strong among the Generation Y and Z IT experts. Unlike the other groups, they place much less importance on clearly separating their working and private lives. 43 percent of the surveyed IT specialists would like to have completely flexible working times, including evenings and weekends for example. This is attractive for only 29 percent of the business management specialists and 30 percent of the engineers.
This survey will help Audi with the further development of its working models and the results will be used in various future projects of the Human Resources department. In many areas, the changes desired by the young IT experts are already underway. With regard to mobile working for example, the company has offered its employees the possibility to work independently of location and time of day since 2016. Mobile work is possible in different places, both for full days or several hours at a time.
Audi also offers its young talent exciting career prospects beyond the traditional path into management. For example, employees can enter management along a specialist path without having leadership responsibility. Audi recently revised its personnel selection and development for management together with the VW Group, so employees now have more individual responsibility. The focus is not only on the working context, but also on the candidates’ varied activities and the personal development.
Audi continues to seek experts for its future fields of digitization and electric mobility. Students can get to know the company through internships and dissertation placements, and many entry programs are available to university graduates. More information on career opportunities at Audi can be found at www.audi.com/careers.