The Young Community of the Komax Group is growing

The Komax Group not only trains apprentices every year, but also actively supports young people after the training: Komax founded the Young Community in Switzerland in 2018 to get to know the requirements of the younger employees aged between 18 and 30 years better and to enable the company to support them in a more targeted way. This is a cross-sector informal network of over 70 employees, providing a platform to communicate their requirements relating to the employer and working environment and to create measures and solution approaches for these issues. With this approach, Komax aims to use the ideas and suggestions of the Young Community to develop as an employer, to gather new ideas and to remain attractive for young, talented people. Particularly in light of the increasingly digitalized working world.

The Young Community is organized like an association with a board of directors, which is available throughout the year as a direct link between the young employees and the employer. During the year, the seven-man board organizes workshops, specialist presentations, excursions and fun events aimed as incorporating the employees in the company, enabling them to network with each other, expanding their knowledge and spending a pleasant time together. This year, the Young Community met for a barbecue on the terrasse in lovely weather at the Komax headquarters in Dierikon and explored one of the biggest civil bunkers in the world in Sonnenberg in Luzern. «Now that the activities connected to the Young Community have been run successfully for six years at the Komax headquarters in Dierikon, Matijas Meyer, CEO Komax Group, decided to expand the concept to other sites», states Young Community President Nathanael Birrer, who, in addition to his function within the community, also works as a Software Engineer at Komax in Dierikon. «We initially introduced the Young Community at the Schleuniger site in Thun, Switzerland, and the Komax SLE site in Grafenau, Germany. New boards have been formed on site over the past few weeks. They are currently focusing on organizing the first events with the goal of finding out which specific requirements and interests the young employees have at the relevant sites.

Moving market environment
Once per year, the Young Community meets with members of the Group management for an annual meeting at Komax in Dierikon. In 2024, this included, among other people, CEO Matijas Meyer and Marc Schürmann, Executive Vice President Business Unit Wire Processing. «Topics and questions were discussed in the annual meeting that are important to the Young Community», states Nathanael Birrer. Alongside general questions relating to the strategy of the Komax Group, the Young Community 2024 wanted to know how the automotive market works, where the Komax Group is and what is planned for the future. But there was also an element of curiosity: «What would be the perfect career at Komax for you personally?’ the Young Community asked Matijas Meyer and Marc Schürmann.

Massive interest from Generation Z
“Based on my experiences, I can say that the young employees are really open, talkative, hungry for knowledge and eager to learn», states Nathanael Birrer. Presentations on topics such as AI or robotics were very well attended and the enthusiasm for technology was palpable. «Contrary to the cliché that Generation Z is ambivalent and prefers to focus on work-life balance than on work, our young colleagues show high levels of interest and commitment.» In terms of events, they prefer shorter events after work because they want the flexibility to spend their free time as they like. There is often an altruistic element to the choice of topics: «At the suggestion of the Young Community, a table tennis table was set up at the Komax headquarters in Dierikon, for example, because movement is a complete change from our mainly seated and brain-focused tasks and promotes interactions between colleagues.» This was well received: «The table tennis table is also extremely popular with other colleagues and has even inspired an inhouse table tennis tournament.» This is a good example of how the Young Community can help to implement unconventional ideas that benefit everyone.

Although the Young Community program is coming to an end for the current year, planning is already underway for 2025 in Dierikon, Thun and Grafenau. «The expansion to other sites opens up exciting opportunities for exchanges and for young employees to network. A joint event that brings young talent from different sites and divisions of the Komax Group together could provide new inspiration and also strengthen the sense of community and promote innovative ideas», explains Nathanael Birrer, finishing optimistically with: «The future of the Komax Young Community looks promising and offers an inspirational platform for the next generation.»

More information about the Young Community can be found here.