Mühlacker, August 19, 2025 – On August 13, Craiss Generation Logistik GmbH & Co. KG celebrated the successful completion of the first year of its development program “Talente@Craiss”. The goal of the seminars, team building activities, and mentoring is the personal and professional development of the participants. Craiss is thus setting an example for promoting young talent and future-oriented learning. With this program, the logistics company aims to further train its qualified employees and retain them in the long term. The participants, as well as the management and human resources managers, gave a positive assessment of the pilot year.
“Our employees are our greatest asset. From career starters to team leaders, we use “Talente@Craiss” to promote personal and professional development in a targeted manner and are delighted that the first round was so well received”, says Matthias Diehm, Commercial Managing Director at Craiss. The program was launched in spring 2024 and is aimed at commercial employees across Germany who have great potential and are highly motivated to develop further.
Over the course of twelve months, participants took part in seminars and workshops on self-reflection, communication, stress management, labor market trends such as resilience and automation, as well as teamwork and role allocation. These consisted of internal training courses, which all participants attended, experience-oriented workshops, as well as a course at an external institute, which was selected according to personal objectives. Laura Engelhardt, Team Lead HR People & Culture at Craiss, explains: “External courses are selected based on the individual development goals formulated in advance by our Talents, as well as on the basis of a personality analysis that we conduct at the beginning of the program.” Optional online offers are also available. “The aim of the coordinated modules’ is the targeted development of personality and future-oriented skills”, continues Engelhardt.
Project work: Craiss tackles automation and IT
As a capstone, participants worked in teams on company-relevant projects: “From analyzing the current situation and interviewing experts to making specific recommendations for action, the Talents tackled topics outside their field of expertise, such as ‘automation in logistics’ and ‘establishing a process interface between IT and the specialist departments’ and applied the skills they had learned over the course of the year.” Says Engelhardt.
Networking through Mentoring
Another central element of “Talente@Craiss” is mentoring. Each participant was paired with an experienced colleague, including members of the management team, to encourage interdepartmental exchange and knowledge transfer. “The mentees benefit from the experience of long-standing employees, while mentors gain fresh insights into the day-to-day work of other departments,” Engelhardt added.
The second round of the program is set to begin in fall 2025, and this time employees from Austria will also be invited to participate. “Our locations in Weiz and Ebergassing are the fastest-growing within the group. We want to foster our Austrian employees and strengthen ties with our parent company,” said Diehm. Craiss is also developing tailored programs for long-serving employees, operational staff, and managers.
Added value for Craiss and its customers
With “Talente@Craiss”, the company aims to retain qualified employees in the team for as long as possible. Customers of the Mühlacker-based logistics service provider also benefit from this. Diehm adds: „We observe that the Talents are more confident when dealing with customers. It is great to see that the program is bearing fruit, because as a service provider, we value high service quality. In the end, it comes down to what motivates the individual.” At the same time, the team skills taught are reflected in more efficient processes.
Overall, the feedback from participants was positive. Engelhardt summarized:“The greatest compliment was the desire for the program to continue.