Focused Energy: Communication for the “Energy of the Future”

Fink & Fuchs has gained a new client in the Deep-Tech sector: the agency for technology and innovation communication has been advising the young German-American company Focused Energy since April. Based in Darmstadt, Germany, and Austin, Texas, Focused Energy seeks to enable safe, clean, and virtually inexhaustible energy production from the mid-2030s on using laser-based nuclear fusion. Continue reading Focused Energy: Communication for the “Energy of the Future”

Electrifying Ideas: ZVEI commissions Fink & Fuchs with its new brand appearance

Fink & Fuchs is supporting the ZVEI (German Electro and Digital Industry Association) with its brand relaunch. The agency for integrated communication first developed the Corporate Design for its new brand appearance and will also assist the association of the electrical and digital industry with the accompanying PR activities.

The new Corporate Design was officially presented at the Annual ZVEI Conference in Berlin. It also marked the start of the repositioning of one of Germany’s largest industrial associations. The guiding principle, which is reflected in the new brand identity and in all communication media, is the vision of an All-Electric Society. The mission derived from this is to drive the transformation to a climate-neutral society forward through consistent electrification and digitalization. The new brand identity illustrates what the ZVEI stands for and how its seven lead markets and four key themes contribute to this vision. Continue reading Electrifying Ideas: ZVEI commissions Fink & Fuchs with its new brand appearance

AI & the working world: Positive expectations in general – skepticism in concrete terms

Results of the latest CIVEY survey conducted by Fink & Fuchs as part of “Navigating AI” – an online event in cooperation with the German Association for Human Resource Management (DGFP) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in the digital transformation of the working world. At the same time, the topic of AI is surrounded by fears, hypes and myths, especially with regard to HR work. How do employees in Germany feel about the use of AI-based systems in their work environment and specifically in the area of HR? To answer this question, Fink & Fuchs AG surveyed around 1,600 employees and HR professionals via the opinion research company Civey. The results show that artificial intelligence (AI) is still more of a trend than a reality for most companies. The attitude of respondents toward AI fluctuates between optimism and skepticism.

 

New opportunities through AI

Not even a quarter of the respondents reported that their company uses chatbots or other AI-based tools. Yet many respondents associate positive expectations with AI: for example, half of employees and HR professionals believe that companies will be more successful in the long term thanks to AI support. A clear majority believe that AI will create new job profiles – employees (84.9 percent) even more so than HR professionals (66.1 percent).

 

AI recommendations are accepted – if they are in line with one’s own assumptions

In terms of their own working lives, however, the opinion picture is much more critical. More than three quarters of HR professionals (77.5 percent) and 57.4 percent of employees would not follow the recommendations of artificial intelligence if they contradicted their own assumptions.

Basically, around half of all respondents rate a scenario as negative in which AI also takes over more complex tasks from their field of work. The acceptance of AI in decision-making processes is therefore low when it becomes concrete, however. Especially when AI decisions influence a person’s career. For example, HR managers in particular reject (59.4 percent) the idea of using AI-supported analyses to make personnel decisions. Among the employees surveyed, 53.3 percent reject this basis for decision-making.

 

HR particularly skeptical: More value-neutral decisions through AI?

HR staff in particular doubt that AI systems make more value-neutral decisions (41.6 percent). Only 13.3 percent agree that this is the case. Among salaried employees, both positions are balanced at around 28 percent each.

When it comes to working with AI, with text-based dialog systems, for example, most of the participants consider themselves to be confident. Despite this fact, two-thirds would not disclose more information to a human-looking chatbot than to a less human-looking one.

 

AI: Assistance instead of competition

“As the survey results show, AI has only played a minor role in the operational HR practice of German companies thus far,” analyzes Elisabeh Bartke from the DGFP. However, the interest of HR professionals in this sensitive topic has increased significantly since the outbreak of the corona pandemic at the latest, Bartke adds. “In the medium term, AI will soon be indispensable and will at least take over administrative tasks to relieve employees in the HR area. The demand for skills such as communication skills, interdisciplinary thinking and digital understanding will thus come even more to the fore.”

DFKI company spokesman Reinhard Karger is convinced that AI can support HR professionals: “The level of maturity achieved by the technologies is ready for practical use, the digitalization of companies is advanced, and the EU’s planned AI regulation creates a legally secure framework for the productive use of AI in HR. Now it’s a matter of not getting lost in imaginary human-machine competition, but defining concrete assistance functions so that powerful tools can be developed for the diverse knowledge work in HR.”

 

Survey in the context of “Navigating AI” – a new online format by Fink & Fuchs, the DGFP and the DFKI

Fink & Fuchs initiated and designed the Civey survey as part of the online event “Navigating AI – Artificial Intelligence and Human Resources,” a cooperation with the German Association for Human Resource Management (DGFP) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).

 

Fink & Fuchs team continues to grow and strengthens its consulting portfolio in digital marketing

Fink & Fuchs is filling three new positions in the area of PR and Marketing in the second half of the year: Julia Gerecht (25) is joining the consulting team in Wiesbaden, Ruth Karner (30) is strengthening the consulting team in Munich, and Britta Schumann (26) is bringing additional expertise to the digital marketing team.

Consultant career thought further!

Britta Schumann has a broad range of expertise in the field of digital marketing. She will focus mainly on developing campaigns and digital communication activities. She acquired the theoretical superstructure for this by earning her Master’s degree in Leadership in the Creative Industries at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Julia Gerecht, who studied journalism and cultural anthropology, now works for Fink & Fuchs in the area of client management. Her responsibilities include the conceptual and strategic development and execution of PR and marketing campaigns for client accounts involving a variety of different topics. She has already worked for clients in the aerospace, cybersecurity, insurance and banking industries for several years.

Ruth Karner brings along high-tech expertise in artificial intelligence (AI), automation and robotics that will help her perform her client management tasks at Fink & Fuchs. She also has several years of experience in communications consulting.

“The new team members convinced us with their professional, creative, and above all personable consulting personalities during the multi-stage process of getting to know each other. We managed to impress them with our portfolio of services, our leadership approach and our team. We are looking forward to working and sharing ideas with them,” said CEO Alexandra Groß.

Next trainee class at Fink & Fuchs in onboarding: Six female employees start in three different profiles

The communications agency Fink & Fuchs in Wiesbaden kicked off its new 2021 trainee class with six female university graduates in April. A structured qualification plan lays the foundation for a position as a consultant at Fink & Fuchs. The profiles are differentiated even further during daily on-the-job training: basic communications consulting, digital marketing and copywriting. Continue reading Next trainee class at Fink & Fuchs in onboarding: Six female employees start in three different profiles

Fink & Fuchs certified according to the new GPRA CMS III Management Standard

The GPRA (Association of Germany’s leading communications agencies with PR backgrounds) is adapting its current quality management system, the Consultancy Management Standard III (CMS III), internationally and expanding it to include ethical and training requirements for the German market. Fink & Fuchs is one of the first GPRA agencies to have already successfully completed the certification process. By receiving the CMS III seal of approval, the Wiesbaden-based communications experts demonstrate the importance of standardization and transparency in the assessment of consulting quality in the communications market. The agency’s work becomes evaluable and comparable for clients and companies.

Continue reading Fink & Fuchs certified according to the new GPRA CMS III Management Standard

Fink & Fuchs to take on all trainees from the 2019/2020 class

From August on, four more communications experts will be joining the Fink & Fuchs team of consultants. Camilla Jokisch (26), Kerstin Kutscher (27), Julia Schwamberger (28) and Christian Feuring (27) have now successfully completed the 15-month further qualification as account managers after graduating from their universities. New tasks await the junior employees following comprehensive on-the-job training, internships in film production, creation and editing, as well as training on account management and to become consultants. Continue reading Fink & Fuchs to take on all trainees from the 2019/2020 class