No day is the same for Thomas Salditt, team leader at Global Digital Transition. One of his teams, although not exceptional for BSH, is made up of a total of eight people, spread across two different countries – Germany and Poland, and who represent an incredible seven different nationalities.
German-born Thomas is based at BSH’s Munich site where he works with fellow German Hendrik Siefert, Soizic Israel from France, Pavel Krejci from Czech Republic, Dora Beckmann from Albania and Mesut Öcalan from Turkey. The other part of this multinational team, based in Poland, is made up of Marcin Pawlowski from Poland and Letizia Gariffo from Italy. Together, this team works on BSH’s digital analytics for websites, apps, microsites and Home Connect.
We caught up with Thomas to find out what working with such a multinational team means to him, how it works, and what he enjoys most about working across two different countries and with colleagues from so many different countries.
BSH: How long has your team been working together for?
Thomas Salditt: We’ve been working together since the beginning of 2016. It started with just Pavel and Soizic but the team’s been growing ever since.
BSH: How do you organize your work considering that you work across two different locations and that your team members speak multiple languages?
Thomas Salditt: Our team language is English because we work with colleagues from all across the BSH world. In terms of managing our workflow, we use a process management tool favored by software teams.
BSH: What do you like best about working in a multinational team?
Thomas Salditt: I love that I get to learn a lot about my team members’ backgrounds and cultures and that we have so many different perspectives and approaches to challenges. There is always something to talk about.
BSH: Hand on heart – are there difficulties or challenges related to working with a team such as this one?
Thomas Salditt: There are no real difficulties actually. But, it’s sometimes challenging to be precise in our communication with each other. For example, when giving feedback or in other situations when a real and accurate understanding of something is especially important. It can be very challenging, especially considering that we are all working in English which is a second language for all of us. Sometimes it can be hard to find the ‘right words’.
BSH: How do you deal with these challenges?
Thomas Salditt: We are constantly asking each other if we’ve understood correctly and whether we’ve correctly understood what they need.
BSH: Do you notice the cultural differences between you all? And if so, how do you deal with these?
Thomas Salditt: With such a young and highly motivated team I really don’t notice the cultural differences between us, or see the popular stereotypes among us. The only thing we are likely to have really different opinions about is food and different eating habits. We constantly have funny moments when it comes to food.
At BSH diversity is strength and as such we hope to continue supporting and bringing multinational teams together in pursuit of innovative solutions for everyone.
Watch our video “A truly international career at BSH – work with colleagues from all over the world” to see what our colleagues think about it.
