Berlin/Waldkirch/Helsinki, 12 February 2008 – SICK AG is still one of Germany’s most attractive employers in 2008. The company has again achieved a good ranking and, for the fourth consecutive time, received a special award in the “GERMANY’S BEST EMPLOYERS 2008” competition.

But the Group was also able to demonstrate its high standards internationally. SICK’s Finnish subsidiary took first place in the small companies category (15 to 49 employees) in Finland’s sixth Great Place to Work competition. The participating companies were divided up into four categories: general (up to 500 employees), large companies (over 500 employees), public organisations and small companies: SICK OY came top of the small companies category! “We have undergone considerable growth in recent years and now employ 18 highly motivated personnel. The result shows that this was the best basis for entering the competition. We have won within our category and it is only the first time we have taken part. Our performance is also highly significant because we are the only sensor technology and automation company in the list of winners,” says Ari Rämö, General Manager of SICK OY.

“We are very pleased, as well as proud, that our personnel management has succeeded in implementing, within our international sales subsidiaries, our management culture and the idea of the Great Place to Work Institute, namely to achieve corporate social responsibility worldwide,” says Markus Vatter, Chairman of SICK AG and responsible for Finance and Human Resources.

SICK AG has been one of only four companies in Germany that has consistently been placed within the TOP 50 since the competition started in 2003. This year, SICK took position 35 in the overall ranking in Germany and, as it did two years ago, received a special award for “Promoting the employment of older personnel”. The certificate was handed over by Olaf Scholz, Germany’s Minister for Work and Social Affairs.

The competition’s background

The Great Place to Work® Institute runs the “Best Employers” competition annually in more than 29 countries worldwide. The “Germany’s Best Employers” and “Best Employers in the Health Sector” competitions take place in Germany. The “Germany’s Best Employers” competition was contested in 2008 for the sixth time, and was again carried out by the business magazine Capital, as the media partner, and the Cologne-based research and consultancy institute, psychonomics AG. SICK AG is one of the few companies that has entered all six competitions.

The announcement of Germany’s Best Employers 2008 took place at a prize-giving gala at the Ritz Carlton in Berlin on 12 February 2008.

Further information on the competition can be found at:
www.greatplacetowork.de