We at HARMAN recognize how valuable a rich talent pipeline can be to an organization. Over the past 30 years, our talented employees have come together across teams to revolutionize the in-cabin experience for drivers and passengers around the globe, from developing and deploying cutting-edge connected automotive technologies to delivering stellar in-car audio in partnership with the world’s leading automotive manufacturers.
HARMAN cares deeply about the success of our employees and takes great pride in watching them flourish within the organization. This key organizational philosophy has been the driving force behind The Global Automotive Mentoring Program, one of the many ways we are creating opportunities for growth and professional development across our teams!
Participants across HARMAN’s Automotive division comprised the third-ever cohort of this mentoring program, bringing together 100 mentors and 100 mentees from over 13 countries, including the U.S., Mexico, Germany, UK, Romania, Hungary, Israel, China, and more. The program, which kicked off in October, serves to develop and grow the mentees’ professional skillset through thoughtful mentoring sessions from high-level experts and experienced professionals over the course of a year. They receive unprecedented access to the tools and wisdom they need to become future leaders and technology experts.
Mentors and mentees begin their relationship by defining individual mentoring goals that serve as milestones throughout the program. These goals encompass benchmarks for professional and personal growth, career guidance, leadership skills and more.
“Each party has a different set of experiences or career learnings which offers unique perspectives when they are in the ‘defining mentoring goals stage’,” said Damaris Herrmann, Director of Global Talent Management, HARMAN Automotive. “We want our mentees to develop a long-lasting and meaningful professional connection they can lean on during their careers for guidance and advice when needed, and I believe we accomplished that objective with our program.”
In addition to the mentors’ past experiences in managing and developing talent, the Automotive Talent Management team provides
additional mentor and mentee training sessions along with mentor circles to ensure the program offers maximum development for mentees.
The HARMAN Global Automotive Mentoring Program showed great success in the previous two cohorts for mentors and mentees alike. Both parties were able to expand their professional networks, gain new perspectives on common industry topics from audiences of different generations and experience levels, and share their own knowledge with others within Harman.
“After being part of the program as a mentee in 2019, I felt really honored to be asked to act as a mentor for the 2020 term,” said Klaus Riess, Director, Product Management. “I was lucky to get matched with a real high potential mentee who was very eager to grow and get the maximum out of the program. She was on a good trajectory already for moving into a position with higher responsibilities and I was happy to see this happening during the program.”
Our incredible talent pipeline across teams keeps HARMAN great. With industry-defining innovation at the forefront of everything we do, we know that our incredible HARMAN family is working hard every day to ensure that we’re driving even closer into the future of connectivity, mobility and automotive experiences. Want to learn more about chances for leadership and professional growth at HARMAN? Visit https://jobs.harman.com/