People at Rheinmetall

She particularly appreciates the trust she experiences at Rheinmetall: “I was encouraged early on and continuously – they believe in me.” This attitude is also reflected in her internal transfer to Vienna, which she saw as a sign of great respect and genuine development. Here, she can take the next steps in her career.

She is proud of the company's innovative strength. She is always able to present current and new solutions that demonstrate the breadth of Rheinmetall's technological capabilities.

She describes the teamwork as open, appreciative, and characterized by diverse professional backgrounds. For Lisa Lüdeck, this makes the company “traditional, but clearly future-oriented – in one of the most exciting industrial fields of our time.”

She is often one of few women, as the proportion of women in mechanical engineering and the defense industry is traditionally very low. This is the result of many factors, from educational choices to current interests.

But that is no obstacle for her. She was already used to similar structures in the automotive industry. For Lisa Lüdeck, what matters is not how many women work around her, but how she is perceived as a colleague: performance before gender. This also applies to Rheinmetall.

She emphasizes how important it is not to perceive oneself as “different,” but to focus clearly on one's own job. She performs her role on the basis of her skills and achievements – “being a woman” is more of an additional characteristic than the reason for her position.

For Lisa Lüdeck, one thing is certain: visibility and presence are important. Those who get involved, take responsibility, and continuously demonstrate what they can do will be noticed. And that, for her, is the key to success for women in technical industries – and especially in the defense industry.

Working parents: both responsible, both present

For Tatjana, the idea of the “working mom” falls short. Because it describes only part of the responsibility – and suggests that compatibility is primarily a woman's issue. Tatjana exemplifies something different: working parents – both full-time, both responsible, both with ambitions and genuine care.

Sharing responsibility – professionally and privately

Tatjana gives an example: “My husband takes the children to daycare, I pick them up. That sounds simple – but it's the result of many discussions and a lot of joint planning.”

This division not only creates fairness, but also flexibility: it allows Tatjana to start her working day earlier – and be available again in the afternoon when her children need her. This creates a daily rhythm that meets both professional demands and family life. When both parents take responsibility, a real balance is created – with more freedom for everyone. The family as a team – not a one-woman project.

Her return to work after parental leave was not “from zero to one hundred” either, but rather a process: from 25 hours to 35 hours to her current full-time position with management responsibility.

“I never had to justify myself – because it was clear that work-life balance is not a special case, but part of a performance-oriented work culture. I have always taken on responsibility – and the company has given me the necessary framework to do so with a family.”

Leadership also means sharing responsibility within the team

“Empowerment is not a nice-to-have – it is a management task.”

Tatjana also believes in shared responsibility in a professional context: delegation and empowerment are key leadership principles for her. Early on, she encouraged her team to take on responsibility, document tasks, and establish substitution arrangements—not only as a safeguard for absences, but as an active part of further development. This ensured that auditing remained a stable and efficient core activity, even during periods of absence.

“By consciously distributing additional tasks, colleagues were able to grow – and the team became more resilient overall.”

The key for Tatjana is transparent communication. All issues are discussed openly, documented, and organized within the team.

The right environment makes all the difference

Rheinmetall supports this approach – with trust, flexibility, targeted development programs, and small but crucial offerings such as

• a parent-child room at the Düsseldorf site
• pilot projects on job sharing in management

Why companies benefit from working parents

Parents bring more than just expertise to the table. They embody pragmatism, clarity, and efficiency.

“You learn to constantly prioritize – which is useful not only at home, but also in everyday business life.”

These skills – coupled with loyalty to a company that takes work-life balance seriously – make working parents valuable team players and leaders.

The most important message?

It doesn't have to be perfect.

“Success as a working parent is not a sprint—it's a process. And that's okay.”

Give yourself time. Stay flexible. Have confidence in yourself and others. That's Tatjana's approach—and a call to action for anyone facing similar questions. Because in the end, it's not about choosing between career and family. It's about creating a framework in which both are possible.

Since the department was set up, it has been the joint responsibility of Julia Albrecht and Larissa Förster to manage the HR Projects department, which supports and manages corporate HR projects and strategic HR activities worldwide, and is also establishing a competence centre for project management methods within the HR department.

The heads of department will be establishing the department ‘from scratch’ within the framework of their Shared Job and CoLeadership model. They are setting up a department team that will tackle the right HR projects in the appropriate way to effectively and efficiently manage the company’s growth, and to be point of contact for colleagues within HR as valuable service providers. They have each agreed to a part-time arrangement with Rheinmetall.

What are the advantages of this model for the company?

The two female managers anticipate better results and decisions based on their combined strengths and perspectives as positive effects of this approach. This also results in a relief concerning their individual role as leaders.

Furthermore, the dependency on one person as the sole knowledge holder is reduced, and rules for substituting each other are organised faster. Hence, spontaneous absences and cases of illnesses are covered. The fact that both live in different federal states proves to be advantageous when planning holidays, as a manager is available during the agreed working hours for 52 weeks a year.

This way, part-time management is supplemented by another work model, which in turn could open up a larger pool of management personalities for Rheinmetall. That would be an important argument in times of demographic change and simultaneous growth of the company. The fact that the compatibility of family and career continues to gain importance in the labour market already speaks for the model.

What difficulties were expected and where is it becoming a challenge?

• Since school and childcare in Germany take place from morning to afternoon, both work at the same times. Availability late in the afternoon and in the evening is ensured by clear communication rules in the team, timely advance planning and exceptions. The concept works.
• The possible concerns of colleagues regarding the model of two mothers in part-time management positions could have been a limiting factor. However, the feedback from employees and other managers is nevertheless positive.
• During the holiday season, there is only a minimal overlap of holidays because they live in different states.
• So far, there have been no simultaneous cases of illness of the management team or their children. The fact that the viral load in Germany appears to be distributed over time and region is favourable.
• There is no such thing as gaining an unfair advantage in the team. If a decision is made by one of the two, the other is informed.
• The employees report to both managers. The model works because the two managers communicate well, both synchronously and asynchronously, and the basic values, experience and knowledge at Rheinmetall are aligned.
• In addition to the initial use of OneNote as a ‘knowledge tool’, voice messages within the Rheinmetall IT infrastructure are de facto one of the keys for the two of them to efficiently and effectively do mutual business in this model. However, there is still room for technical/IT optimisation. Holiday requests, travel requests and travel expense reports only ever reach one of the two, and they have two mailboxes to manage. They regularly check whether something could be improved here to make co-operation even more efficient.

What characterises the co-operation between the two managers?

For Julia Albrecht and Larissa Förster, it is clear that they want to take on leadership roles. However, given their experiences as mothers also wanting to see their children growing up, they certainly need a working model that allows them to balance-out work and family life. They bring their individual and shared experiences at Rheinmetall to the table, as well as their different biographies.

Julia Albrecht has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Psychology. Her various roles within the Rheinmetall Group have taken her to both, the Rheinmetall Holding and the Electronic Solutions division in Bremen. She has worked on projects in the area of information, knowledge and process management, and has worked as a generalist in management development within HR development. She was engaged in projects and in a team leadership role in the eHR digitalisation department in HR.

Larissa Förster has a Bachelor’s degree in International Management with Engineering (Business Administration and IT) and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. During her time at Rheinmetall, she has developed from a specialist to a head of department in the HR digitalisation department eHR.

They have been working together on HR projects in various roles (within projects but also in relation to each other) since 2012. In doing so, they have always focused on pulling in the same direction.

As heads of the HR Projects department, they benefit in particular from their mutual trust, respect and solidarity. They have the same understanding of leadership and values, the same basic level of perceptiveness and have cultivated an open and honest means of communication.

They look back with pride on the development of some team members and the positive changes they have made in the HR area.
 

What advice would the two managers give to another management lineup?

• Take enough time to get to know each other and determine a common direction.
• Clear rules for communication. Voice messages, chats and phone calls are significantly more efficient than email communication in general.
• Appointments are only attended mutually if it is absolutely necessary. These are exceptions. Splitting up, being trustful and informing each other is more efficient.
• Mastering time- and self-management.
• Demand and receive management support in the set-up phase.
• Clearly define and adhere to the working hours budget.

What changes in the Rheinmetall culture have you noticed?

Over the past 12 years, Rheinmetall has opened itself much more to ‘new’ ways of working. This applies, for example, to remote working, shared leadership and part-time work. There are more women in management positions, more casual office attire and more people on first-name terms.

In addition, Rheinmetall's self-image has changed, as has the corporation’s public image.