Mette Holmegaard Nielsen: Be bold to ask

80 years of Körber

Mette Holmegaard Nielsen, Körber site: Arden, Denmark

A few years ago, we asked ourselves a simple question:
How can we become even better?

At our Körber site in Arden, Denmark, we were already building on a strong foundation.
Employee well-being was high. Our leaders were deeply engaged with their teams.

But we knew there was still more to learn.

Our middle managers were in close, continuous dialogue with their teams: about daily work, motivation, pressure points, and what people need to perform at their best.

What we lacked was a shared way to capture these insights and see the bigger picture.
That’s when we started exploring the idea of a survey.

From the beginning, one thing was clear:
This should not be another HR exercise.
The survey had to belong to the organization.

So we co-created it.

“Don’t build tools for people – build them with people.”
Mette Holmegaard Nielsen

We spoke with managers about their everyday challenges.
We involved our Work Environment Organization (AMO).
And we asked colleagues across the site what would help them.

The goal was simple: create something that truly supports leadership.
Because the real value of a survey is not the data.
The value lies in what you do with it.

Being a high-performing organization also means having the courage to ask difficult questions.
We included topics such as leadership, collaboration and friction between departments.

Not because we expected problems.
But because we wanted to understand where we could improve.

For me, one thing was very clear:
The risk of silence is far greater than the discomfort of truth.

And the survey gave us exactly what we hoped for: clarity.

Some results confirmed what we already believed – like the importance of flexibility for well-being.
Others helped us sharpen our focus.
One example was what we called a “strategy gap”.

While leadership understood the strategy well, many colleagues wanted more support in translating it into their daily work.

This helped us strengthen communication and make our strategy more tangible.