Fresh fruit, coffee specialties, shopping vouchers, job tickets, mobile working - companies come up with a number of ideas and sometimes don't shy away from any expense in order to be attractive to employees.

It's not just about attracting and retaining the best talent;

More and more companies are having difficulties finding employees at all.

A recent survey by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the Rhine-Main region revealed that the vast majority of companies looking for new staff have problems filling vacancies.

Patricia Andreae

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the economics department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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And the gap is getting bigger: According to forecasts in a recently published study by the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs in cooperation with the Institute for Economics, Labor and Culture (IWAK) at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, there will be a shortage of around 200,000 skilled and unskilled workers in Hesse by 2028 because baby boomers are retiring.

This shows that the competition for labor is getting tougher.

Even now, for example, radio spots from companies are increasingly not aimed at image factors, but are aimed at acquiring new employees.

But not all employers can afford expensive advertising or incentives, and not every company can offer attractive working models, sabbaticals or mobile working.

In handicraft businesses, for example, it is not the employee who decides where to work, and certainly not in the home office.

25 Long weekends instead of a four-day week

So how can medium-sized companies find the employees they need to process orders in the future?

Peer Hildmann has been thinking about this for a long time.

However, the managing director and owner of the two plumbing companies "Hildmann Bad und Heiz" in Kronberg and "Karl Lotz" in Frankfurt was not immediately enthusiastic when he offered his employees in 2019 to work only four days a week.

"I wanted to do something good for them, but instead of enthusiasm there was a shitstorm," says the entrepreneur.

Because not every employee saw the advantage of having 40 hours a week spread over four days instead of five.

Some had family or club commitments, others shied away from the long days.

Finally, Hildmann came up with the idea of ​​offering his employees 25 long weekends a year, with no work on Mondays and Fridays.

This also saves employees time and money on trips.

Hildmann reports that more than half of his people have now accepted the offer and are happy about the time they have gained.

Hildmann himself is also on the road as a coach in the region, advising other craftsmen who want to introduce a similar model.

Apprentices are missing

Kai Rosenberg, Managing Director of Dörflinger Elektrotechnik GmbH, also relies on the four-day week.

With him, however, the company always rests on Fridays, the employees work their 37.5 hours over four days.

Above all, Rosenberg wants the model to be attractive to new employees.

"We're now also starting campaigns on social media with it," he says, and when asked how many people he's looking for, he answers: "Almost unlimited."

The need for employees makes many long-established companies more flexible.

Andreas Schmitt, who owns the Café Ernst bakery and coffeehouse chain, says he offers a total of 90 different working time models.

If that's not enough, "then we'll build each one their own".

But even such flexibility is not always enough.

"The shortage of workers and skilled workers will unfold its force from year to year with the demographic development," predicts Dirk Pollert, Managing Director of the Hessian Business Associations.

The trainees, who are already lacking in many professions today, will in a few years create another gap in positions that companies urgently need to fill in order to be able to cope with their still well-filled order books.

And smaller, owner-managed companies in particular could face the problem of not being able to find a successor.

The general manager of the IHK Wiesbaden, Bernhard Mundschenk, warns that within the next ten years every fifth craft business in its district is looking for a successor - many of which will probably remain unsuccessful.