20. November 2023
Trallala and hopsasa. It arrives faster than expected, the festive season. In the carnival strongholds, the “Köbesse” refresh themselves financially by selling many beers. The partying crowd sings loudly about their travel deficit to New York or Paris, indulging in the motto: “We have to stop drinking less”. Admittedly, as a Düsseldorfer, I also shouted just as loudly for supplies and indulged in the carnival atmosphere.
My program, besides Carnival, is a book that is really worth reading: “The Recruiting Dilemma” by Sven Gábor Jánsky. The recognized futurologist runs the trend research institute 2b AHEAD ThinkTank. Really worth reading. The author describes the world of work in Germany in 2025. The author assumes that there are between 2 and 5.2 million too few employees in Germany and that employers will have to adapt to completely new challenges. His book is about the different approaches of two companies. One is a fluid employer that adapts its processes to the quality of its current employers. The other company is a caring company that goes to great lengths to ensure the well-being of its employees and that they stay with the company for as long as possible. Both companies have a different focus.
The Fluide company focuses on target achievement and innovation. This requires permanent fresh blood from outside in order to keep the level of innovation as high as possible. As a result, employees only stay until their “project” has reached its goal and then look for a new challenge with the help of their employer. There will be communities of interest that pass these super talents back and forth to each other and thus have the opportunity to benefit from the employee’s excellence several times over.
The Caring Company thrives on consistency and the retention of knowledge within the company. These types of employers tend to be small to medium-sized companies that are not as innovative and goal-oriented. Here, kindergarten care, house rents, contributions to sports clubs or further education are paid in order to keep the hurdle for changing employers as high as possible through a high feel-good factor.
By now at the latest, many entrepreneurs and HR managers in the catering and hotel industry will be able to identify with this strategy. It’s nothing new that the employer pays for a place in kindergarten, gym membership or training as a commis sommelier. Apprentices are given a Smart for their apprenticeship, or the restaurant covers the cost of a romantic menu for mom’s birthday.
And all this in an industry that is generally suspected in the media of being an exploiter and tax evader. Compared to other sectors in Germany, the catering industry already has to stretch itself mightily to find the qualified staff it needs. Necessity is the mother of invention, which is perhaps why our industry is a pioneer in staff retention and development programs. According to the motto “if you make it there, you can make it anywhere.”. I’m sure that in future hoteliers and restaurateurs will be telling the big DAX companies at HR conferences how good HR management works. We know enough examples.