
... seven children and a shared e-mail address: Daniela Charalambis and Kathrin Tischer have been sharing a management position under the name DAniKa for ten months. In the one_Interview, they explain the advantages this has for them, but also for the company. A conversation about the right preparation for a job-sharing tandem, possible pitfalls, the importance of demarcation, trust and one note - and celebrating joint successes.
one: Ms Charalambis, Ms Tischer, you share a management position in a job-sharing arrangement. What are your tasks?
Daniela Charalambis: As a duo, we are jointly responsible for the strategic direction of communication and packaging for the REWE store brands Beste Wahl, Wilhelm Brandenburg and the cosmetics brand today. In terms of content, we have split up so that Kathrin is responsible for brand communication, analysis and strategy, while I am responsible for packaging and process-related topics.
Nevertheless, there are naturally large overlaps because we are jointly responsible for the brands, and communication and packaging simply belong together for a holistic brand image. We currently have a team of ten employees and two interns.
one: You have been working in tandem for around ten months, how did that come about?
Kathrin Tischer: It arose from the need to fill a management position for which two part-time employees were available. And our superiors were of the opinion that we could work well together. As we didn't know each other very well when the idea was born, we got to know each other in a familiarisation process before the tandem started.
one: How did this familiarisation process go?
Kathrin Tischer: We used an HR questionnaire to clarify fundamental issues in advance to see whether we were a good fit.
one: What were the questions?
Kathrin Tischer : In my opinion, the most important question was: Do we have the same goal and the same expectations of our position? If someone with great career ambitions enters into a tandem with someone who primarily wants to harmonise work and career - that probably wouldn't work.
Or the question of competences. How do we complement each other, where do we differentiate ourselves from each other? That's actually perfectly possible with us. Dani is a designer by trade, she is in charge of packaging, I come from brand strategy. We don't strictly differentiate between our topics, because we both have to work on them, but we have a specialist in our tandem for each area of responsibility. In addition to this questionnaire, we were also provided with a coach before the start who accompanied us.
one: What did you learn from the coaching?
Kathrin Tischer: For example, to reflect together on possible uncertainties in the team regarding our new model and to think ahead, to structure ourselves together and also to discuss how we would deal with them if things didn't work out in the team. And how important it is to incorporate weekly feedback.
one: What is your assessment after around ten months of job sharing?
Daniela Charalambis: We are very, very happy with each other. We get on well together and rate the collaboration positively. Of course, there is a need for optimisation in the organisation and project management. We are aware of this, we are the first tandem in our field and some things still need to be worked out. But we are receiving positive feedback from both our team and our line manager. The model is going down well.
All the interfaces we work with also find it good and interesting. The fact that one of us can always be contacted and that we have given ourselves a common name "DaniKa" and set up a common e-mail address has also been well received. We want to be perceived as one person, or even better, as one role, so it was only logical to do so with our own common name.
In our eyes, the tandem was and is the right decision: We have seven children together. There are always "knocks" from all sides. This is where the tandem and the flexibility it gives us helps. We cover for each other.
one: How old are your seven children?
Daniela Charalambis: My four are 11, 9, 2 and 1..
Kathrin Tischer:... and mine are 4, 2 and 2.
one: With three and four children respectively, how do you look after each other?
Kathrin Tischer: Each has clearly defined working days. However, we have a relatively large number of issues that have to be decided at short notice. For example, if it's a communication issue and I'm not there, Dani takes over or coordinates so that things can continue. And vice versa. Of course, we try to communicate internally so that the team always knows where they stand and who they can turn to if there's a problem.
The shared email address danika@rewe-group.com, which we both use to receive emails, also helps here.
We regularly check our inboxes, even if we're not available at the moment. As far as our availability is concerned, we have everything well organised. We just need to learn to set ourselves apart even more.
one: What other challenges are there?
Daniela Charalambis: The most important issue is synchronisation, i.e. providing information so efficiently during handovers that the other person knows their way around the topic without investing as much time in it as you do.
one: How do you solve the synchronisation problem?
Daniela Charalambis: We work with Notes and have a shared notebook, the projects are mapped there, we maintain our acute to-do list for the week, transfer new information that comes in... If there are still unclear issues, we discuss them twice a week in synchronisation meetings.
one: What are the advantages of the tandem concept?
Daniela Charalambis: Definitely the flexibility! It's easier for me to juggle work and family life. That only applies in my case, of course, because you don't always have to have children if you're interested in job sharing.
However, there are advantages not only for us, but also for the company. There are two of us. You don't think about a topic alone, but, as Kathrin always says: "We are 200 per cent brains. You can map a lot more skills for one position. We both have completely different backgrounds, so it's probably extremely rare to find something like that in a single person..
Kathrin Tischer:... and that for a cost rate of just 140 per cent. We both work just under 70 per cent, so together we are 140 per cent. If I subtract the synchronisation time of four hours a week that we both need, we're still at 130 percent. And, as I said, 200 per cent brain..
one: So it's a win-win situation for employers and employees?
Kathrin Tischer: Yes! We both come from management positions that we would not have been able to take on again on our own with 60 or 70 per cent jobs - more is not possible with so many children at the moment. But this way we can pick up where we left off and continue to add value with our expertise. But without feeling like we're tearing ourselves apart 24/7 for our various roles - it's a whole lot more balanced.
And perhaps another important point: we are not only motivators for each other, but also coaches. I can learn a lot from Dani and she can learn a lot from me. And so we both continue to develop, which helps both professionally and personally.
one: What is important in your collaboration?
Kathrin Tischer: We have to see how we can reconcile the entire construct of work and private life. And that is so challenging that we can only make the best of the situation with pragmatism and mutual trust - as we both have. We have a great deal of understanding for each other in our private lives and we have the utmost trust in each other professionally. That's the only way it works. And that's the reason why you have to clarify in advance whether you're a good match.
one: And what qualities should a tandem generally have to fit together?
Daniela Charalambis : Not be an alpha dog, but a team player, because everything runs under the same roof. If you remain stuck in a competitive mindset, it's not the right model for you.
Kathrin Tischer : You have to think in terms of "we" as much as possible. You can't think: the other person is presenting my presentation to the management. It's not like that, because she's doing it as a "we" - and it's a joint effort. Not an individual performance. We are only successful if we think as a DaniKa and not as individuals.
We stand up for each other. When criticism comes, it's our criticism; when we succeed, we celebrate it. Together.
Job-sharing management is part of REWE Group's family- and life-phase-conscious employee policy. REWE Group's Central locations in Cologne have now been awarded the "audit job and family" certificate for the fourth time in a row. It promises that further measures will be implemented over the next three years to reconcile work, family and private life. In addition to job-sharing tandem management, these include encouraging more men to work part-time and focussing on older employees.
The certificate is valid from now until 2025 for the Cologne-based central employees of REWE Deutscher Supermarkt AG & Co. KGaA, REWE Group Holding, REWE Group Buying GmbH, REWE Systems GmbH and the national administrations of REWE Markt and PENNY Markt GmbH.
In addition to the Central locations in Cologne, almost all REWE Group divisions are certified in accordance with the audit. PENNY, for example, is the first and so far only discounter to be certified. REWE is even the largest job and family-certified employer in Germany. And this year, the administration of the REWE West region was certified for the fifth time in a row..
The job and family audit certificate, a renowned seal of quality for the sustainable organisation of a company's work-life balance policy, is awarded every three years. It is seen as a kind of marketing instrument for increasing employer attractiveness.
Find out here what life-phase-orientated measures employees can expect over the next three years: You can find out what life-phase-orientated measures employees can expect over the next three years here