When it comes to finding employees for his store, REWE salesman Tim-Marlo Kaiser faces a particular challenge at the Wolfsburg site: he has to compete with Volkswagen. The car manufacturer is a sought-after employer in the region. In order to find reinforcements for his team, Kaiser decided to take a new approach to recruiting. As part of the partial qualification project, he hired Azuka Philip Ndihika, a trained banker from Nigeria, in June 2021. Today, the 49-year-old manages the store's fruit and vegetable department with two employees.
one: Mr Kaiser, Mr Ndihika, how did you find each other?
Tim-Marlo Kaiser: The Recruiting Centre made contact and arranged a meeting to get to know each other. After the interview, I had a very good impression and was sure that Mr Ndihika would be a good fit for our team. I was particularly impressed by his commitment, his self-confidence and his life experience.
Azuka Philip Ndihika: I only knew REWE as a customer before. But during the interview, I quickly realised that a partial qualification as a sales assistant could be an interesting career alternative for me. I like working with people. I already particularly liked that in my trained profession as a banker.
one: What professional experience had you previously gained in Germany, Mr Ndihika?
Azuka Philip Ndihika: It wasn't easy for me to gain a foothold in Germany. I came here alone from Nigeria in 2005. The biggest challenge was learning the language. I then did various jobs, first in Braunschweig at a Volkswagen subsidiary and later at the Volksbank in Wolfsburg. But none of that lasted. At REWE, I found a job that I really enjoy. And above all, the school and my colleagues in the store have given me the support I need to integrate even better.
one: How did you integrate your new employee into the team, Mr Kaiser?
Tim-Marlo Kaiser: We deliberately started with just 18 hours a week. That made it easier to find your feet in a new environment and to cope with the double burden of training. While working in the store, it quickly became apparent that Mr Ndihika was particularly interested in the fruit and vegetables product group and so he found his place there. Today, he works 45 hours a week, coordinates the work of two employees in the department and would like to work even more hours if that were possible.....
Azuka Philip Ndihika: I don't live far away, I can walk to the store in ten minutes in the morning and I simply love working. I always work the early shift - there's no other way when you're responsible for fruit and vegetables that are delivered fresh in the morning. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
one: What are or were the biggest challenges for you in finding your way in a new professional environment, Mr Ndihika?
Azuka Philip Ndihika: Definitely the language! Everything else is no problem. It's working quite well now; I sometimes switch to English. But I'll keep at it and want to improve my German language skills further.
one: Mr Kaiser, did you see any hurdles that your employee might fail to overcome? He didn't have any industry knowledge and wasn't initially linguistically fit enough to hold conversations with customers. What's more, not everyone has the drive to complete another apprenticeship in their late 40s.
Tim-Marlo Kaiser: My experience with Mr Ndihika taught me to throw such prejudices overboard. His personality already impressed me during the interview; I had a good gut feeling when I hired him. What's more, our store team is characterised by great diversity anyway. We are 50 people, some of whom have very individual personalities from different countries. Mr Ndihika has integrated perfectly.
one: What do you particularly appreciate about him?
Tim-Marlo Kaiser: His passion for the product group, his high sense of responsibility and the calmness with which he carries out his tasks. Mr Ndihika is a stroke of luck for my store. He may go on to gain further qualifications and also complete an IHK qualification in sales. I can recommend to any salesperson with staffing problems to consider candidates from the partial qualification project when applying for jobs.
one: Mr Ndihika, is there anything you think REWE could do better?
Azuka Philip Ndihika: Yes! Selling fruit from my home country Nigeria! Peanuts, for example. I fly home to my family at least once a year and bring my colleagues peanuts every time. They say they've never eaten anything so delicious.
Back to working life
The shortage of skilled labour is reflected in falling numbers of applicants. At the same time, there are around 1.5 million people who are unemployed and low-skilled, i.e. who have not completed vocational training. This is precisely where the Recruiting Centre's pilot project comes in: Together with the Federal Employment Agency, local job centres and educational partners, long-term unemployed and low-skilled workers are being trained for sales jobs in REWE and PENNY stores as part of a partial qualification (TQ).
We wanted to know from project participants how the project has helped them get back into work. We asked retailers, district managers, store managers and HR partners how it is helping them locally to combat the shortage of skilled labour. Employees from the Federal Employment Agency and training providers explain how they support the project.
Steven Köhler has been working in Marius Gläß's store for around a year. Steven Köhler has no training qualifications and was unemployed for around six years. REWE store manager Gläß supports the partial qualification project not only because he believes that people who don't have a straight CV deserve a second chance. Click here for the article.
