Competition for skilled labour and trainees is fierce. There is a shortage of labour in many companies. Not so at REWE Group: the figures show that the business units are attractive and popular employers. This is not only due to the fact that food retailing is considered a crisis-proof industry. REWE Group also attracts employees with attractive benefits and modern recruiting.
Petra Steffens, Head of COE Talent Acquisition at Retail Germany
Skilled labour and trainees have not been in such high demand for a long time. Only recently, the ifo Institute reported a new high in the shortage of skilled labour. The economic researchers reported that almost every second company in Germany has a shortage of labour.
A development that was already apparent last year: "There was a break in the labour market in May 2021," says Petra Steffens, Head of COE Talent Acquisition at Retail Germany. Since then, there has been an average of around 0.7 job seekers for every vacancy on the German market.
And the number of vacancies is also growing at REWE and PENNY. Petra Steffens: "The number of advertised positions for REWE and PENNY stores and logistics has increased by around 40 per cent projected to 2022." Particularly sought-after job profiles include specialists for the fresh food counters and lorry drivers. After all, the number of applicants clearly exceeds the number of vacancies.
„The number of advertised positions for REWE and PENNY stores and logistics has increased by around 40 per cent projected to 2022.“Petra Steffens A similar picture emerges with regard to trainees. REWE is one of the most sought-after companies among young people. Food retail has proven to be a crisis-proof industry during the pandemic. In addition, REWE Group offers numerous benefits that may vary between REWE, PENNY, toom or Travel and Tourism, but nevertheless meet many of the wishes of the young generation. Whether it's work-life balance or employee discounts - the benefits are many and varied.
Training at REWE is attractive - as the figures show. In 2021, the number of applicants at REWE had already jumped by more than 47 per cent compared to the previous year and remains at this high level in the current year. At REWE, the number of applications continues to exceed the number of training places many times over, even though the number of advertised positions increased by 8.5 per cent in 2022 compared to the previous year.
Cover letters are a thing of the past. Today the application comes by voice message
The DIY store also remains an attractive employer. The number of trainees hired this year rose by over 19 per cent. Although the number of dual students fell slightly, more trainees and participants from the school-leaver programme were recruited again.
PENNY successfully filled 99 per cent of all planned apprenticeship positions this year. For the start of training in 2023, the demand has increased by more than 12 per cent. The increase shows that more and more young people are recognising the attractiveness of training in food retail and the various career opportunities. A total of almost 1,100 people were undergoing training at PENNY on 1 September, whether in the store, in logistics or in administration. At Lekkerland, 70 junior employees are currently preparing for their careers, including 57 trainees and 13 dual students.
„We want to keep the hurdles for applicants as low as possible and try to utilise every avenue open to us in recruiting.“Petra Steffens
But as good as the figures are, employers are facing major challenges due to demographic trends. This makes it all the more important to make it as easy as possible for potential applicants to join the company. "For jobs at the Cologne headquarters, at REWE Systems or in the stores and logistics of REWE and PENNY, a cover letter has no longer been required for three years. Applying by voice message has also become established for the Blue Collar area," explains Petra Steffens. In the meantime, candidates can also apply in their native language via voice message if their German language skills are not yet so advanced. And from the end of the year, the registration process for online applications will also be further simplified. Petra Steffens: "We want to keep the hurdles for applicants as low as possible and try to utilise all the channels open to us in recruiting."
Anna Schwanitz, Team Leader Services Human Resources Development at toom
Toom also uses the various social media channels to draw attention to jobs. In addition, trainees and dual students have been able to apply via WhatsApp at karriere.toom.de for several months by clicking on a button. "In the first step, only a few details are requested to make it even easier to apply to toom," says Anna Schwanitz, Team Leader Services Human Resources Development.
DER Travel and Tourism colleagues recruit via the d.vinci.de platform, among others, and also benefit from the umbrella brand's brand marketing at product level. DERTOUR travel agencies have been successfully performing on their own "DER sucht dich" platform for four years and launched a training offensive in February 2022: they sent 50 additional apprenticeships for tourism clerks for the private and business travel sector with a focus on travel agency services into the field. With the additional places created starting in February, the training period has been shortened to two and a half years.
Both Travel and Tourism subsidiaries intend to intensify their joint personnel marketing activities in the future.
The Federal Employment Agency (BA) reported a significant year-on-year increase in the number of training places on offer in July 2022. This was particularly true for occupations in the retail sector. For the 2022/23 training year, retail companies are offering around 35,100 positions (up 0.6 per cent) for three-year training as a retail clerk. Compared to July 2021, companies have even increased their training offers for sales assistants by a good 22 per cent to 30,200 positions.
Katharina Weinert, Head of Department for Education Policy and Vocational Training at the HDE German Retail Association
"These two core retail professions have long been among the most popular occupations every year," says Katharina Weinert, Head of Education Policy and Vocational Training at HDE Handelsverband Deutschland. The retail apprenticeship programmes, a three-year combined qualification programme consisting of training and further education, also made it into the top 10 of the training market in July with a total of 11,300 positions on offer (up 15.3 percent). The "shooting star" among the training occupations also comes from the retail sector: e-commerce clerk. According to the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), this occupation made the biggest leap in the ranking of training occupations in 2021. The BIBB survey recorded almost 1,900 new contracts as of 30 September 2021 - an increase of 27% compared to the previous year. The HDE expects e-commerce clerk to be one of the top 20 training occupations in a few years.
At the same time, the BA recently registered a particularly high number of unfilled vacancies for retailers and sales assistants, at around 18,000 each. According to Katharina Weinert, however, this could change in the coming weeks. "For some years now, we have seen that the so-called post-placement period, i.e. the time from October to the end of December, is becoming increasingly important. A large number of training contracts are now being concluded during these months, which often corrects the overall picture," she emphasises. There are many reasons for this development. The HDE suspects that many young people are only considering training at a later stage. Or they are undecided for a long time about which profession they should choose.
„In no other industry can you take on management responsibility as quickly as in retail.“Katharina Weinert
At the height of the pandemic, the food retail sector in particular had received a large influx of people willing to train or change careers. They had recognised that this industry offered crisis-proof jobs and even hired more new employees during the coronavirus months. According to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), the catering, hotel and tourism industries alone lost 216,000 employees to other sectors in the first year of the pandemic - most of them (34,800) were hired in sales professions, particularly in the food retail sector.
However, according to Katharina Weinert, it could become more difficult for the food retail sector to capitalise on its bonus as a crisis-proof employer. "To the extent that other retail sectors are also looking for employees again, supermarkets and discounters will once again have more competitors on the labour market."
However, the HDE also sees shortcomings in schools. Secondary schools in particular often prepare their pupils very one-sidedly for university instead of showing them other training paths. "The career opportunities in retail are equally good for graduates of a dual training programme and a degree course. In no other industry can you reach management responsibility as quickly via both career paths as in retail. More than 80 per cent of senior managers in the retail sector started their career with an apprenticeship," emphasises Katharina Weinert.
What do the boomers have to do with the labour market? They will ensure that the situation is likely to worsen in the coming years. This is because the baby boomers, i.e. the baby boomers born in the fifties and sixties, will gradually retire from the labour market. According to the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office, 12.9 million people in employment in Germany will have passed retirement age in the next 15 years. That is around 30 per cent of people currently in work.
However, the younger age groups cannot replace the older ones in terms of numbers. This exacerbates the shortage and puts pressure on companies to pay even more attention to their HR policy. This applies in particular to training and the development of young skilled workers.