600 applications for positions in Austria
The electrical company B&R from Eggelsberg in Austria’s Innviertel has a huge demand from applicants with its Two-day week offer triggered.
As reported, the company is looking for temporary production employees for a year who only want to work on weekends and earn the same as full-time employees in 20 hours. “B&R” has now taken stock: more than 600 applicants have been received since the offer became known in December.
As the company announced in a press release, due to the high demand, B&R is offering its own “Job Days” instead of traditional job interviews. The first job candidates took advantage of this opportunity this week and last week. The job days that have already started offer the opportunity for job applicants and employers to meet each other. The company invites around 70 applicants per appointment, who first ask their questions in individual interviews.
Five out of six applicants are to be accepted
Monika Drzewiecka from Simbach am Inn already has her promise in her pocket. The 37-year-old already worked in production at B&R – until she became a mother around two years ago. However, she will not have a childcare place until September. “Thanks to the weekend shift, I can now return to work earlier,” says Drzewiecka, who WILL continue to take care of the child during the week. Her future husband will take care of that at the weekend.
More or better divided time with the family: This is a motivation that many of the new “weekend employees” have, as can be seen from interviews with applicants who have already been selected. Incidentally, many of those who have applied have already written in the areas, but some are also career changers. The squad of applicants ranges from apprenticeship graduates to bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Some even bring several degrees with them.
Applicants are prepared to travel up to four hours
About 70 percent of the applicants are men and 30 percent women. The age range is from 18 to almost 65. These include schoolchildren and students as well as job seekers, the self-employed looking for a part-time job, families in which only one parent has previously worked, people who are reorienting themselves professionally or who have better care responsibilities during the week want to meet, to older people who are about to retire.
About half of the applicants come from the region, the Innkreis, Flachgau, from Lower and Upper Bavaria. The rest come from some far greater distances, many of them from Linz and Vienna. In some cases, the job applicants even put up with a journey of up to four hours for the new jobs at B&R. Several candidates even applied from Graz and Nuremberg. A total of around two thirds of the applications came from Austria and one third from Germany.
New shift is a consequence of the corona pandemic
The additional weekend shift is a consequence of the COVID crisis and global delivery shortages. As a result, the demand for solutions to automate machines and factories has increased enormously. The new shift aims to meet the high demand as soon as possible.
Together with the works council and trade unions, B&R has therefore developed a special model limited to one year. For a total of 20 hours per week exclusively on Saturdays and Sundays, the company offers a salary that is comparable to a standard 38.5-hour week from Monday to Friday, including the statutory allowances.
− hw