Hybrid work and job sharing as aces up the sleeve

Companies can also benefit from hybrid cooperation. According to experts, employers who offer their employees a high degree of flexibility have a good chance in the competition for the best professionals – not only locally, but also on the international labour market. A long-term study by the renowned Fraunhofer Institute underlines this, as does a representative survey by Accenture Research. According to this study, 83 per cent of the 9300 employees surveyed in eleven countries consider hybrid working with remote working times of between 25 and 75 per cent to be optimal.

The challenges follow immediately, because flexibility and personal work-life balance are only one side of the coin. In addition to the emotional bond, managers are faced with the question of how diverse teams can be developed regardless of location. Nelli Louloudi knows this, too: “Asking questions, getting feedback, listening, changing – when you work together independent of time and location, this is very important from my experience. As well as empathy and the trust that employees complete their tasks in a results-oriented and self-responsible manner. This is a maturing and permanent learning process for everyone, which needs openness.” In Global Procurement Marketing, face-to-face meetings also play a role again after the pandemic. “A lot of travel will be omitted, but we plan to hold face-to-face workshops at longer intervals to complement the virtual workshops. People need direct exchange,” says Nelli Louloudi.

In addressing the topic of work-life balance, the transformation also brought the job-sharing model into focus. As a supervisor, Nelli Louloudi has good experience with this. A first tandem at manager level has been successfully bringing together different know-how from marketing and strategic purchasing since 2020. According to the motto “one plus one equals three,” another followed at team management level, combining the knowledge of a long-standing colleague with a management newcomer. Since the beginning of the year, Procurement Marketing has once again been leading the way with a third job tandem in the role of a so-called first mover: for the first time, there is a duo at Beiersdorf in which the tandem partners live and work at different locations in Hamburg and Vienna. “This will develop well,” Nelli Louloudi is convinced after only a short time and is already thinking ahead: “With each new constellation we learn something new and initially start internationally in the same time zone. It is conceivable that we will go one step further in the future.”