Apprenticeships in demand

Spar is looking for late bloomers in its own workforce

Received a lot of mail recently: Spar Upper Austria boss Jakob Leitner.(Bild: Markus Wenzel, stock.adobe.com, Krone KREATIV)

Spar is courting apprentices with eleven professions and opportunities for bonuses. In Upper Austria, motivated people who are enthusiastic about job training are regularly sought from the existing workforce. Apart from this, Managing Director Jakob Leitner recently listened closely to how the employees are doing.

Superlatives are not far away at Spar when it comes to training young people: the retail company is the largest apprentice training company in Austria; in our province alone, there are eleven different career paths for young people; bonuses of more than €6,700 can be earned during the apprenticeship period.

"It's our job to support and develop people," says Jakob Leitner, head of Spar Upper Austria. The 63-year-old also reveals that apprentices are regularly recruited from the existing workforce: "Employees who don't have a degree are given the opportunity to complete an apprenticeship while working. Between ten and 15 employees complete their apprenticeship every year."

"The personal component is crucial"
How have the increased costs affected consumers' purchasing behavior? "Price entry has become more important," says Leitner. He is convinced that price is not the only reason why customers come back: "The personal component is crucial. Customers can sense whether people like working there or not."

Letters with 88 pages
In order to become even better in this area, almost 5000 employees in Upper Austria were recently surveyed anonymously. Personal messages were sent directly to Leitner: 88 pages long. "Some really long letters."