#25 Flexible Work - how to build an attractive work culture when skilled labour is scarce - with Melanie Lauer

What if you could take an established business and transform it
into exactly the kind of company that you would like to work in?


As CEO of the Swiss company Trisport AG, Melanie Lauer was able
to do just that when her company acquired the sporting goods
brand Kettler.


Many of us will remember Kettler as the name on most of the
sports gear of our childhoods - but although it’s an old and
well-known company, the business behind it was rebuilt from
scratch when Trisport acquired it: “it was like a start-up,”
Melanie told me in this podcast. 


A mother and CEO herself, she knew what she had to do to build a
solid workforce and retain those talents in times of labour
scarcity: “Flexibility, in every way!"


A lot of businesses offer some flexibility, but then their
approach to that flexibility is somewhat… inflexible. So if
you’re on an 80% model and take Fridays off (as an example),
there’s often zero room to manoeuvre within that model. At every
conference and business event I go to, I also keep hearing CEOs
and heads of HR departments talk about wanting to get people back
into the office - so the old ideal of having people sit at their
desks at work remains alive and well.


And yet having flexibility in where and how you work is
incredibly attractive for anyone - not just parents. So I was all
the more inspired by Melanie’s approach. At Kettler, flexible
work isn’t just a daily or weekly adjustment of working hours -
it’s geographic, it’s seasonal - it’s personal. 


“I've got one colleague who moved to Spain because he thought
Spain might be a nice country to live in,” she says. "We offer
sabbaticals. And we have a seasonal business, so a lot of
colleagues work overtime in the winter and then work less in the
summertime. It helps everybody. And it helps us to keep the
loyalty of the people. They really want to stay with the company
because there are benefits that they do not have somewhere
else.” 


Speaker: Melanie Lauer, CEO @Trisport AG


Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier - Founder @MyCollective


Music: sponsored by @Michaelkadelbach


Picture: Melanie Lauer 


Graphic & Production: MyCollective


#getinspired #podcast #inspiration #MyCollective
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#careers #femalecareers #diverseworkplace #getinspiredpodcast
#ImpulseSessions #parenthood #workingparents #parentalleave
#elternzeit #flexiblework #newwork #businesstransformation
#kettler