20,000 vacancies – these are the jobs Deutsche Bahn is looking for

“We will also be hiring to a similar extent in the next few years, in the second half of this decade it will be a little less because by then the baby boomers will largely have retired,” HR director Martin Seiler told Handelsblatt. If around 20,000 jobs are taken as a basis each year, the personnel requirements of the rail company would add up to an impressive 180,000 employees by 2030.

Deutsche Bahn’s problems are symptomatic of the entire German economy. Demographic change is shrinking the reservoir of employable people at home. Many employees will leave the company in the coming years, explains Seiler. At the same time, the company wants to grow. All this meets a very tight job market.

The fact that the HR director of the state-owned company takes a lot of time to talk about the measures and initiatives shows how great the need is. “We have to exhaust all possibilities,” admits Seiler. You really have to make an effort.

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About abroad. “We have set up our own cross-border recruiting team and are specifically looking abroad, mainly in the EU,” the HR manager gives as an example. It’s about train drivers from Spain, bus drivers from Romania or overhead line builders from Ukraine.

The bottleneck cannot be eliminated without local workers

Since workers are also becoming scarce in the EU, Deutsche Bahn is also looking to more distant regions. “I do not rule out that we will look beyond the EU more in the future. For example, we are already in talks in Turkey,” said Seiler.

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The personnel team of the state-owned company had to learn one thing. Personnel acquisition abroad does not work so well if potential employees first complete their qualifications in their home country. “It is important that these people do their training and qualifications here in Germany. The point is that they want to and are able to establish themselves at an early stage,” reports Seiler of his experiences.

Refugees are also interesting for Deutsche Bahn as potential workers. There are special integration programs. “For example, we take care of the living space and provide social guides for everyday things like going to the doctor or to the authorities,” says Seiler.

However, Seiler knows that the company’s enormous need for personnel cannot be covered without the domestic labor market. In order to make the jobs offered more attractive for local workers, the state-owned company will now advertise mobile jobs for the first time – so-called “where you want jobs”. A position advertised in Berlin can also be exercised from Munich, for example.

A second campaign will target women. “We don’t just want more female managers, the goal is to employ more women at Deutsche Bahn overall,” said Seiler. Deutsche Bahn wants to turn the tables for a month and apply to women in March – with special recruiting events and virtual events with female experts.

Integration of the long-term unemployed

In addition, HR managers look at where other companies are currently cutting staff. “We work in a targeted manner with companies like Bosch, Lufthansa and Continental that are downsizing. We see where qualifications match our needs,” says Seiler.

For example, the state-owned company takes over employees from the coal mining company LEAG in Cottbus. The company can use mechatronics, electronics or industrial mechanics from there in the new ICE plant that is currently being built in the region.

Martin Seiler, Chief Human Resources Officer at Deutsche Bahn

The state-owned company is looking for around 20,000 new employees every year.

(Photo: imago images/Reiner Zensen)

The long-term unemployed are also a reservoir that Deutsche Bahn wants to use. We have had good experiences with reintegration. In many cases, strokes of fate are the cause. “We also specifically address the over 50-year-olds. Last year, 14 percent of the new hires came from this group,” adds Seiler: “These are people who often have very good qualifications.”

Since the need for personnel will remain high in the coming years, the state-owned company is also increasing the issue of training. “We have to introduce young people to training even more than before. This also applies to those who leave school without a qualification.”

In the current year alone, Deutsche Bahn is looking for 5,200 trainees. “We have to think long-term, with foresight and train more now so that we can close the gaps in three or four years,” says Seiler.

More: Possible sale of billions by Deutsche Bahn: Investors are preparing for the Schenker takeover

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