Status: 18.11.2023, 15:31 PM
By: Sina Alonso Garcia
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Europa-Park boss Roland Mack is the seventh generation to run his family business. In his search for new employees, he is increasingly struggling with the demands of young people.
Rust – The shortage of skilled workers is omnipresent in Germany – and does not stop at Europa-Park in Rust. Owner Roland Mack (74) is finding it increasingly difficult to find staff. In particular, the demands of young, potential applicants are "a great challenge," he explains to Handelsblatt. With terms such as the frequently demanded "work-life balance", the entrepreneur is on a war footing.
The fact that so many young people nowadays only want to work part-time is incomprehensible to Mack. "I have a problem with work-life balance," says the entrepreneur. When I look back, I only know the 70- and 80-hour week." In his professional career, he used to not have a weekend for weeks at a time. "And I think if we hadn't done it that way at the site, we wouldn't have done it." It was only through "enormous commitment" that it was possible to manage the family business Europa-Park.
Roland Mack doubts that "our prosperity can be maintained with a 28-hour week"
"Günther Oettinger recently said that he could not imagine that our current prosperity could be maintained with a 28-hour week," says the Europa-Park boss. He could sign the statement himself. "If we had enough employees, we could think about something like this. But if you generally don't have the people to maintain such businesses at all, the 4-day week is an almost unsolvable problem."
Roland Mack has made Europa-Park what it is today: an entertainment empire with more than six million visitors a year. © Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
As Mack goes on to explain, employees' entitlements used to be much more modest. Today, completely new challenges are opening up here that "have not been thought of for 45 years". Since his own work ethic was obviously different, he found it difficult to see that "a next generation may see things differently." Nevertheless, he had to accept it.
Europa-Park boss on shortage of skilled workers: "I'm really worried"
The shortage of skilled workers is a headache for Mack. "We have two major hotel projects on hold. I'm really worried that when the property is built, there won't be enough manpower to run it." As he explains, he now employs many people from Eastern Europe. "But we need infrastructure. We already have 1,200 apartments for our employees, and we are building another 600 or 800 new ones."
In order to accommodate applicants, Europa-Park now relies on flexible working time models. As the Handelsblatt reports, employees can choose from over 70 models. In addition, wage costs have recently risen by around 20 percent, according to Mack. "Thankfully, we are still a long way from our competitors in Paris or even in the USA in terms of admission prices." Although there is still room for manoeuvre, he is reluctant to exhaust it. "I want to keep the park attractive for families when it comes to pricing – although I would never compromise on quality and perfect service."
Employees at Europa-Park benefit from many benefits
As Mack points out, employees at Europa-Park benefit from a number of benefits. As an example, he cites benefits such as free visits to Rulantica or the cinema, lower accommodation rates in the Europa-Park hotels and company restaurants with healthy cuisine. In addition, Europa-Park has improved public transport, so that employees can quickly get to Strasbourg, Offenburg, Freiburg and the Black Forest. Mack also lists "great apartments" for the employees as well as the opportunity to use a festival site for their own celebrations as advantages.
"We are also an attractive employer for young people," says Mack. "The combination of university and practical training in particular is very much in demand for us." When it comes to work-life balance, the Europa-Park boss calls for a rethink: "For those who don't enjoy working, their work-life balance is of course an issue. But if you enjoy your work, you don't know where your work starts and your free time begins."