HORNBACH Baumarkt AG

Hornbach launches “Bespoke Working Hours”

EQS-Media / 22.09.2022 / 11:06 CET/CEST Hornbach launches “Bespoke Working Hours” Around 11,000 employees at HORNBACH Baumarkt AG in Germany will be able to change their working hours with immediate effect and align these even more closely to their personal needs

Bornheim, September 22, 2022. It is basically the end of the rigidly structured working hours that have shaped the world of work for decades now. Starting in the next calendar year, employees at HORNBACH Baumarkt AG in Germany will be able to reduce, restructure, or increase their own working hours.

“Fixed working hours used to be dictated by machines, but now it is all about people. Our aim at HORNBACH is to attract and retain highly committed staff. To achieve this, we also have to create attractive conditions”, explains Jochen Braun, a member of the management at HORNBACH Baumarkt AG in Germany. “People’s individual circumstances vary so widely. Rigidly structured working hours hardly do justice to that. That is why we wish to enable our staff to optimally align their working conditions to their individual situations by flexibly agreeing ‘Bespoke Working Hours’”.

Reducing, restructuring, or increasing working hours as desired

The new model has five components. Three of these enable employees to reduce their working hours, for example by converting vacation pay or Christmas allowances into up to 20 additional days of vacation. Staff also have the option of working part time for limited or unlimited periods. If they wish, they can use their annual salary increase to gradually reduce the number of hours they work. A fourth component enables employees to restructure their working hours, for example by opting for a four-day week while still working full time at 37.5 hours a week. Finally, the fifth component enables employees to increase their working hours to up to 42.5 hours a week for a three, six, or nine-month period.