A 4-day week, flexible working hours, dogs welcome and “lots of girl power!”: That’s the approximate wording of the job advertisement of an agency in Vienna. You should send your CV with your application, but without stating your gender, date of birth, place of birth and without a photo. “Diversity, inclusion and all these things, we take it very seriously and that’s why you don’t have to send this information. We wanted to get to know the people behind it and feel the passion at work. How someone looks is not important to us,” explains Michaela Arturo-Heumann, co-owner of the agency “gamz n’ roses” in Vienna.
application in a different way
A model that is already standard in the USA, adds owner Gamze Ertug: “I know that from myself. In the past, I was often not invited to job interviews just because of my name.” The 35-year-old, together with the 25- year-old Rosa Mätzler and 51-year-old Michaela Arturo-Heumann founded their own agency. Three generations who want to turn the world of work upside down: “We have all had different experiences. I still knew 60-hour all-in contracts that weren’t fun. Gamze has often struggled due to her immigrant background, and Rosa has not been taken seriously because of her youth. We don’t want any of that anymore. You don’t have to experience anything like that with us,” assures Arturo-Heumann.
corporate culture
The large number of applications confirms that the three women have struck a chord with their concept. There were around 55 in the first few days, says Ertug, “that’s a lot for such a small, young agency. And more than half of them were really great.”
Of course, one might now assume a stroke of luck. However, current figures from a survey by the hokify platform paint a clear picture: According to this, 85 percent of those surveyed would not submit an application if the corporate culture did not match their own canon of values.
Sell the job better
But that is exactly what often fails, as the two entrepreneurs know: “Something has to change in the job selling strategies. You have to communicate authentically – but that doesn’t happen with the job ads.” The agency was obviously able to score with credibility, but they also hit the mark with the offer of a 4-day week and flexible working hours: “Flexibility is the number one issue one. Nobody wants to be tied to a fixed place anymore. People want to do their jobs at their own pace and at the location of their choice,” Ertug is convinced. “It doesn’t matter how you do it. And if following two days you have already finished your weekly work and want to go swimming, then I wish you a nice time swimming.”
Flexible and independent of location
This is also confirmed by a current study by the career network LinkedIn: Employees who can work flexibly in terms of time and location are 2.6 times more satisfied and 2.1 times more willing to recommend their employer.
