On March 15 and 16, 2024, the club met at the Hotel Le Méridien in Hamburg for its first congress. "The spearhead of the German roofing trade was here: ambitious, dynamically growing companies, many run by younger owners who are actively addressing most of the topics of the future and have a desire for further development in the industry," says Urs Nies, Managing Director of the Roofer's Club. "We were joined by high-caliber speakers from a wide variety of fields: Tanja May, deputy editor-in-chief of the BILD newspaper, impressed with deep insights into current media events, while Jan Fleischhauer, one of Germany's most contentious journalists, took a critical look at the entire German media landscape.
Newly elected Vice President of the ZVDH with inaugural visit
There were also numerous specialist presentations: The newly elected Vice President of the ZVDH, Jan Voges, visited the Roofer's Club and gave an outlook on his priorities for the coming months, which include vocational training, recruiting young talent and reducing bureaucracy. The well-known architect Martin Murphy from the Hamburg office Störmer Murphy and Partners presented a showcase of his work and exciting new construction topics, such as high-rise construction with wood (Roots project, Hamburg). Thorsten Moortz from handwerk.live advised the companies on digitalization and gave an overview of the new digital management tools and software solutions for the industry.
Big topic: shortage of skilled workers
In their presentation, Max Jünger and Luisa Schmitt from the fast-growing start-up Hammerjobs stated that there is currently a shortage of around 255,000 tradespeople in the market, but that this figure could soon rise to as many as 400,000 as the boomer generation gradually retires. As a solution, they presented new ways of recruiting skilled workers via social media and job platforms, which are currently still uncharted territory for many skilled trade companies, but can reach the many skilled tradespeople who are willing to change jobs, as according to Hammerjobs, only around 20% of employees are not willing to change jobs, while 80% can imagine changing jobs. For Urs Nies, the entire kick-off event was a complete success: "It was a strong start for us. The participants were enthusiastic: great speakers, super evening events and a unique team feeling, it was the right mix of community building and knowledge transfer with depth of content."
Urs Nies, Managing Director Roofer's Club and organizer of the German Roof Award, and Jan Voges, Vice President of the German Roofing Trade Association, are available for interviews.
