Migration from rural areas to cities, the shortage of personnel, and declining economic strength: The increasing demand for professionals and specialists is presenting major challenges to more and more companies from the region. Given the current employment trend, in the medium and long term, it will be necessary to attract skilled workers from other regions of Germany to meet this region’s personnel requirements.  Süderelbe AG assists the region in its pursuit of these goals as part of its “besserhier” (“Better Here”) project for supporting the companies' employer branding and recruitment of professionals in the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. 

Launched in 2018 under the name “YOJO – Portal and Marketing for Professionals and Specialists for the Southern Metropolitan Region of Hamburg”, the project has been called “besserhier” since 2020. It is initially planned for two and a half years. The project aims to increase awareness across Germany of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region’s attractiveness as an economic area and to thereby counteract the lack of skilled workers.

In 2020, the administrative districts of Cuxhaven and Heidekreis joined the circle of partners involved in the predecessor project, which included the administrative districts of Stade, Harburg, Lüneburg and Lüchow-Dannenberg as well as the Lüneburg-Wolfsburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK). The project is supported within the framework of the Allianz für Fachkräfte Nordostniedersachsen (Alliance for Skilled Workers North-East Lower Saxony) and the Fachkräftebündnis Elbe-Weser (Skilled Workers Alliance Elbe-Weser) with Lower Saxony funds from the European Social Fund.  

As a project team of Süderelbe AG, we support small and medium-sized companies in their efforts to recruit skilled workers by:
– reaching out to professionals and specialists via online (social media, blogs, podcasts) and offline (job fairs, flyers, posters) activities 
– showcasing the administrative districts and local companies as attractive employers on the free career portal of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (www.yojo.de) as well as on social media
– assisting with the creation of company portraits and job advertisements
– shooting smartphone videos free of charge with entrepreneurs as well as skilled professionals and specialists who serve as ambassadors
– organising workshops, events and job fairs

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