In a bid to attract staff, German companies are offering more perks such as long holidays, shorter hours, flexible shifts and sabbaticals, even though employees here already work the fewest hours in the developed world, reports Reuters. State-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn is one of the companies that are offering their employees more flexibility. “In Germany, the topic of the demographic shift is a big problem,” Sigrid Heudorf, head of employment conditions at Deutsche Bahn, said. “We have a big challenge of attracting employees and making them loyal to us. We have to think about what employees want.” Deutsche Telekom has given their workers extra days off in lieu of an earlier agreed two-hour reduction in the work week to 36 hours. The IG Metall union which represents 3.9 million workers, agreed a deal to allow workers with caring responsibilities to cut their workweek to 28 hours for up to two years. Meanwhile, survey data from ManpowerGroup showed 51% of employers are struggling to hire employees and data from the IAB Labour office showed that vacancies in Germany surged by 128,000 in 2017 to reach 1.18 million in the fourth quarter.