Get to work instead of short-time work

Shortly after Christmas, the first Nuremberg citizen was vaccinated against the Corona virus. Since then, over 100,000 Nurembergers have received at least one dose against the virus at the Vaccination Center in Exhibition Hall 3C. Because the expertise of the exhibition specialists is in demand for the organization of the vaccination center, NürnbergMesse specifically takes employees from short-time work and lends them to the city's vaccination center via the so-called "employee leasing" model.

Sonja Wernhammer is also doing her bit to ensure that the vaccinations in Nuremberg go ahead. The NürnbergMesse employee is actually a claims processing specialist in the "Service Operations & Security" department. But with the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, she went on short-time working, like around 60 per cent of the 500 employees at the Nuremberg site. When the city asked for assistance with the vaccination center, this break quickly came to an end for Sonja Wernhammer.

Since then, her new, important task has been the vaccine coordination. "I request the required vaccine from the government of Middle Franconia and distribute the doses allocated for Nuremberg to the various vaccination teams in nursing homes, vaccination centers and hospitals," Wernhammer reports about her work.

The rapid transition to the new field of work was not easy, she recalls: "At first it was a big challenge and I sometimes wondered in the evenings whether I could do it. But after a week, confidence set in. After all, it's all about organisation - and that's what we do every day at NürnbergMesse!" Sonja Wernhammer's experience must have been similar to that of the other members of the Vaccination Centre's organisational team, which is made up of colleagues from the Housing Office, the Building Regulations Office, the Public Space Service (SÖR), the Mayor's Office and the International Relations Office.

For Sonja Wernhammer, this is precisely the attraction of the new task: "It's a wonderful side effect that I get to know lots of new people and thus also expand my network. I exchange a lot of information with the head physicians of the clinics. And every now and then, vaccinators call to thank me for the good organization at the vaccination center."

For NürnbergMesse, the loan of the employee to the shareholder City of Nuremberg does not only mean a salary saving: "We are pleased that the expertise of our employees is in such demand. But when the exhibitions start again on site in autumn, we will need the full man and woman power again!", says Dr. Thomas Koch, Member of the Management Board. For Sonja Wernhammer, the exciting and instructive excursion into the healthcare sector comes to an end at the end of the year. "For me, this is currently the absolute win-win situation. But I am also already looking forward to my job at the exhibition company again. The 'NM' is and remains simply my big family!".