founder history

ATRACT’s History

2018

On the one hand, there is the daily feedback from the companies in which the founders Karin Lindner and Josef Kirchmair work as business consultants and developers. On the other hand, there are daily reports in the media on the acute shortage of employees in tourism. Influenced by this, the idea for a new project “Employees for Tourism” is born.

2019

Start of project development via IFUE (Institut für Unternehmensentwicklung, Mag. Karin M. Lindner; http://www.ifue.net/). The name ATRACT is born as an acronym and project name. At the same time the company orientation is defined more precisely:

AT (Austria)

R (Recruiting)

A (Training)

C (Commitment)

T (Training)

November 2019

The project name ATRACT is confirmed in the brand development process. The legal form of cooperative is chosen and registered in the company register. From now on the three founding members Mag. Karin M. Kirchmair-Lindner, Alexander Prachensky and Josef Kirchmair form the board of ATRACT eG and implement the agendas with Managing Director Mag. Karin M. Kirchmair-Lindner.

Dezember 2019

Only one month after the foundation the first ATRACT training camp takes place. 12 participants from southern Italy are prepared for their new jobs at Hotel Handl in Schönberg.

2020

From January to March, the first recruiting trips take place: Apulia (Southern Italy), Mallorca, Barcelona (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal) and Slovakia are visited to initiate first cooperations with tourism schools and employment offices. Already two days after the return of the ATRACT team the first lock down starts.

 

Despite the lock down, ATRACT continues unperturbed and receives 206 applications for winter 2020. The trainings now take place virtually. Crew scouts are established in key countries for recruiting.

 

The company is growing as well. The first two employees are hired at ATRACT headquarters in Mils (Tyrol) to handle the ever-growing workload.

2021

In the summer of 2021, the government – after a long 1.5 years – opens the gates and borders to tourism. Thanks to good preparation, ATRACT is able to arrange 2 training camps in the summer and place about 40 participants with member businesses. More businesses take notice of ATRACT’s successful concept. The number of members triples within a short time.

July 2021 marks the launch of the new ATRACT fairness program and the first “coaching on the job” to promote lasting working relationships between employees and member companies.

2 additional training camps with a total of 25 participants can take place despite the ongoing lock down. The camp participants are successfully placed immediately afterwards.

2022

In the middle of the year the Austrian hotel and tourism bank awards the project “NRF – Reorientation Recruiting Professionals” as a lighthouse project. The implementation of the NRF project starts in July 2022. With it comes a rapid development and expansion of our network within Austria and the EU: new cooperations with tourism and technical schools are made and new programs for the support of interns and professionals are developed. The EU-wide expansion of both network and recruiting partners is proceeding rapidly. As a part of the NRF program and in order to strengthen the member companies, the quality standards are concretized and adapted. A new seal of approval for “fairness in the workplace” gets developed.

Other areas are worked on as well and new models are developed: Recruiting 4.0 – find – train – place is being further expanded. The number of employees at ATRACT headquarters grows to 5 by the end of 2022. Crew scouts, coaches, trainer network and freelancer network are expanded continuously.

In the year 2022 a total of 5 training camps can be held and nearly 100 participants are placed. By the end of 2022 the number of member companies grows rapidly again

2023

ATRACT is also drawing attention abroad: ATRACT is invited to give presentations at foreign congresses as a showcase. Through numerous trips abroad and cooperation appointments, ATRACT also gains further recognition on the European labor market and in Europe-wide tourism and technical schools.

For the seal of approval a fairness auditor is hired for quality assurance.  Training, coaching and services offered by ATRACT are further expanded.

At the end of the year, we were able to record great successes. On the one hand, we had 3,250 applicants, on the other hand, our ATRACT team at headquarters has grown to 10 people, our ATRACT pool now comprises 350 crew members and the ATRACT co-operative has 65 members.

2024

This year we are celebrating a great event, because our ATRACT founder Karin M. Kirchmair-Lindner was invited as an expert at the ITB Berlin in March.