More and more employers in Germany recognise benefits of a family-conscious staff policy. In the previous 12 months, over 320 companies, institutions and universities successfully carried out an audit or a reaudit. The official award ceremony took place in Berlin.
Faced with a skilled-labour shortage, enterprises ask themselves the following question: how can we support women better and which family-oriented services help them best to contribute their potential to the world of work? Also for men, measures will be required to allow them to take over more family-related tasks in addition to their professional duties.
The audit serves as a strategic management tool for employers to focus increasingly on compatibility of family and work.
’Some 60 % of families with small children think that making family and career compatible is the ideal model. However, only 14 % of parents manage to actually live this dream’, emphasised Manuela Schwesig, Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, during the certificate award ceremony. ’This is why family-conscious services are key, so that mothers and fathers can balance family and career.’
’Today's young, qualified professionals expect employers to consider their modern notions of partnership and family. Clever enterprises meet this challenge and ensure flexible models as well as a work environment that pays justice to these needs’, said Iris Gleicke, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy.
Flexibility and a company culture characterised by give and take also affect the late professional phase before retirement, as evidenced in an up-to-date survey by berufundfamilie gGmbH. In only a few years with the baby boom generation retiring, the employment market will be threatened by a loss of millions of employees. What can employers do? According to the survey, flexible working-time models are at the top of this generation's wish list. Only every 10th employee states that his or her company already provides sufficient transition models from one phase of life to the next.
Today, berufundfamilie gGmbH, established in 1998 by the non-profit Hertie Foundation, is regarded nationwide as an outstanding expert in compatibility of family and career. Its work is funded by the German government and by the European Social Fund.