The result: Jobless immigrants are much rarer than even a few years ago. But still they more often leave school without graduating than other citizens. Although more and more immigrants are integrated in society, there are some serious differences to the native Germans remaining. 

As the studies showed this is already apparent in early childhood education in daycare centers, which builds the fundament for good German language skills. Only 12.2 percent of immigrant families bring their under three year old child into childcare facilities (compared to 27.7 percent of other citizens). After three years this gap shrinks significantly (around 86 percent compared to 95 percent).

Also concerning school education a positive development could be observed. In 2005, 5.5 percent migrants didn’t have a high school degree. Compared to this result the percentage decreased to 4.4 in 2010. But this development is much slower than the government promised. Within the “National Integration Plan” the government assured to reduce school dropouts by 50 percent and adjust the performance by 2012 among immigrants. Looking at the results–five years after this promise–the goal seems to be unattainable. “I think we can not succeed. We need more speed”, Böhmer also noticed.

The report is primarily based on the micro-census data – a sort of small census, which annually collects data of one percent of the population. Since 2005, the specific topic of “migration background” was integrated into the survey. Therewith, all foreign nationals and those immigrated are included.

Due to the demographic change new target groups get the industry’s growing attention. For Kraft Foods the acquisition of talents in terms of succession planning will be the focus. But as Christian Reuver, Director of Human Resources, emphasized in the interview with the Lebensmittel Zeitung for Kraft talents are not only young employees. They also want to focus the target group 50plus.

Kathrin Menges, first female board member and Head of Human Ressources at Henkel, sees also international challenges to the personnel department as more than half of employees are working in regions where the Henkel brand is much less known than in Germany. “Externally, we recruit much more international than even a few years ago,” says Menges during the interview with the Lebensmittel Zeitung. Especially among managers companies are looking for candidates with international experiences who should be able to negotiate both, linguistically and culturally with managers from other countries.

Talking about demographic change, HR professionals are convinced that the intense current debate on the promotion of women in leadership positions will result in practical consequences in the upcoming year. Globus-Manager Sabine Ment expects first regulations at the political level. Although she is against a quota, she supports the overall goal to have more women in top positions. In her opinion this topic is limited on the private level as long as women and men do not feel equally responsible for parenting and family income.

The recent review of the Federal Labor Agency in Germany showed an increase by 2.8 points up to 47.2 percent employment rate. This increase of senior employees can be explained to some extent with the growing share of population of elderly and the ascending propensity to work. In return, a decrease of the numbers of pensioners could be observed. 

Concerning the debate about introducing retirement at the age of 67 these numbers are playing an important role, as critics say that there are not enough employment opportunities for older people. While leaders of the Grünen reject such a shift of retirement age, SPD General Secretary Andrea Nahles recently announced a draft law that schedules to postpone the reform until employment rate reaches 50 percent among the 60 to 65 year olds. 

Last summer 27.5 percent of people approaching pensionable age were employed. It seems that there is still a long way to go to reach the 50 percent. But with an increase of 3.4 points compared to last year employees over the age of 60 recorded the highest growth than all other age groups. Labor market observers attribute this development mainly due to the end of the early retirement policy. It had set quite strong incentives to go into early retirement at the expense of tax payers. The German pension insurance reported a rising retirement age since the end of the policy from 62.3 to 63.5 years.

The online bank ING Diba has already started to face the challenge of an aging society by including more elderly people into their business. For their initiative “Apprentice 50plus” they were just recently awarded with the German Diversity Award. With this program people over the age of 50 get the chance to complete an apprenticeship lasting several months. This follows not just the idea of integrating the whole diversity potential of people into the workplace but to qualify them for a new job and a permanent employment at ING Diba.

Five years ago the legislation on parental allowance and parental leave (Bundeselterngeld- und Elternzeitgesetz – BEEG) was introduced in Germany. Since then also at Henkel more and more fathers are taking the opportunity to devote themselves entirely to their children for a while. How do they experience this role change? What kind of reactions they experienced from their own families, friends, colleagues and superiors? All these topics were discussed during a round table hosted by Markus Dinslacken, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion and Social Progress. 

“Ensuring the reconcilability of family and career belongs to the self-understanding of Henkel,” explains Dinslacken the meeting’s occasion. “Why? Because we pay special attention to the greatest possible diversity within the workforce. Mothers and fathers might see some things differently than childless people – but it is precisely the different perspectives that capture the spirit of teamwork and innovation.”

Thanks to parental leave and flexible part-time employees are able to take care of their young children and thereby can easier reconcile both: family and career. But with the end of parental leave working couples have to face new challenges: daycare centers for children under three years are still scarce in Germany. But above all: day care centers usually close in the late afternoon. Many mothers and also some fathers have been working part time for years, so that they – usually in exchange – can bring their children to the kindergarten and pick them up again in time. “Fathers like me have to leave the office on two or three afternoons per week earlier than the others,” says one participant of the discussion group. “These are the days when I am responsible for the “Kita pickup service”, so that my wife can work longer. Probably many couples are in the same situation: after the children are sleeping we sneak into our home office and work for a few more hours. Sure it’s tiring. But currently there is no alternative and we are able to handle it somehow.”

Another father reported that especially his boss encouraged and supported him half a year after his daughter’s birth to stay at home for two month. “My boss has already grown up children – and, therefore, a natural understanding for my situation.”

Fathers on parental leave in Germany are still quite rare and therefore not an implicitness – at least not in public opinion. “This will probably still take a few years,” estimates Markus Dinslacken. “A lot also depends on the direct supervisor and the courage to try something new. The round table with the fathers has clearly shown that we are on the right track at Henkel, even if we still have to do a lot of convincing to meet our demand of a good balance between family and career.”

In Europe the boardrooms are a little more diverse in terms of Gender Diversity, but they differ not by much. For Tina Marron-Patridge, executive partner at IBM London, this is not a surprising fact. “Men are often looking for mirror images of themselves and that can make it harder for women.”

Henkel, IBM and Deutsche Telekom have set good examples in 2011 by appointing women to their boards. This change in culture is just what Viviane Reding, Vice President of the European Commission, would like to further develop throughout business. Her own mission is to see more women sitting in the boardroom around Europe. At the Women’s Forum in 2011 she said, “60 percent of graduates are female, but you don’t find them in the workplace later on. And you certainly don’t find them at the level they deserve.” In her opinion it should be in the interest of the companies to get those women promoted, to get them in and to get them work. “We see that women who are doing MBAs have achieved very strong MBAs with very good results. And later on, in the workplace, they are passed over by their male colleagues who have not done so well.” She wants to join forces at all levels. At the political level, of course, but also at the business level. The debate is not new and although the proportion of women in boardrooms is still quite low some changes can already been observed.

The British government has been keen to promote itself as a strong supporter of women in business. The Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently said that he wants to get rid of the “usual sort of rotating list of men patting each other’s backs and increasing the level of remuneration. I want to see more women in Britain’s boardrooms, which I think would have a thoroughly good influence”. An independent review by Lord Davies recommended that at least a quarter of the board members among UK listed companies in the FTSE 100 should be female. But the reality shows that only 21 out of 93 possible positions have been assigned with female candidates. The 30 Percent Club aims to change this fact. Their Goal: Improving diversity around the top table by getting 30 percent of the seats filled by women. But they do not want to force chairmen to this result via a quota. They want to motivate and encourage them to change their attitudes.

This is the approach Henkel has also chosen to increase the proportion of women in top leadership positions. Henkel’s holistic diversity management approach has three focus diversity dimensions: gender, age and internationality. In the center of all diversity initiatives and measures around the globe, however, Henkel puts the cultural aspect: the appreciation of the diversity.

Is there a kind of magic formula for a successful career for women? For Kathrin Menges this question is quickly answered: “I personally have always exercised my job with great enthusiasm and was fascinated by the various responsibilities and challenges,” she says. For her, each leeway was a major component as the stimulus of responsible positions is to be able to make a difference. Since October 2011, Kathrin Menges is Chief Human Resources Officer at Henkel – the first woman on the Board of Henkel ever. On behalf of the invitation of Henkel’s internal network “Women in Leadership” she talked in front of 140 female Henkel Managers about her way to the top, motivation, experiences, and of course her plans as Personnel Director. 

The women discussed openly, focused, and with humor about career strategies, opportunities, and flexible working patterns. A topic that is very important to Menges: “We judge our staff for their performance and the results and not based on their presence in the office, therefore, new ways can be found to improve the flexibility of work and time,” she appealed. Although telework can not be offered to every employee in any position, Kathrin Menges shares the opinion that good examples can be communicated to encourage imitation.

According to the research fathers between the age of 25 and 39 work about two hours longer per week than childless men. This even increases to five hours per week in the age group from 40 to 59 year-olds. In contrast to these findings a continuously decreasing number of hours per week can be observed from the age of forty by looking at men without children.

A possible explanation is the financial obligations fathers have to face concerning their families. “If mothers after the birth of a child reduce their employment many fathers try to catch up the lack of income by a longer working time”, says Dr. Martin Bujard from BiB. The traditional role allocation solidified with time: men became accustomed to spending more time in the office, and women became accustomed to look after the children. Thus, often men were successful at work, but incompetent in dealing with the children. This development is contrary to the wishes of most fathers. A good work-life balance and spending time with the family is not only a women’s issue anymore.

One best practice example for a country that at least offers the opportunity to men to take parental leave is Finland. Here, the gap between male and female employment rates is less than three percentage points, among the smallest in the world. Finland – as well as almost all rich countries – offers paid parental leave with a “mummy and daddy” quota system that can not be transferred between each other. The result: Four out of five Finnish new fathers take a month off.

But there is another interesting fact about the Finish example. The employment gap between women and men is not just three percent but the vast majority of Finnish women also have full-time jobs. The reason for that are the enlightened attitudes of Finland’s employers, excellent public child-care provision and generous family leave.

Nordic countries in general are famous for their affordable day-care centres with well-qualified staff. The day-care centres usually are open from 7-8am to 5-6pm and provide breakfast and lunch. School hours for older kids are similarly work-friendly, about the same as an adult working day, with a free lunch. Moreover, those schools produce sparkling results: Finland regularly comes near the top the OECD’s PISA rankings for educational achievement.

But even if the day-care situation is solved in a good way for the kids, the question for women remains whether work will actually pay. That depends not just on wages and child-care costs but also on a number of other factors such as tax policies and benefits. The OECD reckons that across its member countries the net average cost of child care after allowing for fees, cash benefits and tax concessions is 18% of the average wage, which makes children seem a bit of a luxury. Child-care arrangements are often a complicated patchwork quilt of paid help, family, friends and neighbors. In some countries, including Switzerland, Ireland and Britain, the combined effect of the cost of child care and the lack of tax concessions and benefits makes it unattractive for mothers of young children to work unless they are very well paid. If governments in such countries want to get more women into the labor force, they will need to ensure that good-quality child care is more widely available and more affordable, for example by making it tax-deductible.

To support women to early return to their jobs after maternity leave, Henkel already introduced its first nursery school in 1940. The second one followed in 2008. With this offer, the average parental leave time taken of Henkel employees in Holthausen has decreased to an average of about one year, with female managers even less than one year.

These claims are as legitimate as comprehensible. The technically support of this working style is no problem anymore: smart phones that receive e-mails, nationwide broadband and often wireless Internet, software that allows collaborating with colleagues without being in the same room. Experts are calling this Collaboration Technologies or Unified Communication.

Dorothee Ritz (43) is a member of the management board of Microsoft Germany and responsible for the newly created department for Advertising & Online including the online products MSN and Windows Live.

At Microsoft nobody counts the hours employers are spending in the office. There are a few key points in each division which have to be adhered. In Dorothee Ritz’s department for example all internal meetings are held on Mondays or Fridays. The rest of the week can be used for appointments with customers. During the rest of the time employees are allowed to work when and where ever they want. They just have to achieve their goals. At Microsoft, this is called “trusted working time”. Although it is not yet widely spread in Germany, Ritz thinks that “no employer defends the old culture of presence time” where long working-hours in the office equal hard-working.

In 2010 Kristina Schröder, Federal Ministry for Family Affairs in Germany, has launched an initiative together with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and nine large German companies (Allianz, BASF, Bayer, Microsoft etc.) to increase the proportion of women in boardrooms. The first results of the initiative demonstrated that especially change in the corporate culture is needed and a shift from presence time to performance orientation. The contrary is not only a commonly used practice, however, work councils are often afraid that this would lead to more pressure and injustice by measuring result instead of presence time.

Dorothee Ritz can not understand this concern, since it is this new work style that will end injustice. “It is not the idea that employees work more,” says Ritz. She likes to work on Sundays and sends e-mails to her team. But she has forbidden her employees to answer during weekend.

The employee representatives at Microsoft also support the flexible working model, as this leads to a higher identification with the company. “This also leads to more fun and motivation: I do not work only for time, rather for the success of the company,” says a worker’s council member of Microsoft Germany,  Andreas Pagel. Although unionists are often still skeptical, he thinks that realistically we are not able to avoid this working style any longer, as we live in a connected environment. In his opinion, the unions should start supporting this work style by ensuring that the risks would be executed through better educating employees and managers.

In Europe the high youth unemployment rate is a serious problem, too. In October 2011 more than five million people under 25 years didn’t have a job. Especially in the highly indebted countries the rates are worse, e.g. Spain (45.7 percent in 2011) or Greece (38.5 percent). By looking at todays well-trained, highly motivated, studied young adults applying for Hartz IV the Chinese way seems to be quite attractive. But this should not be an alternative.

Self-determination in the choice of education is an essential asset of a free society. Some might think that a too exotic choice of the study course could be the reason for unemployment. But it is the opinionated structure in the society and the organization that avert freethinker. A better integration of the creative potential of our youth into the labor process must be aimed. Our society and organizations are in need of a colorful togetherness. One of Europe greatest strength is its variety of cultural and intellectual developments. Nowadays, Diversity Management is the buzz word – this means using the social variety constructive. Many organizations have already realized the importance of an effective Diversity Management. What we need is more flexibility on both sides – employees and organizations. A trend already exists of managers being more open for social scientist or humanists. Thus, the boundaries have already been blurred. Universities should not be degraded to pure vicarious agents of Treasury.

Looking at China’s eliminating factors, the announced strategy would mean for the country a cancellation of e.g. theoretical physics and history. But isn’t theoretical physics an essential key to understand our world, and history to understand our presence?