Best Practices « Henkel Diversity Blog

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Best Practices

10 tips for a good work-life-balance / 10 Tipps für eine gute Work-Life-Balance

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Burnouts have become a widespread problem in our society. In Germany about 10 to 15 million people suffer from burnout. Ambitious people with high requirements to themselves are particularly endangered. On his personality blog, Roland Kopp-Wichmann gives ten tips to improve a work-life-balance and thus prevent a burnout:

1. Make less telephone calls, write more e-mails instead.

2. Reduce your TV consumption.

3. Use the commuting time to relax and listen to an audio book or a CD.

4. Exercise.

5. Eat a balanced diet.

6. Listen to your body.

7. Take the time to reflect your own actions.

8. Learn how to delegate.

9. Go on vacations more often.

10. Spend more time in nature.

What are your tips for a good or better work-life-balance? [DE]

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Best Practices

Internship at Henkel/Praktikum bei Henkel

Monday, August 23rd, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

A day in intern lives: brewing coffee, going on errands and if you are lucky you may have the chance to have a glance at the jobs that are done in the department. This could be normal life for many interns in other enterprises. At Henkel reality looks totally different. Our interns are part of the team, actually before they arrive. The “intern-introductions” and “intern hand-outs” summarize the first practical tips and are sent to our interns before they have their first day.

Additionally there are lots of meeting points and interaction for and with our interns. Twice a week they have the opportunity to have lunch together, every week there is one intern table at different locations in Düsseldorf and once a month one Henkel youngster presents his department and job to our interns.

On our intranet platform “InterNactive” they have the chance for interaction and the exchange of real life questions: Where is the best event location in Düsseldorf? Is there a flat or a flat share? What ever…

The Double-In-Day again gives the opportunity to change roles and intern jobs for one day. Thereby our interns get the chance to get a broader perspective of different Business Units and departments.

By the way: We – the Global Diversity & Inclusion team – offer an intern job, too: https://recruitment.henkel.com/jpapps/henkel_internship/jobs/jobview.jsp?requestno=RQ00011441&printview=true

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Best Practices

The Part-time Managers / Die Teilzeit-Manager

Thursday, August 19th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Is it possible to work part time and still have a career? Until now, the answer would was mostly No. A study conducted by the University Essen-Duisburg asked Human Resource Managers of large companies, whether a part-time career is possible. „No way“ was the most common answer.
However, some companies actually offer part-time management positions. They are often directed at talented employees, who are very valuable for the company.
The part-time positions comply with the wishes of many employees. A survey showed that 40 percent of all managers would like to work part-time. Companies that offer flexible working hours seem more attractive to university graduates and the job market.
But part-time management positions also have disadvantages. The employees who are working full-time might complain about additional work. This can lead to frustration in a team. Also, the manager’s authority could be undermined. Generally, it depends on the position and tasks of an individual employee, whether a part-time working model is possible or not.
Are part-time careers possible ? Please let us know what you think about it. [DE]
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Best Practices

Success-Story Diversity Management / Erfolgsgeschichte Diversity Management

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

The online-magazine Wirtschaftwoche recently dedicated an article to a new study conducted by the network „Synergy by Diversity“. It focuses on Diversity Management and the advancements that were made within the past few years.

Four years ago, only 42 percent of all German companies had a Diversity Management in place while 77 percent of all European countries had already established a Diversity Management. Today, 16 out of the DAX 30 companies have a Diversity Management, for example Henkel (since 2007), Deutsche Telekom (since 2004), Lufthansa (since 2001) or Siemens (since 2008). The implementation strategy of a Diversity Management is different in each company. Some companies entrusted a Human Resources manager with Diversity tasks. Other companies appointed global Diversity Managers who directly report to the CEO. This is also the Henkel approach where the Head of Global Diversity Management, Anke Meier and her team are responsible for the strategy and implemention of the Diversity concept. She is supported by a worldwide Diversity Ambassador network, consisting of fourteen international ambassadors.

Most Diversity activities focus on gender-equality and demography. At Henkel, we also focus on supporting women in management-positions as well but additionally we defined seven diversity dimension that we focus on. Diversity is a common understanding of all Henkel employees and an integral part of our Corporate Culture. By the way: Interesting to me was the fact that 14 of 16 German Diversity managers are women… good or bad? [DE]

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Best Practices, Diversity & Inclusion

New form of apprenticeship helps young parents / Neue Ausbildungsform hilft jungen Eltern

Thursday, July 29th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

The Deutsche Welle in Bonn was one of the first companies to introduce a new form of apprenticeships: the part-time apprenticeship for young parents. A part-time apprenticeship allows young parents to finish an apprenticeship and still take care of their children. The part-time apprentices work less hours per week. However, it is still possible for them to finish the apprenticeship within the regular time.
The part-time apprenticeship is being supported by the Modus project, an initiative of the chamber of commerce and industry Bonn/Rhein-Sieg. Each year the project helps 12 – 16 young parents to find an apprenticeship at a family-friendly company.
The project recently won the second prize of the “Hidden Movers Award 2010”, a nation-wide award presented by Deloitte.
The demand for part-time apprenticeships is high and the apprentices are highly motivated. But only few companies offer this type of apprenticeship. The Network for part-time Apprenticeships lists initiatives in Germany that help young parents to find an apprenticeship. [DE]
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Best Practices

Are men “better” changemanager?/Sind Männer die “besseren” Changemanager?

Thursday, July 29th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Are men „better“ changemanager for affirmative action programs for women?… This question send my google alert from the Xing group “Success via Diversity”.

This question already led to some discussions within our team. Is gender important to transmit diversity messages? Or is it more about the character and personality to ensure the success of diversity projects?

What do you think?

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Best Practices

The potential of exit-interviews / Das Potenzial von Exit-Interviews

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Exit-Interviews – In Germany a rather new tool. They are conducted with employees who resigned from their job. Althoug it’s a pretty new tool, about two third of German companies already use exit-interviews. They are a good source of information about the every day work life in enterprises. Furthermore, the company signalizes its employees: we are listening to you! The evaluated interviews can help to improve working conditions and retain employees.

However, a Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper article describes some simple rules for a successful exit-interview. Both parties should remain objective. To secure objectivity, exit-interviews are generally conducted by third parties, for example human resources staff and not by the (former) line-manager.

To guarantee the comparability of exit-interviews, they should be standardized for example by questionnaires.

An exit-interview should take place close to the employees last day. In this way he or she doesn’t have to worry about making negative statements that might affect their reference. Keeping these few rules in mind, an exit-interview can be a good finalization of a professional relationship.

For Henkel exit-interviews are also a good way to identify areas of weakness and improvement. They are part of an open feedback and an inclusion culture within Henkel. [DE]

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Best Practices

Diversity in Apprenticeship offers / Vielfalt in der Ausbildung

Friday, June 18th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

One of the major aspects in doing a diversity management is to reflect our markets in our workforce. That means not to have the appropriate number of men and women, the right cultural mix, but also to have a profile of society in terms of education.

Therefore Henkel has a project in Place “Hauptschüler welcome” that invites pupils who attend a lower secondary school, to participate in workshops which help them to identify their educational goals.

There are other companies in Düsseldorf who offer similar programs. The newspaper Rheinische Post just published three good examples. Beside Henkel the retail chain Real, a Metro Group division, offered selected apprentices to attend the annual shareholders’ meeting.

But not only big multinational companies offer activities for their apprentices. A small café in Düsseldorf-Kaisersweth organized an exchange with France.

The different examples show: seeing the big picture keeps the apprenticeship exciting and opens new horizons for the kids. [DE]

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Best Practices

Education pays off! / Bildung lohnt sich!

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

The future looks bright for university graduates. The lack of talents is already obvious. Nowadays well educated men and women are highly demanded. The magazine Stern published a list of the most wanted university degrees. The winners are engineers, doctors, mathematicians and physicists. Also economists and computer scientists are highly demanded. Social scientists, architects and Germanists on the other hand may have problems in getting a job. Even if many young professionals don’t find a job right after they graduated, a good education is almost a job guarantee. [DE]