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.”

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.

The purpose of the Women Mentoring Program is to strengthen and diversify the region’s human capital through assisting female leaders to succeed and proceed in their careers for senior leadership responsibilities.

The pilot program was launched in September starting from China. Thirty female managers were selected to participate in the program as mentees. This first group of mentees is mainly composed of local Chinese employees. They are either of high potential or managers assuming a critical position in our organization.

At the same time, we have 11 senior leaders to mentor the selected female managers. Mentors should generally be two levels above the mentees. The mentors for the Women Mentoring Program are mainly HAP Excom members. The matching principle is mainly to reflect diversity of cross functional and cross business units.

The women mentoring program will last for 6-18 months depending upon the aggreement between the mentor and the mentee.

An initial introduction session was organized with each mentor-mentee group to equip both sides with the required documents and methodologies to kick off the program.

Some follow up actions will also be taken from HR side along the mentoring journey to ensure the end success of the program. e.g. periodical evaluation, mentee sharing session and mentor sharing session etc.

The Women Mentoring Program will be rolled out to a wider audience once the first batch of the program is well established and well received.

The elderly are the fastest growing age group in Europe, which will lead to an increase demand of nursing care. At the same time does the extension of working life and increasing numbers of women working lead to a decline of informal caretakers. An out-patient care is often being favored, but the lack of compatibility of career and care is often associated with various stresses for the employees and follow-up costs for the organizations. Loss of skilled workers, loss of productivity and quality of job performance are just a few examples of possible consequences caused by that.

These findings were also underlined by the research center EXPERTISE with their study “Operating Costs and Lack of Compatibility of Care and Career”. The study showed that this incompatibility costs the German economy about 19 billion euros per year. This means a total of 14,000 euros on average per person employed with nursing care duties. The predominant presenteeism culture in German organizations is causing half of the occurred costs. Although, employees are physical present at work, time pressure and stress lead to not fully efficient workers. A total performance loss of 33% could be observed. In contrast to that, part-time employees have still 93 % of their productivity. Due to the double burden a full-time worker additionally has 7.1 sickness days per year.

Companies have to face this problem and find solutions. “A major key is to openly address the topic and provide a contact and information center in the organization,” recommends Prof. Dr. Dr. Helmut Schneider, author of the study done by EXPERTISE. In most cases the care situation suddenly occurred and couldn’t be planed in advanced. Thus, the affected employees had little opportunity to adjust their time management. This time conflict hast to be solved together for finding a suitable solution.

Thus, the range of Henkel’s Social Services is also aimed at employees who have relatives requiring care. Prior to the assumption that a care-and duty-relieved employee can focus on the original work, the Social Services provides help in arranging care situations or supports employees in finding suitable care accommodations. The “Elder Care” program also offers the opportunity for affected employees to join a circle of experience. The exchange about the challenges that bring the care of relatives – very often over a long course of time – provides extra support for the affected employees.

The German Executive Association ULA is the political voice of all managers in Germany. It represents their interests in labor, fiscal, social and educational policy towards the government and parliament, both in Berlin and in Brussels.

“In their leadership role, our members want to contribute to take advantage of a living diversity. A diverse management provides a competitive advantage: It can better lead mixed teams, faster identify new markets as well as diverse customer needs and correspond to the demand,“ said Dr. Bruckmann after signing the Charter in Berlin.

Böhmer welcomed the joining of the Association. For her it is a signal to the equality of the sexes in professional life: “Forward-thinking companies recognize that diversity management contributes significantly to the company’s success. It has been scientifically proven that mixed teams achieve better results. This is a challenge for managers. In response to this, it is very gratifying that the German Leadership Association with its accession to the Diversity Charter declares its commitment to promoting diversity in leadership positions”.

The German “Diversity Charter” is one of the largest networks of companies and institutions in Germany. The initiative, under the patronage of Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, is committed to the appreciation of diversity and inclusion in the corporate culture. To date, over 1,100 companies and institutions with more than 5.5 million employees in Germany signed the Charter. Henkel is one of the founding partners of the Public Private Partnership structure that ensures the continuation of this company’s initiative.  

Additionally, Henkel France just recently has signed the French Diversity Charter. Thus, Henkel has signed the German, French and also Spanish Charter version until today.

With the rapid technological change the spatial binding to the workplace does not longer exist. Due to smartphones and laptops, work is not only possible anytime, anywhere but also omnipresent, even during leisure time. 24/7, every day of a week twenty-four hours availability  - mobility distinguishes the modern worker. Probably more a curse than a blessing as the study of the WHO shows.

Furthermore, the (in-)compatibility of family and career is one of the biggest stress factors in working life. Many are not able to withstand this double burden any longer. Burnout, exhaustion syndrome, adjustment disorder, depression – the WHO declared job-related stress as one of the biggest threats of the 21st Century. But unfortunately, these diseases are usually still referred to a lack of resilience.

This is the status quo. But how can women and men prevent themselves to get mentally ill? “You have to sign self-agreements and listen to your own biorhythm are important aspects to prevent stress disorders”, says Hans-Peter Unger, Chief Physician of the department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Clinic Aklpios in Hamburg. Seven tips for stress release are published by the Gezeitenhaus of the Clinic Bonn. And personal coach Roland Kopp-Wichmann provides three praxis tips: exhale, focus, and smile. You are smiling? There you go!

Henkel gives the topic of work-life-balance and burnout prevention also high priority. Henkels occupational health management, in cooperation with the social services department, offers in the framework of the “Mental Health” initiative a wide range of burnout prevention measures: from personal advice, health campaigns and intranet information, to workshops and trainings. Additionally, having role models exemplify a better separation of work and leisure help creating a better work-life-balance.

And lately, even Henkel’s CEO Kasper Rorsted refuses to be permanently available. “On Saturday morning, I have one last look at my BlackBerry and then I put it away for the rest of the weekend, take care of my children and do not read any emails”, said Kasper Rorsted during an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. Between Christmas and New Year, he has ordered a break among the board members: sending mails only in emergency cases. This also applies to all employees. “Just because someone somewhere is bored and wants to show activity, I do not have to read any emails”, he stated.

The importance of an efficient diversity management and the economic success related with it was additionally highlighted by a new study conducted by McKinsey & Company: “Why diverse Organizations achieve more” (“Warum diverse Unternehmen mehr leisten”).

The boards’ composition, the return on equity (ROE), and the EBIT-Marge of 180 companies were compared to analyze the impact of diversity on the organizational performance. The results clearly showed that companies with highly diverse boards have a better ROE and EBIT-Marge. Between 2008 and 2010 they could reach 53% more ROE and had a 14% higher EBIT-Marge than companies with less diverse boards. As a matter of course the economic success is influenced by a variety of factors and can not only be attributed to diversity. But the study could at least proof a significant correlation between diversity in the companies’ top management and their performance.

McKinsey identified three aspects which can explain the proven correlation. All highly diverse companies showed a clear performance focus in their recruitment processes. Considering this aspect and not only career and social related background of potential candidates can lead beyond a better performance to more diversity. Furthermore, organizations who take changing life situation into consideration create the required space for maximum performance of diverse employees. For example parents, who need to reconcile career and family, need flexible working models and can only have a carefree working time if they are supported by the organization. Finally, highly diverse companies are able to better react on a shift of the market as they have specialized diverse knowledge they can rely on.

Beyond the correlation with a company’s performance, diversity can also reduce the upcoming skills shortage by 50%. As the study of the “Bundesagentur für Arbeit” shows, senior, female, and international employees are the key to overcome the problem based on the demographic change in the next decades in Germany. By better using the potential of employees who are 55 years and older could reduce the missing of qualified workers by 22%. 17% reduction could be gained by focusing more female employees and another 15% with the immigration of international workers.

The results of the studies showed that there are five main courses of actions for the top management to gain a higher level of diversity. First of all, the topic must be part of the company’s main business objectives. A clear commitment of the top management of a company is the basis for the success of all following activities. Secondly, in the recruitment process the importance of diversity must be omnipresent. The appreciation of this aspect as a benefit could lead to different and better recruitment decisions. Furthermore, the abolishment of barriers is another influence factor for a higher diversity. Flexible working models or parking slots for handicapped workers are just two aspects which can create a working base for diverse employees. Moreover, a neutral system for the employee’s rating and promotion ensures that all have the same chance for personal development – only performance and not ethnical background, gender or culture should be taken into consideration. Finally, setting a signal through lighthouse projects can show the full support of the company’s top management with diversity and could lead to more successful projects.

In 2007, Henkel started its global Diversity & Inclusion initiative by consciously taking the above mentioned aspects into account. Thus, Henkel’s CEO, Kasper Rorsted, proclaimed Diversity & Inclusion as one of the strategic priorities for Henkel. Additionally, the recruiting and developing process was reviewed and modified and further flexible working conditions were introduced. Meanwhile, diversity at Henkel became part of our daily business.

The network provides companies and organizations a platform for the topic diversity and practical support for the implementation of diversity management. The regularly synergy workshops are organized in cooperation with different companies and aim to share as well as exchange new developments in the diversity field and to provide a framework for knowledge and experiences.

Now, on October 12 and 13, 2011, the ninth synergy workshop took place in Stuttgart hosted by the EnBW AG. The topic: “Mixed-age Teams and Generational Change – New Opportunities through Diversity Management”.

Dr. Petra Köppel, founder of the network “Synergie durch Vielfalt” and Dr. Bernhard Beck, board member of the EnBW AG, welcomed the attendees to discuss the challenges of mixed-age teams and generational change in business. In the subsequent panel discussion, Dr. Bernhard Beck, Professor Sven Voelpel of the Jacobs University Bremen, and Detlef Hollmann of the Bertelsmann Foundation shared their views on “The Obsession with Youth versus Seniority”.

The next day, Dr. Petra Köppel addressed in her speech “Diversity, Generations and Leadership” the issue that organizations not only have to face the shortage of skilled workers but also difficulties between generations that are becoming more noticeable. Those occurring problems are still rather ignored than discussed. But facing the demographic change it is time for change otherwise companies will fall into the cost trap.  

As the Demography Report 2011 of the European Commission highlights the age structure in the EU is becoming older. This development is based on increasing life expectancy as well as low fertility level in the past decades in European countries. The results let foresee a continuity of the ageing process in the future. In January 2010, the median age of the European population was 40.9 years. Over the next 50 years the median of population age will reach 47.9 and the proportion of over 65 years old people will increase from 17.4% to 30%.

To address these demographic trends, Henkel has teamed up with the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen in an early stage of this discussion. Together, we have developed the so called “Demography Radar,” with which we are able to simulate the age structure of our global workforce, under certain conditions. Based on this information we can take early personnel policies in order to better meet the challenges of demographic developments.

For example, it is increasingly important that young people benefit from the experience and knowledge of older employees. Therefore, we have established different mentoring schemes that focus on cross generational exchange and additional knowledge transfer systems. These systems ensure that skilled knowledge remain in the company. In addition, we offer our employees comprehensive models for health maintenance. These offers include health check-ups, a healthy lifestyle consultancy and support in the transition from active professional life in retirement.

Lately, the Catalyst conducted a new study concerning the myth of the “ideal worker” and if adopting the behavior of this “ideal worker” would be the solution for women to overcome the still existing gender gap!

But the study clearly showed that there is no one-solution-fits-all approach that women can adopt to advance their career. Among the studied high potentials the Catalyst could observe that even if women are using the same career advancement strategies as their male counterparts, the gender gap between them and their male colleagues is still emerging.

However, there are particular actions that pay off more than others as the study could proof. Greater career satisfaction as well as greater compensation growth was identified if women proactively made their achievements visible. Furthermore, among the 3,345 high potentials an opposed result concerning the influence of leaving the organization on the compensation growth could be recorded. While male “leavers” have a higher compensation than those men staying with their first employee, for women it is more beneficial to stay where they have already proven what their work is worth.

One newsworthy best practice for this result is Virginia Rometty. She recently was named the next chief executive of IBM. In this ear of frequent job-hopping and layoffs, Rometty stayed up 30 years at the same company and finally made it to the top. She is the first woman to hold that job in the company’s 100-year history. As Rometty’s career shows climbing the career ladder within a single company can lead to more success because women can thereby prove themselves and develop sponsors who can help to proceed in their careers.

That loyalty can certainly pay off, Kathrin Menges, the youngest female board member of Henkel also proved. She began her meteoric career in 1999 at Henkel and is another example of how Henkel is developing the next generation of leaders from within the company.

You can read the complete Catalyst study here:

The Myth of the Ideal Worker: Does Doing All The Right Things Really Get Women Ahead?