On November 29, 2011 Henkel’s first female board member, Kathrin Menges, talked about her recipe for success in front of 140 female Henkel managers in Düsseldorf.
Posts Tagged ‘Career’
International Ambassadors
Changing Role of Men and Women
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 by Lena Rumjanceva
Several women in top management, female networking group “Women in Leadership”, WoMen’s Networking Day at Henkel’s headquarters in Düsseldorf… All of these are evidence that women have top priority at Henkel.
We live in a constantly changing world. In the past the role of men and women were considerably separated from each other. Women took the domination in the family, their major roles were looking after the children and the slave doing housework. They were always believed to be weaker than men; they were not allowed to study and have a job. Men earned money and in this way maintained their family. Their role was appreciated in larger measure.
As a matter of fact the situation has changed. In the 21st century the sharp difference between the roles of genders seem to disappear or wear off at least. The principle of suffragette or feminist movements was that women are victimized, subordinated against men in any field of the life. They wanted equality at home, at work, in politics so in any field of their life?
At this point in time not only the roles but also the different features of genders have changed.
Women can be discriminated at the workplace neither. If a woman applicant is suitable for a job, she is by law entitled to have it. Because of this fact there are more and more families in which it is the woman who earns more money. Wives build a career, maintain their family financially.
Is it normal? Can men of our world take over the responsibilities and tasks which were original attributed to women? Stay home with the baby, get the maternity benefit, bring up the children, and do the housework? Meanwhile wives drive their company car, tear with their briefcase, make telephone calls all day long, do businesses and get home to their family late afternoon.
Can women do their best at their workplace and still have energy for men and children as well? And is it good for the children that it is the ‘stronger gender’ who brings them up?
To answer these questions let’s see one of the numerous example at Henkel CEE:
What is your position at Henkel?
I am a MC2B manager, Excom member, having country responsibilities for a functional area.
Big responsibility, you have a lot of work to do, I guess.
It’s true that I’m really busy, have to travel a lot, so have pretty little time for my family.
How can you combine family and work? Do you have children?
I have a 6 years old boy. He was 1 years old when I came back from maternity leave and at that time we had to take a decision with my husband about the future share of roles within the family. I was in higher position and had higher income, so we decided that the best for us and for our child was that we changed the traditional roles.
So how does the job-sharing look like in your family?
My husband stays at home, cooks, does the housework, looks after our son. Meanwhile I guarantee the stable financial background for the family.
And how can you do your’s share at home?
I spend as much time with my family as I can – but this is not too much. We always plan the weekly program together, I tell them when I have to travel or have to stay in the office till late evening during the week. I always spend one afternoon in the week with my son. This gives a bit of freedom to my husband as well. When I promise something to my son I definitely keep it. And he knows it well.How are your weekends?
Very intensive. We organize different programs together, I play a lot with my son and I largely do my share in housework as well.Does this model work?
Yes it does. My son is used to it. This is the natural status for him. My husband does not seem to suffer at all. We really have a balanced – I can also say – happy family life.Thank you for the interview. I wish you good luck for you in your family life and at Henkel as well.
This is an example from real life at Henkel. Dear readers! What is your opinion about such family models?
Diversity & Inclusion
Dream Team instead of Quota: Why companies cannot afford to do without modern Diversity & Inclusion concepts. Dreamteam statt Quote- Warum Firmen heute nicht mehr an einem modernen Diversity Management vorbeikommen.
Friday, May 13th, 2011 by Anke Meier
Dreamteam statt Quote- Warum Firmen heute nicht mehr an einem modernen Diversity Management vorbeikommen.
Es wird die These aufgestellt, dass die gegenwärtige Diskussion um eine Frauenquote für verschiedene Führungsebenen nicht weit genug greift: Nur umfassende Vielfalt von Mitarbeitern in allen Ausprägungen (Alter, Geschlecht, Nationalität, Ausbildung, sexuelle Ausrichtung, private Lebensumstände, Religion, etc) ermöglicht es, als Wunscharbeitgeber wahrgenommen zu werden, die passenden Mitarbeiter zu finden und diese auch langfristig zu binden.
Ein wesentliches Problem bei der Einführung von Diversity & Inclusion ist das mangelnde Bewusstsein der Führungskräfte dafür. Es gibt bei der Einstellung neuer Mitarbeiter das Phänomen des „Self-Cloning“, welches echte Vielfalt verhindert. Während man früher immer diejenigen Mitarbeiter bevorzugt hat, bei denen man ein gutes „Bauchgefühl“ hatte und sich somit sicher fühlte, sollte heutzutage eher das Gefühl der Unsicherheit ein Parameter sein, um mehr Vielfalt anzustreben. Dies natürlich nur unter der Bedingung, dass die Qualifikationskriterien voll erfüllt sind. Vielfalt auf Kosten der Qualität bringt keinen Nutzen. In diesem Punkt ist es wichtig, die Prozesse im Unternehmen kritisch zu beleuchten. So ist es zum Beispiel wichtig, dass Entscheidungen zur Einstellung oder Beförderung von Mitarbeitern von einem möglichst vielfältig besetzten Gremium getroffen werden, um self-cloning so weit wie möglich zu vermeiden.
Ein anderes wichtiges Element für mehr Vielfalt ist die Unternehmenskultur: Obwohl viele Firmen umfassende Angebote zur Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf haben, ist deren Nutzung häufig gering, oder diese Angebote sind implizit für Frauen mit Kindern gedacht. Andere Arbeitnehmergruppen befürchten berufliche Nachteile, wenn sie diese Angebote in Anspruch nehmen. So ist in vielen Firmen der Anteil von Männern mit Teilzeit sehr gering, obwohl diese genauso familiäre Verpflichtung haben und diesen auch gerne nachkommen würden. Hier gilt es , mit umfangreicher interner und externe Kommunikation und vor allem durch Vorbilder, einen Kulturwandel herbeizuführen. Die nachfolgenden Generationen von Mitarbeitern, die sogenannte Generation Y, fordert solche Rahmenbedingungen und will sie auch nutzen. Darauf sollten Firmen sich rechtzeitig einstellen; vor allem müssen auch die Mitarbeiter berücksichtigt werden, die ihre Karrieren noch im Rahmen der klassischen Aufgabenteilung zwischen Mann und Frau gemacht haben. Die impliziten Widerstände können sehr stark sein und einen echten Kulturwandel verhindern.
Durch diese und andere Maßnahmen können Firmen den Talentpool für sich gewinnen und die Mitarbeiter länger bei sich halten. Die Studie rechnet Einsparungen von rd. 10.000 Euro pro Mitarbeiter in dessen gesamten Lebenszyklus vor.
Dream Team instead of Quota: Why companies cannot afford to do without modern Diversity & Inclusion concepts.
It is said, that the actual discussion around a women´s quota in management positions does not release the full potential of Diversity: only a comprehensive definition of Diversity, including Gender, Age, Nationality, sexual orientation, Education, Religion and much more), helps to become the “employer of choice” , to attract the best employees and to retain them long-term.
One essential problem in realizing true Diversity & Inclusion is the unconscious bias of managers, leading to the phenomena of “self-cloning”, when hiring new employees. In former times it was good to hire those people, when we felt comfortable with them. Nowadays we should come out of our comfort zone and hire those, where we do not feel so comfortable, of course only, when the required qualification criteria are fully met. Diversity on cost of quality is no choice. However, this concept requires having a critical look on our processes inside the company. It is important for example, that hiring or promotion decisions are made by a true diverse committee to avoid self-cloning as far as possible.
Another important measure to benefit from Diversity is the company culture. Even though a lot of companies offer family friendly arrangements, their usage is low, or these offers are targeted implicitly at women with children. This excludes all other employees, who might fear disadvantages in their careers when asking for these offers too. The share of men working part-time is very low in companies. But these men are often fathers too and would like to fulfill their share of family work as well. To achieve this cultural change, internal and external communication is essential and most importantly role models. The future generations of employees, the so-called Generation Y, wants these offers and uses them. But it is important too, to look at those employees, who made their careers in more traditional sharing of family work between men and women. Their resistance can make it very hard to change the culture.
Companies, who take these and other measures, have a better chance to use the talent pool and retain their employees longer. The study shows savings of 10.000 Euro per employee during its life cycle within a company.
Best Practices
WILL – CAN – MAY Women pursue a professional career ? / Wollen, können und dürfen Frauen führen?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011 by Anke Meier
Even though a lot of companies have a proven track record of being family friendly, and despite numerous programms to promote female carreers, women still lack adequate participation in top management ranks, compared to their overall participation in the working place or their share in university graduates.
A recent study of the network “Synergy durch Vielfalt (synergy through diversity)” shows that programs to foster female careers will be not effective, if they do not follow an integrated approach combining Motivation (WILL) – Qualification (CAN) and Company Culture (MAY).
The “WILL” decribes the motivation of women to pursue a career in a male dominated environment. The “CAN” describes the professional qualification of women, including soft factors like self-marketing and assertiveness. “MAY” deals with the cultural environment in a company, which is maybe exclusive and establishes the so-called “glass ceiling”, hindering women to climb up the ladder.
Effective promotion of women in the workingplace starts with an analysis of the actual situation: On one hand, demographic data, like share of women in management positions, gender promotion statistics, results of assessments, etc. are being compiled and analyzed. Is there an evident or hidden discrimination for example of pregnant women, part time employees or fathers, who take paternity leave ? On the other hand, the actual company culture will be looked at with respect to the acceptance of part-time work, flexible work options (time, location) or presentism vs. performance. The results of such an analysis provides ideas about hidden bias in an organization, but at the same time shows the unleashed potential.
However, many companies do not like to carry out such an analysis, as real cultural change is not wished or feared, as it always carries some frictions. Thus, the unrestricted committment of the Management Board for such a task is necessary. Otherwise, promoting female careers ends up in the “usual” measures, like agreements on flexible working hours or locations; child care; or the establishment of employee networks.
These measures usually overlook one important factor in effective promotion of female careers: it´s the male factor ! Extensive programs for women, maybe even quotas lead to restistance and the fear of men losing this game. More and more fathers do not want to be only “celebrity dads” who see their kids on the weekend or read the good-night story to them. They want to actively participate in seeing their children grow and thus require a good work-life balance as women do.
And finally: only women and men together can achieve the necessary cultural changes in a company, be overcoming unconscious bias and strive to have equality in chances, an no quotas.
What do you think ? Is it time for action for both men and women ? [DE]
Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Business
Third WoMen’s Networking Day at Henkel / Dritter WoMen’s Networking Day bei Henkel
Thursday, April 7th, 2011 by Astrid BostenOn April 5, 2011 Henkel’s female networking group “Women in Leadership” invited to their third WoMen’s Networking Day at Henkel’s headquarters in Düsseldorf. Special about this year’s event was that for the first time our male leaders were invited to attend the event too. Thus the motto for the invitation addressed to our female leaders was ”Ladies’ choice – Bring your boss”.
More than 220 participants attended the Networking Day, among them a good proportion of men. Colleagues at different Henkel locations around the world additionally had the opportunity to join the WoMen’s Networking Day via live stream.
Kathrin Menges, Global Head of Human Resources, gave the first introductory speech about Gender Diversity @ Henkel. This speech was followed by a “Walk around Womenomics” – a speech given by the bestseller author Avivah Wittenberg-Cox. Avivah already was our guest speaker at our last year’s event and left us with the homework to start the dialogue with men. Asking Avivah, what our school grade was for achieving to bring such a good share of men, she answered “definitely an A”… Good to hear!
A panel discussion on “I did it my way – Role Models are telling there individual success story” with seven Henkel leaders (men and women) followed next. The panel talked about individual success stories, milestones in their lives and decision making processes.
A premier highlight and innovation at the same time was our Henkel twitterwall – an offer that gave the audience the opportunity to actively participate in the panel discussions by tweeting their questions, comments and arguments to a public wall. Thereby the diversity of minds, thoughts and perspectives were actively included into the ongoing discussion.
The panel discussion was followed by a presentation of our new Global Diversity & Inclusion Director, Markus Dinslacken, who introduced the consultancy offer of our Global Diversity & Inclusion department that is meant to enhance Diversity within the different departments at Henkel.
After a short break the participants were invited to join diverse workshops in which topics such as “Recruitment & Assessment Processes”, “Networking & Support”, “Flexible Working Opportunities” or “Reconciling Career & Family” were discussed.
The final item on the agenda was a panel discussion on the subject of “Women’s Quota – Necessity or Constraint”. Claudia Nemat, Managing Partner and Director for the High Tech Sector of McKinsey gave the introductory by presenting the key findings of McKinsey’s “Women Matter” studies.
The panelist for the quota discussion were Henkel’s CEO Kasper Rorsted, our Global Head of Human Ressources, Kathrin Menges and Bruno Piacenza, Board Member at Henkel and responsible for the Laundry- and Homecare business unit. Additionally we were happy to welcome two external guests: Regine Stachelhaus, who is member of the board of eon and Claudia Nemat. Their unanimously belief was: No necessity for quota but a huge necessity for change!
For this discussion again the twitterwall served as third party moderation by and for the audience.
After a half day of information and interaction the third WoMen’s Networking Day ended with an informal get-together. All participants were satisfied with the agenda and – even more important – the gender mix. [DE] 
(more…)
Diversity & Inclusion
Having children – yes or no? /Kinder kriegen – ja oder nein?
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 by Astrid BostenMen don’t want to have children – that’s a fact?! Really? No, mistaken!
When looking at the results of a survey of 1000 childless men and women, which was carried out by forsa on behalf of the “Eltern” magazin, it becomes clear that quite the opposite is true. Thus 70 percent of the young men claim that they want to have children compared to 61 % of women. So do men even think more positive about family planning than women?
Although the way of life with having a family still attracts young German people between twenty and thirty years they often postpone having children. First of all they want to prove themselves within their jobs and want to be well-funded. Furthermore, often there is simply the right partner for having children missing.
By that, having children more and more becomes a “project” – the majority of the people make their decision rationally instead of deciding on the emotional level. There are many young people who fear jeopardizing their career – especially young women.
After three years of parent’s money that was introduced to encourage young couples to have children and to start a baby boom this measure did not turn out to be successful so far. But what has to be changed in Germany to increase the birth rate again? It is obvious: Politics and economy have to create framework conditions on which can be relied on for longer than just one legislative period. Above all there have to be more flexible working opportunities which help to reconcile family life and career, and which makes it easier for both – men and women – to shape their career. This would make their decision of having children considerably easier. [DE]
Women in Business
Is it all just symbolic politics? / Alles symbolische Politik?
Friday, March 4th, 2011 by Astrid BostenAs compared to international standards German DAX companies only show a minor share of women in top positions. Thus, there were intensive public discussions if this low female quota could be judged as discrimination of women. There can be registered only slow changes concerning the efforts of the companies to improve the situation.
The number of employed women in West Germany has increased about 20 percent since 1980, and in East Germany the number of employed women is even higher. In comparison to men there are a higher percentage of women who graduate from school and university.
However, women select a completely different professional path than men do. A typical female career is shaped by multi-annual breaks and part-time employment because most women want to care for their children themselves in the next few years after they were born. The majority of the mothers would like to work but they prefer averagely a 27-hour workweek instead of a full-time employment.
Whereas the role of the housewife does not attract many of the young women anymore 18 percent of them prefer a combination of full-time employment and motherhood, 13 percent of them prefer a full-time employment and childlessness, and 59 percent of the young mothers would like to combine motherhood with a part-time employment. This hints at the widely spread German attitude, above all at the West German attitude, that women who carve out their careers are neglecting their children. The West German model suggests, in comparison to East Germany or France, the reconciliation of family life and work, as well as task sharing, whereby men should concentrate on working and women on caring for the family.
Within the heated debate on the female quota this cultural character, shaped by role models, is neglected. Furthermore the West German people have, compared to East German and French people, a completely different attitude towards external childcare service. In East Germany all-day care of children in a day care center or at school is appreciated by 60 percent of the parents, whereas in West Germany only 24 percent of the parents advocate this.
Often it is complained about the care facilities in Germany compared to international standards because they are said to be inadequate. Is this the inevitably result of the deeply rooted attitude, that external child care succumbs parental child care, and that external child care can even be detrimental? Does the West German population even want to support the reconciliation of family life and work or do the people actually want to continue task sharing?
State and companies are expected to extend the care infrastructure, to co-ordinate kindergarten and school hours with working hours, to organize more flexible working times, and to extend the offer of part-time jobs.
In respect of the numerous challenges which must be coped with to improve family- and work-life for women the discussion on a female quota seems to be superficial and symbolic politics than a serious dispute on the real problems. This is also mirrored in the mainstream opinion because the majority of the population can’t do anything with this debate. Most people are of the opinion that leading positions should be filled with regard to qualification and performance than to a quota.
To keep the equality of women and men the people rather concentrate on the question if there is the chance of shaping the career for women in female professions and if there are chances of good compensation for women. [DE]
International Ambassadors
A Call For More Women in the Boardroom [UK]
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 by Diane Humphrey
Current statistics show that women make up only 12.2% of directors of FTSE 100 companies, and only 7.3% of FTSE 250 companies. No wonder therefore that the UK government has decided to take action.
In September 2010 Lord Davies of Abersoch the UK’s former trade minister and Standard Chartered Chief was commissioned by the UK government to carry out a review into the lack of women in boardrooms.
The report is expected to set out a number of measures for companies to take in order to reach the target. The message is clear; businesses which have diverse boardrooms are more empowered to serve diverse markets. Boardroom diversity is no longer an option but a critical strategy for business to remain competitive and successful.
International Ambassadors
Generation Future / Generation Zukunft
Monday, January 17th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Generation Future: This is the headline of a Handelsblatt series that started last week. Therein the newspaper introduces future DAX 30 CEOs – or at least these persons who could become future CEOs. Nowadays they are waiting for their chances in the second and third leadership level.
Headhunters and board members identified the agents of the future who are characterized by the following personal attributes: They are 35 – 50 years old, are experienced strategic manager, took over operative responsibility as well, are international experienced, often have a MBA or doctor’s degree beside their first academic level, speak different languages and are perfectly cross-linked. But the most important thing for a happy Diversity manager is: they are more often female and non-German.
The fact that the future CEO generation is announced from own ranks is another important change: US American companies like Procter & Gamble already do so for decades.
And so did Henkel last year: The last two board member successors were two experienced long term Henkel employees: Jan-Dirk Auris, who is now responsible for the Adhesives Technology business unit and Bruno Piacenza, who took over responsibility for the laundry and homecare chapter. Both are in the fourties and Bruno is Italian. And Dr. Simone Bagel-Trah the chair of Henkel’s Shareholders’ Committee could not be a better role model for our women in leadership positions…
So let’s wait who the Handelsblatt identified to be Henkel’s future CEO… [DE]
