Posts Tagged ‘family’
Best Practices
Career and Family – Not only a Women’s Matter
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 by Astrid Bosten
Diversity & Inclusion
Generation Y and the Workplace – Challenges and opportunities for Employers (2)/Generation Y und ihr Arbeitsplatz – Chance und Herausforderung für Arbeitgeber (2)
Friday, May 27th, 2011 by Anke Meier
We already introduced Gen Y in our first edition. Today we want to have a look on their preferences for their future workplace.
If it comes to choosing a company, Generation Y has the highest priority on Opportunities for learning, Quality of Life and Work Colleagues. If it comes to other generations, Quality of Life is as well important to the ones in the midst respectively towards the end of their careers (Baby Boomers) and Generation X. Interestingly, in this group, the cohort of 36-45 year olds (which usually make up the biggest group of decision makers in companies), have different preferences: Meaningful work, Compensation and Corporate Values are most important to them. So, no wonder, why measures for work-life balance are so difficult to implement and being fully accepted in companies?
Not very surprisingly are the answers to the preferred location of a company. Most of the generations prefer an urban or slightly urban location with good public or other infrastructure to reach the workplace. I think this goes hand-in-hand with the desire to a Quality of Life, thus not spending hours in commuting from one place to another.
More interesting are the answers if it comes to the means of transportation to reach the workplace: even though the car is the most common way to commute, walking and cycling are as well desired means to commute. This combines in my opinion two three aspect: going green, physical well being (combing the way to work with exercise) and the answer to the increasing cost of energy and petrol. However this differs regionally: in India and the US the car is the preferred vehicle, whereas in China public transport is on top of the list. So, if companies seek their location, they should bear in mind, that not only wide car spaces and public transport but as well a safe infrastructure for walking and cycling should be provided.
Last but not least; the way of working is very important to GenY but not only to them: more than 55% of all respondents expect flexible work patterns (compared to conventional patterns like 8-6, 9-5 or 7-3). But regionally, the desire for flexibility is higher in Europe and the US, than in India or China. Here, conventional patterns are highly valued.
And how should the office look like to promote creativity and productivity? For most employees, the people around and the atmosphere trigger creativity, whereas productivity is triggered by technology in the office. So, it seems to be a rather human desire to be welcomed and work in a good team supported by sufficient technology to be productive.
What is your dream workplace? Please share your thoughts with us…
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.
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…)
Women in Business
Powerwomen in Dialogue / Starke Frauen im Gespräch
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
The starting event of our internal women’s network at Henkel “Women in Leadership” (WiL) in 2011 was the high-light-event at the same time: the round-table discussion with Simone Bagel-Trah our chairwoman of the shareholder committee and of the supervisory board at Henkel.
So far, she is the first and only woman who is chairwoman of the supervisory board at a DAX-30-company. There were 120 women attending this event which was organized by the working group “communications” of the WiL. Anneliese Wilsch-Irrgang who is the leader of the department Regional R&D Emerging Markets (U-W) was the moderator of the event and she succeeded in having an open and amicable talk to Simone Bagel-Trah. One of the thematic priorities was e.g. the new models for flexible working hours, which are oriented towards today’s rhythm of life of women and men. The participants discussed different concepts which included different part-time working possibilities, too. In the course of the two hour event a lively discussion about mentoring-programs, training- and coaching-measures, flexible working hours, valuation systems as well as different management styles was rapidly emerging. “The participants were delighted with the open atmosphere of the discussion”, this was the impression of the organizers at the end of the event.
Exchange of experience for women
There are monthly meetings and different events which are organized by the network “Women in Leadership (WiL). Within these conferences several topics are discussed such as career management, skills, reconcilement of family and work, or models of flexible working hours. Thus, experiences can be changed and there is the opportunity of getting an insight in other business units and functions.
Women in Business
Family Circle / Im Kreise der Familie
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
Same procedure as every year… when Christmas approaches, usually the entire family gathers around the Christmas tree. Christmas time is the season to realize and reflect the importance of our families.
This has always been the same and will stay the same. The things that changed are the roles people play within their families. May be that dad is cooking the Christmas dinner, while grandfather is just arriving in time from work and mom is writing the last e-mails on her laptop. World upside-down? Not at all. This seems to be the modern way of life.
We wrote many posts about women, female careers, role models, politics and society. But the place where everything comes together as one is our family. If both parents are employed – a dual career couple – then things have to be organized.
In his latest post, Roland Kopp-Wichmann writes about the challenges families face when both parents work. In the end he poses one essential question to make a decision pro or con career: Let’s assume you look back to your life when you are 70 or 80 years old; what are the important things that endure a lifetime? And what are the things that lose importance?
This is the question I had to answer about eight years ago. What is really important in my life? My answer is a clear and definite one: my children and my family are the most important and ever lasting elements in my life! They give sense to my life. Nevertheless I don’t have the feeling that I have to make a decision but that I have to strive, I have to structure and I have to organize more – at least for the next few years.
A friend of mine once told me: “Astrid, you have to make a decision. You can’t have it all!” But I wasn’t convinced. Why do I have to make a decision? It all adds up in an equation if the constant and the variables are chosen right. The constant things in my life are my children and my family. Their well-being, joy and our quality time have priority. But my children as well have their constant things in life: school and nursery school. But the time we spend together is valuable time.
And then there are the variable elements in this equation: these are the hours of work and the place of work. It’s your leisure time and your recovery time. In fact this looks like that: I stand up at 5 a.m. in the morning to work for the first two hours from home. When my children wake up we spend our time until all of us have to go our ways. Not later than 9 a.m. I arrive in the office where I spend the next 6 – 7 hours. In the afternoon I pick up my girls and we spend the afternoon until they fall asleep. Depending on the amount of work I open my laptop once again in the evening.
This lifestyle does not just demand your own flexibility but a flexible employer as well and a line manager who supports you and who values the output of your work not the amount of hours you spend in the office. At Henkel there is the rule of “pay for performance”. Additionally to that the family oriented measures like two company owned nursery schools and trusted working hours gives the opportunity to integrate private and working life.
This is why I would pose Roland Kopp-Wichmann’s question in a slightly different way: Not pro or contra a career decision but pro or contra an employer and environmental circumstances.
For your and your family all the best und lots of quality hours at Christmas time! [DE]
Women in Business
„Too White, too German and too Male“ / „Zu weiß, zu deutsch, zu männlich“
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
“Too white, too German, too male” This was Siemens’ CEO Peter Loescher’s statement in 2007 when talking about the top management of German companies as the newspaper “Die Welt” reported lately. For him there was only one logical consequence: Diversity has to become an important topic of the strategic orientation of companies.
According to a recent study „Women Matter 2010. Women at the top of corporations: Making it happen” of McKinsey, Loescher was completely right with his statement. The authors of this study conclude that the advancement of diversity through top management and especially the CEO is the most important tool to advance female careers. However, usage of quotas or objectives holds the last place in this ranking.
In particular important is the middle field of this scale: It seems as leadership seminars especially for women as well as mentoring programs are important tools to bring women into leadership positions. Environment-related topics like flexible work or childcare however seem to be less important.
When we think about the interpretation of these results we come to an interesting conclusion: While the environment is an important factor, a competence problem seems to be the literal reason for the minor representation of women in leadership positions. To make it clear: Most of the women aren’t able to manage! Do you, dear readers, agree with that opinion? [DE]
Diversity & Inclusion
The ideal mother: successful, relaxed, caring and attractive / Die ideale Mutter: erfolgreich, relaxt, fürsorglich und attraktiv
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
Last week the study “Having babies in Germany” commissioned by Milupa was published. For this study about 1000 young women have been interviewed, amongst them mothers, pregnant women and also women without children.
Results showed that young women feel the pressure to cope with different roles: they want vocational success, being a loving and relaxed mother and at the same time attractive for men respectively their husbands. To cope with all these demands is nearly impossible and therefore young mothers are often troubled by a guilty conscience.
This also seems to be an important reason that more and more women decide against children. About 61 percent of the interviewees said, that children are valuable and that it’s the mothers’ role to advance them. According to the authors of the study the point in time to get children is going to be postponed more and more backwards because women are afraid that they can’t manage the challenges.
But also financial aspects are important for the decision for or against children: 58 percent of the interviewed women said, that children are a cost factor that one must be able to afford. Also women demanded better reintegration after maternity leave and more childcare opportunities.
Therefore we at Henkel introduced a maternity leave passport for pregnant women or men who are leaving the enterprise to take care of their children. Beside important information on legislation, dates and deadlines the passport contains meeting suggestions with mentors or line managers of their former department. By that women and men as well as the superiors stay in contact and can discuss on the job return early in the beginning of this process.
Additionally we have two company workplace nursery schools for about 115 children from six months to six years with attractive opening hours: from 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. This time zone enables to realize a full time engagement as well as part time solutions.
The last support we can give to women and men in maternity leave is to join the parent’s network we founded in summer this year. This network is meant to exchange experiences, to improve work-life-opportunities as well as to support each other and organize some family oriented events.
However, although these measures are valuable and important, on social aspect has to be improved as well: the social pressure on perfect moms in Germany.
Do you have children? What are your experiences? What should your personal employer of choice offer in terms of work-life-balance opportunities? [DE]
In der vergangenen Woche erschien die von Milupa in Auftrag gegebene Studie „Kinderkriegen in Deutschland“ . Im Rahmen dieser Studie wurden insgesamt 1000 junge Frauen befragt, darunter Mütter, Schwangere und auch Frauen, die (noch) keine Kinder haben.
Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen dabei, dass sich junge Frauen einem hohen Druck ausgesetzt sehen, mehreren Rollen gleichzeitig gerecht zu werden: Die Frauen wünschen sich beruflichen Erfolg, wollen eine gelassene und liebende Mutter sein, dabei jedoch auch körperlich attraktiv. Diesen Ansprüchen allen gleichzeitig gerecht zu werden ist in der Realität jedoch äußerst schwer und so plagen viele Mütter vor allem ein schlechtes Gewissen und eine innere Zerrissenheit.
Genau dies scheint ein wichtiger Grund dafür zu sein, dass sich immer mehr Frauen gegen Kinder entscheiden. So äußerten 61 Prozent, dass Kinder eine Kostbarkeit seien und es Aufgabe der Mütter sei, diese optimal zu fördern. Der ideale Zeitpunkt Kinder zu kriegen, werde daher aus purer Angst den gesellschaftlichen Ansprüchen nicht gerecht zu werden, immer weiter hinausgeschoben, so die Macher der Studie.
Jedoch spielen auch finanzielle Aspekte eine wichtige Rolle bei der Entscheidung für oder gegen Kinder: Etwa 58 Prozent der befragten Frauen äußerten, dass Kinder ein Kostenfaktor seien, den man sich erstmal leisten können müsse. Auch forderten die Frauen, dass Wiedereinstiegschancen nach der Babypause sowie die Ganztagesbetreuung von Kindern verbessert werden müssten.
Wir, bei Henkel, unterstützen daher werdende Mütter, oder Väter, die in Elternzeit gehen, mit dem so genannten Elternzeitpass. Dieser Pass beinhaltet mit viel Wissenswertem rund um die Elternzeit, Antragsfristen, Rechten und Pflichten auch eine lose Vorgabe in regelmäßigen Abständen Kontakt mit dem Unternehmen bzw. der Abteilung zu halten. So verliert man sich im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes nicht aus den Augen, bleibt im Geschehen und macht für die Abteilung den Wiedereinstieg planbar.
Die zwei betriebseigenen Kitas bieten zudem rund 115 Betreuungsplätze, schon für Kinder ab sechs Monaten. Auch die Öffnungszeiten bieten genug Freiraum, um seine Arbeit in Teil- oder Vollzeit nachgehen zu können.
Das im Sommer gegründete Elternnetzwerk eltern@henkel.com bietet allen Henkel-Eltern sich über Themen rund um die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf auszutauschen und natürlich gegenseitig zu unterstützen. Einzelne Arbeitsgruppen kümmern sich zudem um die konkrete Mitgestaltung eines familienfreundlichen Arbeitsplatzes.
Trotz dieser vielseitigen Maßnahmen bleibt jedoch die Wichtigkeit eines grundsätzlichen, gesellschaftlichen Problems bestehen: das Idealbild einer perfekten Mutter muss sich noch ändern.
Haben Sie Kinder und sind gleichzeitig berufstätig? Was sind Ihre Herausforderungen? Was wünschen Sie sich an Unterstützung von Ihrem Arbeitgeber?
Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Business
Are Women Leaving the Field? / Stell dir vor, es ist Karriere und keine geht hin
Thursday, November 4th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten
Some weeks ago the German newspaper „Stern“ released an article about women who were successful in their careers and in top leadership positions but then decided to leave their careers. To find answers for this phenomenon we found different reasons that obviously let to these decisions:
General conditions. The general conditions of a management career follows the 24/7 rule: 24 hours availability at seven days a week. And of course: Fulltime work is another requirement for managers in top positions and the higher you get the more you have to stand the political power games.
Men. Actually men are the builders of today’s working environment and conditions. They made the important decisions during the last millenniums and corporate cultures often are an effigy of the male managers’ attitudes.
Women. Like men, women’s motivation is also: self-fulfillment. They do like earning money and status symbols. But when it comes to the decision between a career under “male” conditions” and a family live”, women often choose the second one. Or they build their own careers with conditions they can determine and a work where motivation and self-fulfillment is in line.
In combination of these three conditions, the reason why women are leaving the field of male careers, is: Women don’t like general conditions made by men.
As much as the reasons might be right and comprehensible, one question raises: If women are leaving the field, who will be there to change the conditions?
