Virginia Rometty is new Chief Executive of IBM. Since 1st of January she took over her new responsibilities and therewith, is the first female CEO of one of the largest technology companies in the world. This example is a rarity – not just for Corporate America. Currently there are only 12 female CEOs/Presidents in the Fortune 500.
Posts Tagged ‘gender diversity’
Women in Business
Zu mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen verpflichtet
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Am Montag, dem 17. Oktober 2011, haben die Personalvorstände der 30 Dax-Unternehmen bei einer gemeinsamen Konferenz in Berlin mit den Bundesministern Schröder (Familie), von der Leyen (Arbeit) und Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Justiz) eine Selbstverpflichtung zur weiteren Erhöhung des Anteils von Frauen in Führungspositionen abgegeben und erläutert, welche konkreten Ziele sie sich dazu gesetzt haben. Auch Henkel war dabei mit Vorstandsmitglied Kathrin Menges vertreten. Sie erläutert in diesem Interview die konkreten Ziele und Maßnahmen von Henkel.
Frage: Frau Menges, heute haben die Personalvorstände der 30 DAX-Unternehmen in Berlin konkrete Ziele für mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen vorgestellt. Die Unternehmen verpflichten sich dazu, den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen in den nächsten Jahren deutlich zu erhöhen und bekennen sich zur Chancengleichheit von Frauen und Männern. Henkel hat die Selbstverpflichtung auch unterzeichnet. Warum?
Kathrin Menges: Im Rahmen des Diversity Managements, also der Förderung der Vielfalt im Unternehmen, konzentrieren wir uns bei Henkel vor allem auf die Bereiche Geschlecht, Nationalität und Alter. Für uns hat die Erhöhung des Anteils von Frauen in Führungspositionen schon seit langem eine hohe Priorität. Hier haben wir in den vergangenen Jahren große Fortschritte gemacht. Den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen – bei uns sind das alle Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter im außertariflichen Bereich – konnten wir seit 2005 jährlich um rund einen Prozentpunkt auf knapp 30 Prozent erhöhen. Insofern war es für uns nur konsequent, diese Initiative zu unterstützen. Gemeinsam setzen wir auf die freiwillige Selbstverpflichtung als den richtigen und nachhaltigen Weg. In Zukunft wollen wir unsere Anstrengungen bei der Förderung von Frauen in Führungspositionen sogar noch ausbauen. Unser Ziel ist es, auf Konzernebene die jährliche Zuwachsrate zu erhöhen: von einem Prozentpunkt auf durchschnittlich bis zu zwei Prozentpunkte.
Frage: Sie verpflichten sich dazu, den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen zu erhöhen, vermeiden aber gleichzeitig die Festlegung auf eine feste Zielgröße. Wie passt das zusammen?
Kathrin Menges: Wir setzen uns seit langem dafür ein, den Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen zu erhöhen. Wir nehmen schon heute unter den DAX-Unternehmen eine führende Stellung ein und wollen uns von dieser Position aus weiter verbessern. Unsere Ziele sind ambitioniert und konkret, wie ich an dem folgenden Beispiel erläutern kann: Ausgehend von einem aktuellen Anteil von Frauen in Führungspositionen von 30 Prozent und einem jährlichen Zuwachs von durchschnittlich 1,5 Prozentpunkten würden wir in sieben Jahren, also im Jahr 2018, bei rund 40 Prozent liegen. Auch damit wären wir unter den DAX-Unternehmen in der Spitzengruppe. Uns geht es aber nicht um eine fixe Quote, sondern darum, den Weg zu eröffnen für mehr Frauen in Top-Positionen. Das kann und darf aber keine starre Quote sein. Henkel will bei jeder Stellenbesetzung den am besten geeigneten Kandidaten finden. Bei der Auswahlentscheidung zählen allein Kompetenz und Eignung – unabhängig von Geschlecht, Alter oder Nationalität.
Frage: Mit welchen konkreten Maßnahmen wollen Sie diese Ziele erreichen?
Kathrin Menges: Unsere Zielvorgaben sind für unterschiedliche Bereiche im Unternehmen differenziert und umfassen sowohl quantitative als auch qualitative Ziele. Wir haben gemeinsam mit unserem Diversity Management und allen Unternehmensbereichen und Funktionen drei wesentliche Handlungsfelder identifiziert. Es geht dabei erstens um den Anteil weiblicher Kandidaten bei Neueinstellungen und Beförderungen, zweitens um moderne Arbeitszeitmodelle, die Frauen und Familien eine höhere Flexibilität ermöglichen sollen, und drittens um besondere Karriereentwicklungspläne, die den Erfordernissen von Frauen Rechnung tragen.
Zum Beispiel achten wir bei Beförderungen oder der Besetzung von Führungspositionen darauf, dass unter den letzten drei Kandidaten mindestens eine Frau ist. Außerdem werden wir die Angebote zur besseren Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Karriere weiter ausbauen. Dazu gehört auch die Verbesserung der Betreuungssituation von Kindern, wenn dies durch die staatlichen Einrichtungen nicht oder nur unzureichend gewährleistet wird. Des Weiteren wollen wir weg von einer Präsenzkultur, die gerade Frauen und Familien vor Herausforderungen stellt.
Women in Business
A strong commitment to diversity
Monday, August 8th, 2011 by Griselda SerraPatricia Castejón is the first woman leading the Adhesive Technologies business sector in Henkel Ibérica.
Since July 1 Patricia Castejón is the new U-A General Manager for Spain and Portugal. She is also the chairwoman of the U-A Council Ibérica. Patricia took this position after David Rodriguez was promoted to Regional Manager AC Western Europe. Her promotion is proof of a strong commitment to diversity as Patricia is the first woman ever to lead a business division in the history of Henkel Ibérica.
Now, with Patricia joining the Iberian top management team its members are a balanced mix of gender (five men and three women), nationalities (Spanish, Italian and Argentinian), and age (from 39 to 60). With this team Henkel Ibérica will be stronger in the markets as it assures having different opinions and perspective on board so that the best possible decisions can be made.
International Ambassadors
Henkel’s Diversity Days in Rocky Hill
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 by Angela CurleyEnd of June Diversity Days were held in several Henkel locations in the US. Here are some impressions from Rocky Hill:
Tana Utley, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President at Caterpillar Inc., gave the keynote address at Rocky Hill’s Diversity Awareness Day. In her role at Caterpillar, which is one of Henkel’s largest industrial customers, Tana is responsible for the Product Development and Global Technology Division. She is responsible for a division of over 4000 engineers globally.
Ms. Utley graduated at Bradley University with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1986, and joined Caterpillar after graduation. In 2006 Ms. Utley was offered the opportunity to pursue an advanced executive leadership degree and was accepted into MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She received her Master of Science in Management from MIT in 2007
Ms Utley is a member of the Executive Advisory Council for the Bradley University College of Engineering and Technology, the Board of Directors of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the Board of Directors of Peoria NEXT – an economic development organization dedicated to growing and commercializing new technologies. She is also a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers, and serves as the Caterpillar representative to the Diesel Technology Forum.
Diversity is critical for Caterpillar’s success, Ms Utley said, because the company needs local managers in countries such as China and India who understand their local markets and local cultures. More than 55 percent of Caterpillar’s 104,000 employees work outside the United States. Ms Utley discussed her experiences managing a global team comprised of people of different nationalities, languages and professional experiences. “It means I often need to double-communicate, because their first language isn’t English. But is it worth it? Absolutely – there’s no substitute for their perspective and experiences,” she said.
Ms Utley discussed some of the benefits of inclusion, such as innovative thinking, diverse ideas, and multi-faceted decision making. She also cited studies showing that companies with women on their boards have better financial results than those without.
Following her keynote address, Ms Utley participated in a panel discussion on “Personal and Professional Growth through International Assignments.” Panelists included Joe DeBiase, Sr. Vice President of the General Industry (AG) business, Patricia Cullen, Director of Product Development, and Steve Essick, Finance and Commercial Director for U-A North America, who all spoke about their experiences working for Henkel internationally. The panel was moderated by Mike Shannahan, Director of Industrial Marketing.
Earlier in the day, Ms Utley had lunch with members of the Women’s Professional Network in Rocky Hill. She discussed her career progression at Caterpillar and her approach to managing global teams.
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
New ILO Report on Equality at Work
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 by Anke Meier
During financially difficult times, anti-discriminating policies had lower priority, thus giving space to new forms of discrimination, while the old challenges remained in place.
The types of discrimination show a much diversified picture:
- Gender equality has been advanced tremendously in the last decades. However, the gender pay gap still exists. Family-friendly policies have been implemented to a high degree, but maternity and pregnancy are still grounds for discrimination.
- Sexual harassment affects both men and women. For men in particular when young, gay or members of ethnic minorities. Young women, being financially dependent, single or divorced women and female migrants are most vulnerable.
- Racial discrimination is evident in terms of access to the labor market, in particular for people of African and Asia descent, indigenous people, ethnic minorities and most of all women of these groups.
- In the European Union, age discrimination becomes a topic in the labor market.
- In a limited number of industrialized countries, a new type of discrimination shows up and is targeted at the lifestyle of people, especially to smoking and obesity.
The ILO calls on governments to bring anti-discrimination policies back into their priority lists and provide resources , to sign the most important resolutions
- The Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No.100) and
- Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958, No. 111
From 183 ILO member states, only 168, resp. 169 have signed these conventions.
What do you think? Did you feel discrimination rise during the financial crisis?
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
Doing the Chores… / Das bisschen Haushalt…
Thursday, April 21st, 2011 by Astrid BostenMen are responsible for assuring their family’s livelihood and women are responsible for hearth and home – of course without being paid for the work! That has been the typical role allocation which had persisted for centuries and which has not been changed until the 19th century in consequence of the female emancipation.
Nowadays it is common for women to work and to assure their own livelihood or the livelihood of their family. Women have become independent and are capable to master their lives without depending on men. In recent 15 years the importance of women’s income has increased and the traditional design of the male bread-earner crumbles. By this time about 18 percent of the German women are bread-earners. This can be referred to their situation as a single mother or to their partners who are not able to fulfil the role of the main earner. According to studies women on the one hand do not have equal rights as a man – have a look at the Gender Pay Gap study – but they are headed in the right direction and are supported by economy and politics.
Now there is the question coming up who is – within the age of emancipation – responsible for the unpaid tasks such as housework, child education, and elder care?
A survey carried out by the “Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)” shows that an average citizen works about 3.5 hours every day without being paid, whereas Germany exceeds this average with 3.6 working hours. Women still do the majority of the housework – no matter if they are employed or not. In comparison to German men, German women spend roughly 100 additional minutes for the daily housework, child education or care. Among the typical men jobs are still repairs or activities of craftsmen and there are few men who clean the house, cook or educate the children. In relation to voluntary work men and women are with 3 percent on the same level.
According to OECD the high share of women who does unpaid work can be referred to the higher percentage of women who – in contrast to the majority of men – work part-time instead of working full-time or is unemployed. Those countries which have a higher share of women in full-time employment also have a higher share of men doing unpaid work. Thus, the following can be recorded: The higher the share of employed women is, the higher is the balance of the total-working hours of men and women, paid as well as unpaid.
However, this is easier said than done: Women still have to face disadvantage on the job market because woman’s jobs are underpaid and there are slight chances for women to advance in those positions that are highly compensated. Due to that fact households in which women are the main earners often can be found in the sector of low income. And this is where the circle is completed: A survey carried out by the “Science Centre Berlin for Social Research” shows that wealthy women more often draw on household help and therefore must spend less time for unpaid housework than “poorer” women have to. Thus, the majority of the women have to do the housework on their own. Now, one could conclude what ought to be changed in order to decrease the unpaid working hours for women and to ensure an equality of total working hours for men and women: Firstly the childcare possibilities ought to be enhanced in order to give women the chance of working full-time – or the men ought to do the childcare. Secondly the career possibilities for women ought to be enhanced in order to give women the chance of having responsible and well paid jobs – and thirdly the salaries for men and women ought to be adjusted.
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…)
International Ambassadors
Henkel awarded at World Diversity Leadership Summit Europe / Henkel beim „World Diversity Leadership Summit Europe“ ausgezeichnet
Friday, March 25th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten
Henkel has been recognized with the European Diversity Leadership Honour Award in the Multicultural Working Environment category, the jury being particularly impressed by the company’s commitment and transparency in the diversity domain. With employees from 110 nations, of which 50 are represented in its Düsseldorf headquarters alone, Henkel is one of the most international companies in Germany.
The awards were presented at the World Diversity Leadership Summit Europe, held for its second year in Vienna. “Diversity is an important component in our corporate culture. Our aim is to create a working environment in which, through the formation of heterogeneous teams, the economic, creative and innovative potential of our people are further extended, contributing ultimately to the achievement of even better results,” commented Anke Meier, Head of Global Diversity & Inclusion. “For Henkel, diversity is a key success factor.”
