Posts Tagged ‘Managerin’

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?

Best Practices

Employees in times of demographic shifts (2) – Part-time workers / Mitarbeiter in Zeiten demographischen Wandels – Teilzeitarbeit

Monday, May 9th, 2011 by Anke Meier

A recently published study of McKinsey Germany: Wettbewerbsfaktor Fachkräfte – Strategien für Deutschlands Unternehmen  – reports that German companies will miss up to 5 million skilled employees.

 While better unleashing the potential of the generation 50+ workers contributes 1,2 million employees to close the gap, an additional number of 2.1 million employees could be generated by better including female employees. This is in particular true for companies with a high share of female part-time workers. 

Only 55% of all employed women in Germany work full-time; within EU 15, this is nearly the lowest rank; just a little better than the Netherlands. Furthermore, these part-time workers only work 18,5 hours a week in average. Companies could strive to unleash the contribution of their existing workforce by 5 different options: 

1)      Family-oriented services
Most of the women working part-time do this due to their obligations for child care or caring for elderly family-members. Thus, company-organized child care facilities, support for caring for elderly or financial help could motivate women to extend the hours they are working.

2)      Flexible working options are an important frame – for both men and women – to integrate professional and private challenges. Trusted working time follows the concept, that only the final product and its quality are measured instead of the time when the work was done. Working time accounts could help to built up time credits and reducing them for example during school holidays, when productivity in most companies is low anyway.  

3)      Another supplement is a family-friendly work organization, as it enables employees to partly or fully work from home and thereby better fulfilling caring tasks.

4)      Caring for elderly family members hits employees very often during their active career, as they themselves have to work longer. This happens very often at the same time, when child care is an issue too, as families are founded later in life. In particular the financial burden during these times makes it necessary for employees to follow a career. In these cases companies can make a difference for their employees in professionally supporting them to find nursing homes for the elderly or even establish those on their own.  

5)      Networks and Mentoring systems play an important role, as they foster support and information exchange amongst the employees.

But all these measures can only fully work, if they are embedded in a family friendly company culture: employees have to be sure that using the offers does not have a negative impact on their career. Thus, the undoubted commitment of the top management is necessary, even if a strong cultural shift has to take place. Ideally, the topic of being “family friendly” should be part of the company objectives and of the managers´ targets. [DE]

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Best Practices

Just a Matter of Style / Eine Frage des Stils

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten

On April 1, 2011, eight interested Henkel women, who are members of the Women in Leadership networking group at Henkel in Düsseldorf, met in order to attend a style-workshop of the prestigious fashion consultant Katharina Starlay.

In the end of 2010 Katharina Starlay was already at Henkel when she gave an introductory speech on “Powerdressing – the way to board capable style”. Now, on April 1, the participants had the chance to have a closer look at themselves:

Within an enjoyable atmosphere Katharina Starlay first equipped the women with theoretical basis-knowledge about the importance of the surface impression, about the understanding of one’s own line management concerning face and body, right up to the choice of hairstyle, glasses, jewellery and other accessories, as well as diverse possibilities of modern style interpretations and use of the right colours concerning clothes, hair, accessories, and make-up. In the next step, the typical style-relevant features of each participant were mutually analyzed. Each of the women got concrete advice which style, fashion, fabrics, hairstyle, colours, and jewellery is most convenient for them. An individual style-check-questionnaire summarized the results for each participant.

Here are some direct quotes of the participants:

  • “I decided that in future I will go shopping more consciously in terms of the right colour.”
  • “I definitely will have my pantsuit cut down and I will check my other pantsuits concerning the length.”
  • “When sorting out my wardrobe I will try to be mindful of the colour.”
  • “At home I resurrected an old golden necklace and golden earrings and I searched in the internet for warm tints.”
  • “I realized that I own some pieces of clothing which do not match my style. When I’ll go shopping in the future I will be mindful of concentrating on my style.”
  • “In future I will try to apply more scattered flashy accessories because this has positive effects on the perception of my appearance.”
  • “At the weekend I sorted out two pullovers which I’ve never really liked before. After attending the workshop I’m well aware that these pullovers are not matching my style in regard to the colour.”
  • “Furthermore I learned that I have to decide clearly for one style.”
  • “I learned that I should by all means be more courageous concerning my colour selection because this matches my style.”
  • “I was told that round classes match my rectangular face more favourably because it softens my distinctive facial features.”

All participants were satisfied with their lessons learned and achieved new insights how to deal and score with they outward appearance in future. [DE]

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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 Bosten

On 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]
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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.

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Women in Business

Is it all just symbolic politics? / Alles symbolische Politik?

Friday, March 4th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten

As 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.

Furthermore the majority of the population thinks that there is no sense in working against the different preferences concerning the career choice of men and women, and that it is not reasonable trying to convert men to female professions and the other way around.

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]


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Women in Business

Ready, Steady – Stagnation?! / Auf die Plätze, fertig – Stillstand?!

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 by Astrid Bosten

A matter of common knowledge: more women earning better school and university degrees within a shorter time. It is also known that this superiority of women disappears by the time of entering into professional life. A Catalyst study conducted in 2007/2008 shows that women do not only enter into professional life on lower management levels but also lag behind men with the same basic position in advancement and compensation from their first professional jobs. This is not really an European or German phenomenon but can be consistently followed all around the globe.

However, the womanless leadership of German companies is a really German and also a most widely European phenomenon. Every now and then there is “pulled a woman out of the hat” who is voted onto the executive board. Nevertheless, this does not affect the pipeline of women from bottom up.

This is what Siemens experienced: By using this method of “pulling a woman out of the hat” Siemens managed to appoint two women onto the board, Brigitte Ederer and Barbara Kux. But although there was probably a signalling into the enterprise these two ladies did not change the situation of Siemens: 14 percent of leadership positions at Siemens are held by women and only 7 percent in top leading positions.

Though, where does the logic disappear in the scenario between education and profession? That question I raised during a conversation with a man. His logical explanation was as follows: “Professional life has nothing to do with studying or school. Education is a matter of diligence. However, just diligence is not sufficient to make one’s career. Entering the workplace means to start real life.”

A survey carried out by the “World Economic Forum” found out that, among 600 large companies, the real (professional) life offers a surrounding which is described as “masculine” and “patriarchal”. Above all there is a lack of female role models. These key factors combined are the obstacles for would-be female leaders.

Deutsche Bank faces this circumstance with a special mentoring concept: Since September 2009 there have been 30 high-potential-women in an exclusive mentoring program with mentors from its executive committee – all 12 of them men. The result: One third of the partaking women advanced to new or broader roles within only 18 month.

Mentoring as key to success? Or having a high-ranking-sponsor who supports the career of his protégé? To arouse awareness within the company it is important to become visible – for both, men and women. A further study performed by Catalyst in 2010 with the same business school graduates it studied in 2008 found out that two-thirds of the surveyed men had a mentor at the C.E.O or executive-committee level.

For Henkel, too, the mentoring concept is of importance to promote diversity and mutual understanding. The concepts have already been implemented in different countries and divisions or they are to be initiated soon. And, for that matter, the women themselves did recognize their chance: Last year the share of women in leadership increased yet again about 1.3 percent up to 28.7 percent.

This is a good basic position in the “war for female talents”. Thus, the motto of our women at Henkel for the future is: Ready, steady – go! [DE]

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Women in Business

Being a Diversity Manager is like being a Doctor / Ein Diversity Manager ist wie ein Arzt

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten

© pix4U - Fotolia.comDuring my two weeks vacation on Christmas season I had to realize that being a Diversity Manager is like being a doctor. If a doctor enters the room all of a sudden the present people start to moan about this and that and tell about illness and sickness.

Nearly the same happens if you enter the room as a Diversity manager, of course just if the present people even know what a Diversity manager is… but they did! So, as soon as I came into a room people – especially the male ones – tended to start a discussion about the women’s quota. And – believe me or no – as passionate I am discussing on that topic, during my vacation I do not feel the urgent need to do so…

But nevertheless we did – at least a little discussion for “beginners” about the business case of women in leadership positions; but the strangest thing about that discussion was that all the men who were there have and strongly support their working academic women. And they see how hard they are struggling to reconcile family and career… the upshot was that one thing for the entire men was sure – they feel discriminated. Okay! Why not? A first-hand experience could be the first step in the right direction…

 Rethinking, Exemplify, Experience [DE]

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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]

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Women in Business

„Too White, too German and too Male“ / „Zu weiß, zu deutsch, zu männlich“

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

© Viorel Sima - Fotolia.com“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]

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