More and more young fathers, including managers, are interested in parental leave, part-time work, and near-full-time part-time work. (Photo: © Jozef Polc/123RF.com)
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women in crafts - Theme specials
December 2019
In times of skilled labor shortages, family-friendliness is a clear competitive advantage. More and more employers have already recognized this.
The topic of family friendliness is becoming increasingly important for companies in Germany. This is shown by the "Company Monitor Family Friendliness 2019" published by the German Economic Institute (IW Cologne) submitted.
"In times of a shortage of skilled workers, family-friendliness is not a 'nice to have', but a special competitive advantage. Companies are well advised to offer better compatibility of family and career," said Federal Minister for Family Affairs Franziska Giffey at the presentation of the study, which is funded by her ministry.
For nine out of ten employees, family-friendly measures are an expression of a corporate culture that values people. This is also the view of employees who don't currently have young children or relatives in need of care. Unfortunately, even today, too many employees fear professional disadvantages if they take advantage of family-friendly offers. "That's counterproductive," says Giffey.
Overall, however, the trend is positive. The proportion of managers and human resources managers who consider family-friendly measures important has increased by six percentage points to 83 percent since the last survey four years ago.
The proportion of companies that have a "pronounced family-friendly corporate culture" has increased significantly. However, there is still a difference in perception between employers and employees. In other words, bosses rate their commitment somewhat higher than their employees do.
To Study According to the study, the commitment to supporting fathers has developed particularly positively in recent years, for example Parental leave, part-time or near-full-time part-time want to use (from 35 to 53 percent). "Companies are thus expanding the options for living different role models and choosing different lifestyles," say the study's authors.
Non-personal or anonymized information remains protected by tax secrecy. Disclosure to third parties is only allowed if no identification is possible and both states confirm that no harm to tax administration will occur. individually agreed working hours are becoming more and more common: eight out of ten companies now offer them.
More and more human resources managers are realizing that a family-friendly workplace must also appeal to employees who do not (yet) have childcare responsibilities or dependent relatives. After all, 78 percent of employees without childcare requirements consider such measures important.
The study found that dealing with employees who use family-friendly programs and those without caregiving responsibilities could harbor potential for conflict. Therefore, managers consider it particularly important to balance interests fairly within their teams. This also means raising employees' awareness that demands and opportunities are weighted differently at different stages of life.
The Advisor to the Chambers of Crafts and Trade Associations They support the implementation of a family- and life-phase-oriented personnel policy within the company. Among other things, they help companies communicate their family-friendly measures externally, which is important in the competition for trainees and skilled workers.
A key future topic will be mobile and flexible working According to 44 percent of employees and 59 percent of companies, its importance will continue to increase over the next five years.
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