Today, June 15, 2020, the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy was honored with the certificate for the audit berufundfamilie with permanent status for its strategically oriented family and life-phase-conscious personnel policy.
The ATB had before successfully undergone the dialogue process for the audit, which is open to employers who have been pursuing a strategically designed family and life-phase conscious personnel policy for at least nine years. The Institute was first certified for the audit in 2010 and, following several re-audits, has now also successfully completed the dialogue process. The aim of the dialogue process is to maintain the high level of family and life-stage-conscious personnel policy and to exploit the optimization potential in some selected areas.
About 250 employees benefit from the family-oriented measures at ATB. The measures currently on offer include flexible working hours and locations, individual agreements on career and family planning, as well as training for executives.
"There's still room for improvement," says ATB head of administration Dr. Uta Tietz. "In the future, we also want to train working group and project leaders with regard to their role and responsibility in the reconciling of work and family life". She adds: "In the area of health-promoting measures for body and mind, we have already achieved a lot. For example, since several years our employees have been able to benefit from massage and gymnastics offers subsidized by the institute. In the future, we want to counteract work-related stress even more effectively. In addition to lectures on self-organization in the case of stress, we are also planning concrete 'relief offers': By setting up both a relaxation room and a sports room, we want to meet the different needs for tranquility or activity when dealing with stress," says Dr. Tietz. Further measures result from the analysis of mental stress conditions. The set of measures also includes regularly informing employees about health-preserving offers.
For the first time in the 22 years of audit's history, the certificate was awarded during an online event. Among the congratulators were Federal Minister of Family Affairs Dr. Franziska Giffey, who is the patron of the audit, Oliver Schmitz, Managing Director of beruf-undfamilie Service GmbH, and John-Philip Hammersen, Managing Director of the non-profit Hertie Foundation. A total of 334 employers (134 companies, 164 institutions and 36 universities) that had successfully completed the audit berufundfamilie or audit familiengerechte hochschule in the previous twelve months were honored.
The online event was titled "TEAM2020 - With reconciliation strong in and after the crisis". Oliver Schmitz, managing director of the berufundfamilie Service GmbH, explained: "Family and life phase conscious employers always had a feeling for it - with the Corona-pandemie, however, it became evident in the entire working sphere: A strategically designed reconciliation policy is a means of risk management. Thanks to it, employers are able to react flexibly to changes - and they can do so quickly and precisely. A corporate culture in which work-life balance is anchored also promotes the functionality of teams. This is because it provides the framework in which talent can be fostered, employee empowerment supported, the agility of work processes driven, and the management of work-life balance issues can be shaped effectively. These features, which provide a good basis for cooperation within teams, pay off especially in times of crisis.
The audit berufundfamilie and the audit familienbewusste hochschule (family-conscious university audit) can be applied in all branches and different sizes of company. It records the status quo of the family and life-phase conscious measures already offered, systematically develops the individual company potential and ensures that family awareness is anchored in the organisational culture. Following the successful completion of this process, an independent board of trustees made up of prominent representatives from business, science, politics and associations issues the audit certificate. Since the audit was introduced in 1998, around 1,800 employers have been awarded the certificate. A total of 982 employers are currently certified according to the audit berufundfamilie or audit familiengerechte hochschule, including 467 companies, 413 institutions and 102 universities. About 2 million employees and about 1.4 million students can benefit from this certification.
berufundfamilie Service GmbH is a service provider and think tank in the field of balancing work, family and private life. It successfully supports companies, institutions and universities in the implementation of a sustainable family and life phase conscious personnel policy and in shaping family-friendly research and study conditions. Her central offer is the audit berufundfamilie or audit familiengerechte hochschule (audit family-friendly university), which was initiated by the non-profit Hertie Foundation. It is currently under the patronage of the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Dr. Franziska Giffey. The audit is the strategic management tool that employers use to develop their personnel policies in a family and life phase conscious manner and to strengthen their attractiveness as an employer. Since 1998, around 1,800 employers have been awarded the audit certificate. www.berufundfamilie.de
Contact ATB:
Helene Foltan
Public relation / Communication
Dr. Ulrike Praeger
Project leader audit berufundfamilie at ATB