EMPLOYEES ARE 23 PERCENT MORE MOTIVATED
When employers take into account the uncertainty and need for information regarding changed family situations, this increases employees’ emotional attachment to the company and their motivation. Companies benefit disproportionately when employees can work when they have time.
PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES BY 15 PERCENT
Flexible working arrangements significantly reduce absenteeism caused by children’s illnesses or family-related stress. Furthermore, employees and managers who gain experience in family work enhance their social, leadership, and organizational skills.
37 PERCENT MORE APPLICATIONS FROM HIGH POTENTIALS
Numerous studies show that high potentials value credibility and authenticity as much as family-friendly working hours and diversity. Family-friendly work models automatically promote work-life balance and gender equality. Many companies are now involved in the FKi (Frauen-Karriere-Index – Women’s Career Index) or the business network “Erfolgsfaktor Familie” (Success Factor Family) to publicly commit to family-friendliness. They have proven that diversity in leadership teams is a catalyst for innovation, speed of change, and corporate culture. For Eva Faenger, Diversity Manager at multiple FKi award winner Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, “diversity and the explicit promotion of women […] are a driving force for economic success, especially in the context of digitalization.”
FAMILY-CONSCIOUS EMPLOYERS ARE MORE FUTURE-PROOF
The medium-term future prospects for companies differ dramatically when, in addition to the shortage of skilled workers, the challenges of digital transformation also need to be managed. To tap into new market potentials through it, a digitally competent workforce is required that can react quickly and flexibly to changes. Employees must acquire new skills to apply digital technologies, digitalize the product environment, and open up new market potentials. Digital business competencies must be developed at all hierarchical levels. According to the DGFP practice paper 2/2016 (DGFP: German Association for Human Resource Management), these primarily include personal responsibility, communication skills, networking competence, and agility.
Experience shows that mixed, heterogeneous teams work much more innovatively and faster. Especially in leadership teams, diversity is a catalyst for innovation and speed in digital transformation.
IT’S POSSIBLE! EVEN WITH A SMALL BUDGET
Even small and medium-sized enterprises can implement family-conscious working hours and the re-entry of parents, e.g., through timely planning and active management of parental leave-related absences and coaching. Home office options, part-time work, or job sharing, as well as accompanying measures such as innovative agile working methods for families, reduce the excessive burden on working parents.
Many SMEs are concerned that their current corporate culture is too far removed from the new requirements. An innovative employer concept from easyfaM GmbH & Co. KG offers a low-threshold and incidental solution. It helps employees structure themselves and their families using agile Kanban boards. In online video training, employees learn family-friendly business methods that they also need for developing their professional competencies. This way, companies embed important basic competencies across all hierarchical levels.
If the employer does nothing, they will not immediately feel the disadvantage – except for a gradually growing, existential shortage of skilled workers and a possible failure due to disruption. Family-friendly companies, however, will develop more profitably than ever.
Image credits: Erfolgsfaktor Familie network office, easyfaM GmbH & Co. KG