Family-friendly employer

For the third time in succession, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has been granted the audit workandfamily certificate. This certificate is awarded by the Board of Trustees of the berufundfamilie Service GmbH as a seal of quality for strategically designed personnel policy that takes account of family and life-stage considerations.

The Humboldt Foundation’s Deputy General Secretary, Katrin Amian, emphasised the special honour attached to the award:

“We are delighted about this award because promoting a work-life balance  is an issue very close to our hearts at the Humboldt Foundation. It is important to us to offer our staff a high degree of flexibility to enable them to combine a satisfying family life with professional success. Incidentally, this does not only hold true for the Foundation’s staff but also for our sponsorship recipients who can benefit from comprehensive support measures in the course of selection and sponsorship. Here, too, we campaign for equal opportunities.”

The Humboldt Foundation ranks as an attractive employer for its policies concerning the balance between work and family life, amongst others, with regard to:

• great flexibility and personal freedom in the organisation of working time 
• provision of mobile working devices and comprehensive mobile work
• diverse online communication techniques
• well-established management of flexible working places as the “new normal”
• occupational health management
• parent-child room
• social counselling
• family support services (e.g., arranging emergency/holiday care or “nursing relatives” discussion group)

The Foundation was initially awarded the certificate in 2019. In addition to strategic goals, concrete measures were defined during re-auditing that are contained in a target agreement which should now be implemented, where appropriate, in the three-year certification period. The practical implementation will be reviewed annually by the berufundfamilie Service GmbH.