Henkel: the German group banks on a work culture focused on performance, not the time spent in the office

An old tradition.  The group, which employs nearly 48,000 people in 125 countries, has been committed to families since… 1940! In the middle of the war, the company created its first corporate daycare center for single women working in its Düsseldorf site.  In 2008, it opened its second company daycare center, still in Düsseldorf, open to children from the age of 5 months.  A spokeswoman claims this new daycare center helped seriously decrease the duration of parental leaves taken by the employees: from about 3 years down to 1, in average.  She says this shows that many women wanted to get back to work faster.  She added: Henkel doesn’t want to force its employees to get back to work sooner, but give those willing the possibility of returning to the company earlier.  These daycare centers are only one of many “pro-family” measures the company took, which earned it several awards.  Thus, in May 2011, Henkel received, for the 3rd time, the prestigious “Employment and Family” prize awarded by the Hertie foundation, one of the most important private foundations in the country.  In 2008, the company was also one of the ten winners of the “Erfolgsfaktor Familie” award (see our dispatch No.  080460). 
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e added: Henkel doesn’t want to force its employees to get back to work sooner, but give those willing the possibility of returning to the company earlier. These daycare centers are only one of many “pro-family” measures the company took, which earned it several awards. Thus, in May 2011, Henkel received, for the 3rd time, the prestigious “Employment and Family” prize awarded by the Hertie foundation, one of the most important private foundations in the country. In 2008, the company was...

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