Good practice: Härterei Wilhelm Alte

This is a particular challenge: the majority of the predominantly male employees work in production, which must be continuously staffed. They therefore coordinate with each other if someone wants to adjust their working hours at short notice for family reasons and, for example, comes in later because their child still needs to be looked after. Quick communication at short notice is just as essential here as flexibility among employees and the trust of the department management.



This experience also helped during the coronavirus crisis. Although orders were initially down, the company did its best to spread out the shifts so that hygiene rules could be adhered to. At the same time, employees were able to coordinate their shifts with the working hours of their partners so that both parents could share childcare. "Our previous experience with the issue of compatibility paid off," says sales employee Stefanie Erbrich-Falbe happily. She is the driving force behind the measures to improve the company's family-friendly HR policy.

At Härterei, flexible working means adapting your own working hours to family circumstances: Shifting working hours, coming to work later, for example if the child is ill. The most important thing here is to coordinate working hours with each other and to set up substitutes for bottlenecks.

For measures to improve work-life balance to be accepted, a family-friendly and open corporate culture with appropriate role models and contact persons is required - ideally at management level. "Family-friendliness is a matter of course for me and is firmly anchored in our corporate culture. My employees can come to me at any time and work with me to find individual, feasible solutions according to the respective circumstances," explains Managing Director Dirk Alte.

Employees on parental leave also receive regular information from the company through personal discussions and messages. For a long time, it was unusual for the predominantly male workforce to take parental leave. This has changed over the past two years. "Since we started communicating the topic of parental leave for fathers within the company, a few employees have already taken parental leave," says Stefanie Erbrich-Falbe.



In notices and personal conversations, the management signals openness to its employees and fathers in particular on the subject of parental leave. "And in this male-dominated industry, we are achieving a surprise effect that is perceived positively," emphasizes Erbrich-Falbe.

She herself has also taken parental leave and, together with the management, has found a new and individually tailored solution for herself - the mini-job on parental leave. Erbrich-Falbe came into the company for a few hours as needed during her parental leave and supported her colleagues. Under this arrangement, employees on parental leave only work so many hours that their salary does not exceed 450 euros. "For me, the mini-job during parental leave was a great opportunity not only to enjoy time with my family, but also to have a job and not lose contact with the company."

With its various family-friendly measures to improve the work-life balance, Härterei Wilhelm Alte has responded to the needs of its employees and at the same time strengthened its attractiveness as an employer. Family-friendly measures such as flexibility and parental leave are also topics in job interviews and attract the interest of applicants. All these measures pay off in the end.