Germany: Skilled workers want right to return to full-time work
While a lot is being done in Switzerland to make part-time work models more attractive, the situation is different in our northern neighbor: There, many professionals who work part-time would like to switch back to full-time.
Nine out of ten employees in Germany want the option of returning from part-time work to a full-time position. This makes such a right the most important measure for skilled workers in Germany to reconcile family and career. This is what the online job exchange StepStone found out in a survey of around 5,000 professionals and managers. The study also shows that 28 percent of the women surveyed have firm plans to take on a management role in the future. Just under 60 percent of all part-time employees believe that they can adequately fill a responsible management position even with reduced hours.
Up to 1.5 million part-time workers would work full time
"Highly qualified women in particular want to make a difference at work - even if they want or have to work part-time temporarily. Our market research has shown that four out of ten women would switch to full-time if childcare could be organized optimally. The willingness to work more has thus increased again by ten percentage points compared to our previous year's survey," says Simone Reif, Managing Director at StepStone.de. "For the economy this is good news, because in times of scarce skilled workers companies are dependent on these women." According to StepStone estimates, the number of women who would work full time under the right conditions is up to 1.5 million among specialists and managers alone.
Ways out of the part-time trap
Flexible working hours are a must for 95 percent of all respondents. Women would like to receive support from their employer in the form of training to prepare them for a management position and measures to specifically promote part-time employees. Almost two-thirds of female professionals were confronted with other tasks after returning from family leave - 28 percent have since taken on less demanding jobs. More than half of the women believe that the career break has damaged their career. This also has financial consequences: 60 percent expect negative effects on their salary in the long term.
In Switzerland: More female managers
In Switzerland, on the other hand, the business community is succeeding in filling significantly more vacancies on its executive boards with women. The proportion of women on the management boards of the 100 largest Swiss employers jumped from 6 % to 8 %, and of all new appointments to management boards, 21 % were female - compared with only 4 % in the previous year. On company boards of directors, 21% of the open mandates were also filled by a woman, bringing the proportion of women there to 17%. This is shown by the latest "schillingreport" of the executive search specialist Guido Schilling AG. However, if the Swiss economy does not want to lose touch with the other countries in Western Europe, it must consistently continue on the path it has taken. In the public sector, the comparative body of 24 % female government councillors and 14 % female top executives is significantly further ahead than the private sector.
Sources: www.stepstone.de, www.schillingreport.ch
