Study on non-legislative initiatives for companies to promote gender ...

74 Gender equality initiatives
Apart from these prizes in the field of equal opportunities for women and men, there are
also special prizes in the frame of “Best Workplaces” conducted by the Great Place to
Work® Institutes throughout Europe. See section below “Lists of best workplaces for
women – special awards in the frame of Great place to Work®” for a detailed
description.
Reconciliation of family and work
There are 16 prizes which have its focus on reconciliation of family and work, including
work-life balance, combination of parenting and working, family-friendly policies within
enterprises, but also women- and family-friendliness as well as employee friendliness in
the workplace.
Many of these prizes deal with the issue of reconciliation in a rather general way
without explicitly addressing women to be the main target group. It is interesting to note
that there are also some initiatives which directly address the issue of women and
family and the problems in terms of compatibility with occupational obligations.
In Austria, there is a prize called “Frauen- und familienfreundlichster Betrieb”
(women- and family-friendliest business) which awards private enterprises, non-profit
organisations and public sector organisations regardless of sector and size implementing
women and family-friendly measures on their own initiative. Initially being a
regional competition which originated in the federal state of Styria, by and by, other
federal provinces followed. In 1999, there was the first national competition. The
regional competition is based on seven criteria covering all relevant measures referring
to more women- and family-friendliness in the enterprise such as working time arrangements,
training, maternity/paternity leave etc.. In Styria, there is an additional criterion
regarding the participation of fathers. An expert jury rates the support and benefits
offered by the companies.
The national competition is based on the result of the regional competitions. Only the
winners of these regional competitions are eligible for participation in the national
competition 27 . The national competition is based on a clear and transparent list of
eleven criteria (that in total include 26 indicators). Each criterion is assigned with a
priority level (I to III) that shall indicate the importance of the criterion for more womenand
family friendliness. The criteria with the highest priority are the participation quota
of women in further training, flexibility of working time, share of part-time jobs, quota of
women returning to work after birth of a child, preparation of women’s return to work by
the enterprise, measures of the enterprise in the field of child care and the position of
women and families within the company’s philosophy and personnel policy.
An expert jury rates the support and benefits offered by the companies. There are also
employee interviews in order to dispose of the employees’ point of view.
In the United Kingdom there are similar prizes called “Opportunity Now” and “Employer
of the Year”.
27
This will change in 2010, when the national competition will be upgraded into a „national award“. Then,
not only the winners of the regional competition in 2009, but also all participants of the last regional
competition are eligible to run for the new national award.