Applicants determine workplaces that support family life
In today's workforce, finding a job that offers a supportive work-life balance, particularly for parents, is crucial. Here's a guide to help you identify family-friendly employers and navigate the job search process.
Researching Potential Employers
Start by checking companies' career pages and social media profiles for information about family-friendliness. Networking with other parents can provide valuable insights into a company's family-friendly policies and culture.
Online review platforms like Kununu and Glassdoor can also offer insights from current and former employees about a company's family-friendly practices.
Understanding Job Ads
Job ads can provide initial hints about a company's family-friendliness, but it's essential to look beyond vague phrases like "work-life balance" without specific models, or excessive emphasis on "flexibility" and "readiness."
Career coach Tanja Jakob advises job candidates to identify their own needs, such as flexible hours, remote work, part-time, or clear parental leave policies, before searching for a family-friendly employer. Specific details in job ads, like "part-time from 20 hours" or "remote work up to 3 days/week," are positive indicators of a family-friendly workplace.
Asking the Right Questions
If invited for an interview, Jakob recommends asking openly and interestedly, but not demandingly, about the specifics of a company's family-friendly policies. Questions to consider include: What is a typical workweek like here? What opportunities are there for flexible working hours? What experiences do you have with part-time management or hybrid models? And what are the meeting rules?
Balancing work schedules and childcare can be challenging for working parents, and a family-friendly employer can make a significant difference. Asking about meeting rules, especially late meetings, shows whether the company genuinely cares about its employees' work-life balance and tries to avoid unnecessary stress outside regular hours.
Recognizing a Family-Friendly Workplace
Knowing what one is looking for in a family-friendly workplace can help in recognizing if a job is a good fit. An analysis by the Bertelsmann Foundation reveals that German companies do not promote family-friendliness enough in their job ads, despite 86% of companies valuing family-friendly measures.
Only 16.4% of the eight million ads placed in 2024 promised family-friendly jobs, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation. Practical experience and implementation of family-friendly policies are more important than grand promises made in job ads.
Tanja Jakob, a career coach specializing in advising women and mothers, emphasizes the importance of looking beyond initial job ads and focusing on the practical implementation of a company's family-friendly policies. Jakob regularly blogs about work and family-related topics, offering valuable insights for job seekers.
In conclusion, finding a family-friendly employer requires research, understanding, and asking the right questions. By identifying your needs and seeking out companies that prioritize work-life balance, you can find a job that supports your lifestyle and helps you thrive.
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