OREANDA-NEWS. In creating new company guidelines on working hours, Bosch is affording its associates greater flexibility in deciding when and where they work. This is yet another milestone for the global supplier of technology and services in its journey toward establishing a flexible and family-friendly working culture. In these guidelines Bosch pledges to harmonize associates’ professional and personal demands, to enable telecommuting, and to create a leadership culture that focuses first and foremost on commitment and achievements, and not on whether associates are physically present. Such a culture enables mothers and fathers, for instance, to work from home if one of their children falls ill, or managers to work part time in order to be able to take care of loved ones. This kind of family leave can also count as a career module. The new guidelines apply to the entire Bosch Group, with a workforce of over 300,000 worldwide, and are designed to give associates and managers alike the security they need to do their jobs well. The aim is to use these elements to help continue the transition toward a family-friendly working culture, and the approach is already showing results: last year, Bosch was named Germany’s most family-friendly large enterprise (1).

Respecting family commitments
Bosch’s commitment to part-time leadership is also reflected in the new guidelines, as is the company’s pledge to make it easier for associates to re-enter working life quickly after taking time out to care for the family. Bosch is also committed to providing the best possible support to associates experiencing particularly challenging family situations (having to take care of loved ones, for example), taking into consideration the demands placed on associates during such times. This is why, since 2012, associates have been able to have a period of family leave take the place of a career module (a placement abroad, for instance) in their progression to the next hierarchical level. Bosch recognizes that taking care of loved ones counts as valuable life experience, helping develop social skills and the capacity to deal with complexity.

 “Achieving an effective work-life balance is becoming increasingly important throughout our workforce, as working time is not some isolated part of life,” says Christoph Kьbel, member of the Bosch board of management and director of industrial relations. “Our guidelines are designed to promote a more flexible working culture in which we place the same value on family and career commitments.”

100 working time models offer greater flexibility
Developed together with managers, associates, and employee representatives, these Bosch guidelines form a framework that managers and associates can orient to when carrying out their day-to-day work. Today, Bosch already offers its workforce over 100 different working time models, ranging from job sharing and various part-time options to working from home, all with the aim of helping reconcile professional and private commitments.

It pays to be a family-friendly employer
The Bosch guidelines are voluntary commitments that the company took on when it became one of the first companies to sign the German government’s Charter for Family-friendly Working Hours (2). Mothers and fathers have an equally pressing need for working time to be organized in a family-friendly way. According to a survey conducted by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth, nine out of ten parents with children under the age of 18 would appreciate more flexible working hours. Almost 60 percent of respondents said that their employer made little, if any, effort to accommodate demands on employees’ time (3).

 (1) See press release “Bosch is Germany’s most family-friendly large enterprise”, from May 3, 2012.

 (2) See press release “Bundesregierung und Wirtschaft setzen auf familienbewusste Arbeitszeiten”, from February 8, 2011. (German)

 (3) See “Monitor Familienleben 2012” (report on family life), a survey commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Woman and Youth, from September 25, 2012. (German)