60-hour week? Office duty? Men’s clubs? We already know that. We don’t need any more. For the BRIGITTE Modern Work Study we have investigated how work can become more realistic and people-friendly. And which companies are already implementing this.
It was in the summer of 2017, in the middle of the Alps, that Henny Wagner-Schmitt first realized how unusual her job model was. She hiked from Munich to Lake Garda – 33 days between cows and alpine huts – and kept hearing the same question from other hikers: “So, do you have that much vacation?” “Of course,” Wagner-Schmitt would always say. “At our company, you can take as much time off as you like. The main thing is that the results of your work are good.” She grins: “They couldn’t believe it…”
Prove that there is another way
The so-called “open vacation policy” that Wagner-Schmitt’s employer, Leipzig-based TAS AG, has been practicing since 2015 is no longer quite so exotic. But it is still far from standard – and Henny Wagner-Schmitt is accordingly enthusiastic when she talks about it. Long trips, she says, are her thing. “And if something like that is possible in consultation with colleagues despite having a full-time job, I think that’s just great.”
The 59-year-old is sitting in the yolk-yellow meeting room of the TAS. She has been working for the family-run medium-sized company since 2009, now as Head of Operations. The corridor in front of it is decorated with a comic-style painting. On the floor above, the air buzzes with voices this afternoon: around 200 service employees are advising Deutsche Bank customers on opening accounts in several call center areas or handling email traffic for Postbank. As a customer service provider, the TAS takes on these tasks for companies throughout Germany.
It is an industry with a growing need for staff, but a bad reputation: The cliché is that people who work in call centers earn little and are constantly stressed. “We want to prove that things can be done differently,” says Wagner-Schmitt. TAS therefore not only pays its 500 employees nationwide, half of whom are women, more than the industry’s minimum wage and various subsidies, for example for childcare. We also try to respond as best as possible to the living situation of our employees. For example, the shifts of customer service representatives are coordinated with daycare times or the care needs of relatives, and even 100 percent home office is possible. And managers like Wagner-Schmitt are allowed to organize their working hours completely freely.
Online game nights, company parties, sports and art courses The teams are also meant to bond together. “Anyone who works for us should have a network that they can fall back on at any time,” says Wagner-Schmitt’s colleague Saskia Henning. As a former customer service representative, the 27-year-old knows how stressful such a job can be. She has since been promoted to team leader and trained as a mental health first aider at TAS’ expense: “Now I know better how to react if someone in the team is not feeling well.”
146 companies were awarded
Freedom and care – if you want to find good people in the currently empty job market, you should at least offer a lot in these two areas. For women in particular, “flexible working hours, home office and commitment to mental health are non-negotiable,” says Petra von Strombeck, CEO of New Work SE, which regularly publishes studies on this topic. And TAS is the best example of the fact that especially small and medium-sized companies can score points here. Because the connection between the workforce and management is often more direct than in corporations – and the pressure to distinguish oneself as an employer compared to the big companies is greater. Together with ten other companies, TAS has therefore made it into the 5-star group of the BRIGITTE employer study this year. 135 other companies were each awarded four stars. “Modern Work” was our study motto this time, which means: With the HR marketing agency Embrace and our expert advisory board We not only examined the advancement opportunities for women and the measures for flexibility and compatibility, but also examined how much the companies strive for sustainability or co-determination and how open they are to new ideas such as four-day weeks, agile working techniques or job rotations.
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This is possible if companies really want change
Our results are not representative, participation in the study was voluntary. But they show what is possible when companies really want change:
• SunIn almost every sixth company surveyed, employees completely decide for themselves where they work, Similarly, they are often completely free to decide when they work.
• Job sharing is practiced in every third company, usually up to the top management level.
• Around one in four study participants has a Company daycare set up, a similar number have reserved places in external daycare centers.
• Four percent have at least one week of Paid leave after birth for fathers or same-sex partners; 18 percent give their employees paid leave for more than ten days to care for relatives.
• Also striking: the openness to new ideas. More than half of the companies surveyed offer at least some Job rotations One in ten tests the Four-day week or has already introduced it. Four percent let their managers choose their employees.
For example, the Hamburg-based fintech Tomorrow, which specializes in sustainable banking. The 84 employees work on a role-based basis, meaning that instead of distributing tasks across rigid positions, everyone can take on certain roles and pass them on or adapt them as needed.This not only provides flexibility, but can also give a boost to talents that often fall through the cracks in conventional companies. Silke Lucas, for example, a mother of three with a part-time contract, has been the operational lead here for three years – because her team chose her for that position. The group had previously defined the skills that a manager should have, then voted on who best fit the profile. “That gave me so much momentum,” says the 43-year-old. “At first I was hesitant about whether I could do it, it was during lockdown, the children were homeschooling… But it was clear: the team believes I can do it. So I can do it.”
Friday = free day
At the other end of Germany, at the Clemens Härle brewery in Leutkirch in Swabia, the company has had very positive experiences with the four-day week. Back in 2014, the decision was made that drivers would have Fridays off. In return, they would work ten hours a day for the rest of the week to meet the weekly target of 38.5 hours. And the traditional company is also happy to be at the forefront in other ways: In 2009, the brewery was the first in Germany to be climate neutral. In 2016, the childless brewery heir and then sole managing director Gottfried Härle brought 27-year-old Esther Straub on board as co-boss, and since then they have been running the company as a tandem – a novelty among family businesses, where even the daughters of the company owners often have a hard time as successors.
Straub therefore finds it a shame that the debate about a modern working world often focuses on classic office jobs: “Sure, we cannot offer home office. But Meaningfulness and extra appreciation for our employees. There are so many opportunities to experience a modern work culture in trades and industry.”
Examples like these are encouraging. “Unfortunately, there is one area in which most of the study participants are not very progressive,” says study director Ana Fernandez-Mühl from Embrace, “when it comes to the proportion of women in management positions.” On average, the companies surveyed have only 24 percent women on the first management level, and 36 on the second.
Proportion of women on the board almost tripled
Allianz in Germany shows that things can be done differently: Here, the proportion of women at board level has almost tripled to an average of 31 percent since 2016. This is remarkable for the industry; according to the Institute for Employment Research, the average proportion on the boards of financial or insurance companies was only 16 percent in 2023.
The recipe? A mix of known measures – but coupled with the will to really implement them. For example, the promotion of women at board level is anchored in the target agreements. From middle management upwards, there must be at least one woman in the application pool, otherwise the position is advertised externally. And flexibility is valued: Attendance is compulsory only four days per month at Allianz in Germany. It goes without saying that parents can temporarily take time off to look after their children.
It is precisely this time sovereignty that helps her a lot to reconcile her management job with family life, says Jessica Weber. The 40-year-old has been Head of Sponsoring since 2022 and is also the mother of two daughters, three and eight. “I always have the feeling that I am trusted here, even if I am not available for two hours because of the children. In addition, in my previous and current work environment, I have always been given the feeling that women’s advancement and the compatibility of career and family are taken seriously.”
At every career level, she was supported in mentoring programs. She also benefited greatly from the contacts in her network and those of the company network women@allianz. Weber is currently taking part in another management program that is designed to prepare her for the next steps. A promotion to the highest level? She smiles: “Why not?”
Here you can find the Results of the BRIGITTE Modern Work Study 2024.