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Small and medium-sized companies often do too little to be attractive employers for women. This is shown by a new study by the insurance company Axa and the research center Sotomo.
What are companies doing to get more women to work for them? The Sotomo research center surveyed 300 small and medium-sized companies in Switzerland for the SME labor market study on behalf of the Axa insurance company.
The result: 22 percent of the companies surveyed offer flexible working hours, 14 percent take gender into account when hiring. 13 percent of the companies allow home office and another 13 percent actively offer part-time work or job sharing.
20 percent of the SMEs surveyed have other measures geared towards women. That’s little.
Often it is also a question of attitude. And that requires a culture change.
Measured against the size of the company, the differences are striking: the very small companies offer the fewest opportunities. Things are much better for companies with up to 250 employees.
Where do these differences come from? In larger companies, specialized human resources departments take care of balanced and broad job advertisements, explains study leader Michael Hermann.
A culture change is necessary
Also: “On the one hand, there are sectors where it is not possible – a bakery, for example, has to stick to its working hours. But in many cases it is also a question of attitude. And then a culture change is needed if you think it won’t work, but it might work if you reposition yourself,” Hermann continued.
When the family is happy, the entrepreneur is happy too.
Claude Perrinjaquet, managing director of a horticultural company in Beinwil am See, managed this cultural change. Women work part-time for him – a man works in management and shares child labor with his wife.
The great flexibility with the workload pays off for him: “I would definitely recommend it. Most of the time when people want to work part time, the background is family. And when the family is happy, the entrepreneur is happy too.”
Simon Wey, the chief economist at the Swiss Employers’ Association, is amazed at the unsatisfactory study results. The results are particularly surprising, as there is a large shortage of skilled workers.
We see advantages if work hours are distributed relatively evenly, so that the mother does not fall far behind in the labor market.
According to Wey, the association is of the opinion that the compatibility of work and family needs to be improved. “As an employers’ association, we see advantages if the workloads are distributed relatively evenly, so that the mother does not fall behind in the labor market.”
Small and medium-sized companies still have a lot to do if they want to become more attractive to women and male part-time workers.