BTU honored for family-friendly working and studying conditions

This is the second time that the BTU has been awarded the certificate with special recognition for many years of sustainable family-friendly working and studying conditions. Prior to this, the university successfully completed the second dialog procedure for the audit. The goal of the audit is to maintain the high level of development of the family- and life-phase-conscious personnel policy and to optimize it in selected areas. At the BTU, for example, this concerns the family-oriented organization of work and teaching through the expansion of offers for mobile work, online teaching and the expansion of video conferencing.

Employers who have been pursuing a strategic family-friendly personnel policy for at least nine years with the audit may participate in the second dialog process. The BTU was first awarded the audit certificate in 2009. To ensure the quality of the certificate, another dialogue procedure will have to be completed in three years.

"Without employers who actively support their employees, the compatibility of family and career cannot succeed," explained Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus, Member of the Bundestag and patron of the audit, at a virtual certificate ceremony on June 21, 2022. "With the audit berufundfamilie, companies send a clear message to their employees that they are systematically and sustainably committed to a family-conscious working environment or to family-friendly study conditions."

"I am very pleased that we have once again been rewarded for our measures to reconcile work, family and private life with the family-friendly university audit certificate," says BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg President Prof. Dr. Gesine Grande."We do everything we can to ensure that our university is an attractive place to work and study for our employees in science and administration as well as for our students. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who is committed to this common goal."

The family-friendliness of BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg is currently expressed, among other things, in a new agreement on mobile working. Corresponding measures are currently being incorporated into a new concept for personnel recruitment and development. Digital teaching formats are being further expanded, as are short-term and emergency childcare services. Family-friendly campuses offer support options for students and employees with family responsibilities. For example, parent-child rooms are available at all three BTU campuses in Cottbus and Senftenberg as comfortably equipped islands of retreat. BTU employees make intensive use of the daycare center run by the Studentenwerk Frankfurt (Oder), which offers 125 places. Special children's sports days are also organized during the summer vacations. In cooperation with the Cottbus Volunteer Agency, the services are supplemented by the Grandparent Service. The BTU works to ensure that students can also study successfully during pregnancy, parenthood, and when caring for relatives in need of care, and that these do not have a negative impact on their jobs and academic careers. Numerous offers and counseling options are available for employees and students with family responsibilities.

The audit familiengerechte hochschule
On June 21, 2022, a total of 343 employers - 158 companies, 152 institutions and 33 universities - were honored who had successfully undergone auditing in the previous twelve months for the strategic (further) development of their family- and life-phase-conscious personnel policies or family-friendly working and study conditions. The family-friendly university audit is the central offering of berufundfamilie Service GmbH and is based on an initiative of the non-profit Hertie Foundation. As a strategic management tool, the audit supports employers in sustainably shaping family- and life-phase-conscious personnel policies and family-friendly research and study conditions. berufundfamilie Service GmbH holds the Europe-wide license for the audit, which is recommended by the leading associations of the German economy - BDA, BDI, DIHK and ZDH.

Further information: www.berufundfamilie.de