Womanpower instead of gender quotas – Female employees as a competitive advantage
Equality plays an increasingly important role in all areas of life. And that's a good thing! While other companies may roll their eyes at the prospect of mandatory quotas for women, at Ochsner, female employees are an essential part of the corporate strategy.
Female employees as the key to success
A large proportion of the managers and specialists in our company previously worked in a different department at Ochsner or held a role with less responsibility. This is down to a corporate philosophy that represents an essential success factor: every time a vacancy comes up or a new position is created, we try to recruit internally first. Especially when filling key positions, we specifically look to promote people who have already proven their abilities and willingness to perform within our company. It goes without saying that female employees are treated equally in this process. In the last few years, women who were already at Ochsner have been promoted to management positions in the Purchasing, Marketing and Sales departments.
Womanpower in all departments
Unlike other companies, we do not frantically struggle to meet a mandatory quota of female staff. On the contrary: at Ochsner, we see "womanpower" as a competitive advantage. At our company, all positions are filled with the most qualified applicants – and these are often strong, successful women. Our area sales manager for Eastern Europe, for example, is a case in point.
Family friendliness = company friendliness
Happy staff are good staff. That is why no employee at Ochsner is ever faced with the choice between family and career. We offer our employees the ideal conditions to reconcile work and family life. In addition to equal opportunities and diversity, we set great store by flexible working hours.
Strong women in the crisis: interview with Ochsner mums
The corona crisis has presented us all with new challenges. Working mothers became the superheroes of everyday life. We invited four of our supermums for an interview to get a glimpse of the additional burdens this challenging time brought for them – and how they coped.
Anita, accounting employee and mother of a 5-year-old daughter
"I worked from home for nine weeks. Fortunately, I was spared home schooling, but even a child of kindergarten age needs to be kept busy. My daughter and I coped well during this time, and I was able to work in peace and quiet in the evening. But I really missed the personal contact with my colleagues."
Elena, technical communications employee and mother of a 7-year-old daughter
"I worked from home for almost two months and was pleased with the way our IT department handled everything – all the programs worked perfectly, as did the communication channels. Nevertheless, I still missed my colleagues very much. Working from home has its advantages, especially flexibility and saving time. But the distractions are enormous. Anyway, I've come to appreciate the quietness of the office in a whole new way."
Cornelia, accounting employee and mother of an 8-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son
"I worked from home for two months, but was able to spend one day a week in the office at times. The period working from home clearly showed me the benefits of the advanced digitisation in our company. I was able to work undisturbed as my children coped quite well with home schooling on their own. Nevertheless, I find it much nicer to speak to my colleagues in person and wouldn't want to only work from home on a permanent basis."
Sonja, employee in the technical department and mother of a 7-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter
"I worked from home for two months and everything worked out great from day one. I even learned to use some new communication channels. We managed well with the combination of home schooling and home office, and I am very grateful to the company for allowing us to be so flexible. But it wouldn't be a permanent solution for me; I missed my colleagues too much for that."
Ochsner says thank you
The success of any company is directly attributable to each individual employee. That is why we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you – not only to our strong female employees, but to all our dedicated staff.
Are you looking for a new challenge as part of our flexible, friendly and diverse team?
Then take a look at the current job vacancies at Ochsner right now
Current vacancies