Career & family
It is the ambition of the IGZ to offer its employees optimal conditions for reconciling work, care and family, and for achieving a sustainable work-life balance. Only those who have the opportunity to meet both their professional and family demands can realise their full potential and perform outstanding scientific work. In 2012, the IGZ first started using the audit workandfamily (audit berufundfamilie) as a tool for reinforcing its sustainable HR policy geared towards different stages of (family) life and has been several times successfully been certified. Work related to the audit at the IGZ is coordinated by a working group (contact: audit@igzev.de).
Combining work and family life
The certificate involves a voluntary commitment by the institute to take necessary and appropriate measures to implement the promotion of balancing work and stages of (family) life and to engage in active gender equality efforts. The aim of these measures is to maintain employees’ motivation and health, and to enhance the IGZ’s attractiveness as an employer, facilitating excellent science. Some measures have already been implemented for many years, while others were initiated as part of the regular re-auditing process.
Existing measures (selection)
- Flexible working time models with regulations for mobile working
- Annual working time accounts
- The ability to take time off work to care for close relatives in need of long-term care
- Entrenchment of work-life balance in annual performance reviews
- Professional development programmes during working hours
- Multifunctional rooms for childcare, health programmes and relaxation
- Health promotion options (massages, participation in health days)
- Support for individual needs in language training
Gender Equality & Equal opportunities
For the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), both an equal opportunities and an equality-oriented personnel policy are of central importance. This aims to make the IGZ a place of work where all employees can develop and contribute their skills regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, physical limitations, religion, sexual orientation or ideology. Accordingly, the IGZ sees diversity as a fundamental component for high-calibre research and uses it as a resource in terms of mutual understanding and appreciation, a gender-equal, discrimination-free and family-friendly working environment, individual career advancement and the reduction of disadvantages in other areas.
The IGZ aims to provide equal opportunities for all in terms of entry, development and promotion opportunities. The IGZ recognises that all decision-making processes and measures must question and take into account the different life situations, interests and opportunities with regard to gender-specific and other effects or possible disadvantages (e.g. of an underrepresented gender).
The Gender Equality Plan documents internal institutional strategies and identifies further opportunities for development. It thus functions as a strategic guide for the institute.
In order to make the importance of equality and equal opportunities clear, a new gender equality plan (GEP) for the IGZ was developed in 2022 and signed by the management (can be viewed here).
CoARA
Support for the CoARA principles
The IGZ is part of the Leibniz Association, which is one of the signatories of the „Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment“ (CoARA).
CoARA is committed to reforming the assessment of research, researchers and research institutions to include a qualitative assessment of a wider range of contributions to research in addition to purely quantitative metrics.
The IGZ supports the principles and objectives of CoARA and is committed to fair, transparent and responsible research assessment.