Review on the SWOPS Final Event

Review on the SWOPS Final Event

Johanna Havemann 15.06.2016 Newsletter

On 18 May 2016, the international project partners of SWOPS from France, Sweden, Austria and Germany came together at the SRH Hochschule in Berlin to present, evaluate and discuss the experiences and results.

 

After a welcome by Prof. Dr. Büsch, President of the SRH University Berlin, Cornelia Felicia Krämer gave an overview of the day’s program. The welcome message by the project patroness Dilek Kolat, Senator for Labour, Integration and Women in Berlin (SenAIF), was delivered by Sabine Daniel, Department of Women and Gender Equality Policy. Mrs. Daniel reported, among other things, that the desire of young people in Berlin to balance work and family life, in reality is still a challenge. On the success side, she countered that in the capital for many years more than 50% of women finish higher education studies – also in STEM subjects. And although the quota for women in the first management level stagnates since 2004, on the 2nd management level it is now at 50% women in Berlin.

 

 

Throughout SWOPS and in cooperation with the International Institute for Sustainability Management (IISM), students at the SRH University Berlin explore the theme Workplace Health Management (WHM). As part of a Company Project, students perform quantitative and qualitative interviews with several companies. The evaluation of the results will accumulate in a study, which is then presented in a textbook. For many companies across the EU, BGM is an important tool to be attractive as an employer for his own and potential new employees. The recommended BGM action are 1) healthy diet, 2) muscle and cardiovascular training, 3) prevention of addictions and 4) Stress & Relaxation Management.

 

 

 

The female operated companies Knauer GmbH and EuroNorm GmbH were honored by Mrs. Sabine Daniel (SenAIF) and Dr. Thomas Rau (RKW Berlin GmbH) with the QIBB Quality Award.

 

 

This was followed by presentations of the project partners from Sweden, Austria, France and Germany. The presentations can be found in the download area at swops.eu/downloads/projektergebnisse/.

 

The participants on the panel were: Sebastian Baacke, CEO at FairnessRatings GmbH; PD Dr. Elke Holst, DIW Executive board, Research director and Senior Economist; Dr. Jörg Müller – PD at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain and coordinator of the EU-project GEDII – a MINT project of the VDE (German electrotechnology association); Regina Senarclens de Grancy, Independent business consultant with a focus on Social Innovation, Vienna, Austria; and Dr. Thomas Rau, CEO at RKW Berlin GmbH

The panel participants agreed that it indeed makes sense to certify equal opportunities. To the question “How best can equal opportunities be achieved?” says Regina de Senarclens Grancy: “Keep it short and simple.” In his studies, Dr Jörg Müller observed prejudices and stereotypes in both men and women equally and sees equal opportunities rather as a process than as a state of affairs. Sebastian Baacke of FairnessRatings GmbH is convinced that equal opportunities need to overcome stereotypes. PD Dr Elke Holst, DIW Berlin, sees certification also dynamically possible, for example on the basis of salaries by a target-actual-comparison.

 

 

SWOPS GPS

Another highlight was the release of the SWOPS Good Practices (pdf in 3 languages, 245 pages) – available for download and dissemination at swops.eu/downloads/projektergebnisse/.