University of Oxford Department of Social Policy and

University of Oxford Department of Social Policy and Social Work Sustainable Growth, Social Inclusion and Family Policy Enterprises as Actors in Family Policy (Sub-project C) Martin Seeleib-Kaiser Timo Fleckenstein Barnett House 32 Wellington Square Oxford, OX 1 2 ER Martin. Seeleib@socres. ox. ac. uk Timo. Fleckenstein@sant. ox. ac. uk

Overview 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Why Occupational Family Policies? Forms of Occupational Family Policy Regulatory Framework for Occupational Family Policies and Firm Strategies Explaining Extra-Statutory Occupational Family Policies Research Questions Methodology Tentative Findings Progress and Next Steps

Why Occupational Family Policies? (1) Gap in social policy literature – Social policy analyses largely state-centered – Analyses of occupational/corporate social policies primarily focus on pension policies

Why Occupational Family Policies? (2) Increasing ‘necessity’ for measures reconciling work and private life associated with – At the Micro Level: Individualisation and Pluralisation • Increasing female participation in the labour market • Increasing male participation in reproductive work • Pluralisation of the ‘family’ – At the Macro Level: Changed Policy Objectives • Increasing employment rates/adult worker model • Sustaining family functions for the benefit of society -- limited state capacity/willingness for more comprehensive provision and regulation; firm level more ‘appropriate’ in allowing for ‘necessary’ flexibility (? )

Forms of Occupational Family Policy • Family-friendly work arrangements: such as reduced work week, flexi-time, term-time only, job-sharing, work at home • Leave from work for family reasons: such as maternity and parental leave beyond legal requirements, emergency leave beyond legal requirements, career break • Family transfers: such as specific remuneration schemes for employees with children • Practical help with childcare: such as workplace nursery, financial help, child-care provision during holidays • Relevant information and training: such as maternity packs, policy of actively informing staff about benefits, contacts during leaves, refresher courses

The Regulatory Framework for Occupational Family Policies and Firm Strategies Public regulatory framework for reconciling work and private life in the UK and Germany (e. g. , maternity and parental leave, part time work) -- more comprehensive policies in Germany. Collective agreements at industry and company levels (e. g. , on working time arrangements) complementing the public regulatory framework. How do firms ‘cope’ with the public and collective regulatory frameworks in the realm of work-life balance policies? • Compliance • Resistance • Manipulation • Extension

Explaining Extra-Statutory Occupational Family Policy: The Business Case • • Increase of productivity of employees and thereby the profitability of the business through family-friendly measures Family policies in particular as a means for retaining and recruiting highly-qualified staff -- here, fringe benefits as most effective resource allocation Family policies as ‘practical response’ to changing workforce Family policies as practices in human resources management • • Internal labour markets: family policies as means for ‘securing’ investment in human capital of staff High-commitment work systems: family policies as a means for increasing the commitment of employees

Explaining Extra-Statutory Occupational Family Policy: Sociological Approaches • Institutional Approaches – Firms operate in a public discourse exerting normative pressure (i. e. external influence) which induce the adoption of family-friendly policies. • Organisational Adaptation Theory – Critique of institutional approaches due to their insufficient acknowledgement of agency (iron cage thesis). – Firms function as interpretation systems responding to environmental changes. – Intra-organisational factors structure the response to changes in the environment: such as norms and perceptions of employers/management, the strength of organised labour, sociodemography of the workforce – Public policies and collective agreements provide an incentive structure for firms

Research Questions (1) • Which family policies are actually provided by firms? Does the provision of occupational benefits differ between ‘German’ and ‘British’ companies? • What are the reasons for the provision as well as nonprovision of family policies by firms? And more specifically, why are certain policies provided rather than others? • What is the impact of the political economy and the welfare state on the provision of family policies by firms?

Research Questions (2) • What is the impact of trade unions, work councils and equal opportunities officers on the provision of family policies by firms? • What are the implications of increased employer involvement in the provision of family policies in regards to maximizing sustainability?

Methodology • • Secondary Data Analysis: Mapping the Provision of Occupational Family Policies in the UK and Germany – UK: Work-Life Balance Studies (Employers’ and Employees’ Survey), Work Employment Relations Surveys (WERS) – Germany: IAB Employers’ Survey, IW Emloyers’ Survey, various Employees’ Surveys by the HBS Documentary Analysis of Selected Company Publications Survey among Employers, Employees’ Representatives and Equal Opportunities Officers of FTSE 100 Companies (UK) and DAX (30), SDAX (50), MDAX (50) Companies (Germany) Aiming to Identify the Reasons for (Non-)Provision of Firm-level Family Policies Four Qualitative Case Studies in the UK and Germany (interviews with management, representatives of employees and equal opportunities officers)

Tentative Findings: The German Case (Secondary Data) • Increase of family friendliness in recent years • About one third of the workforce is covered by some agreement on family policies/equal opportunities • Almost 90% of enterprises offer some form of flexible work arrangement • Catch-up in the private sector (in particular increase in flexible working time and child care provision) • Highest incident of family benefits in banking and insurance industry as well as utilities • Impact of female employment ambiguous • Correlation between family-friendly measures and company size as well as number of female managers

Tentative Findings: The UK Case (Secondary Data) • Increase in family friendliness in recent years • Almost 90% of enterprises offer some form of flexible working time arrangement (but lower incident of working time flexibility than in Germany) • Almost 70% offer maternity benefits beyond legal minimum requirements (legislation prior to April 2003) • Almost 40% of firms offer emergency leave beyond legal minimum requirements • Highest incident of family-friendly measures in banking and insurance industry, but also high incident in transport and communication as well as utilities • Correlation between family-friendly measures and company size as well as unionisation • Impact of female employment ambiguous

Progress and Next Steps • Progress – Review of the secondary data on the provision of extra-statutory family policies by firms – Review of the main social policy and political economy literature on extra-statutory benefits by firms – Review of the main management and sociological literature on extra-statutory benefits by firms – Preparation of the survey among FTSE and DAX companies • Next steps – April-June: conducting the survey and analysing the survey data – Second year: conducting the firm case studies – Institutional analysis of the UK and German cases

Public Regulatory Framework for Family Policies (selected measures) United Kingdom Germany Maternity Leave 90% of the average weekly income for 100% of the previous net income for 14 weeks the first 6 weeks, then £ 108, 85 (maximum duration of 39 weeks; previously 26 weeks), 13 weeks of unpaid additional maternity leave Paternity L. £ 108, 85 for up to 2 weeks - Parental Leave Entitlement to unpaid parental leave of 13 weeks Monthly benefit of € 300 for 2 years (or € 450 for 1 year; allows employment of up to 30 hours/week); alternatively: 67% of previous net income for up to 14 months, of which 2 are ‘daddy months’ (max. benefit of € 1800) Workingtime Entitlement to request part-time work Entitlement to part-time work Emergency Leave Unpaid leave for a reasonable amount of time Paid leave of up to 50 days (compensation equivalent to sickness benefit)