The forward-thinking NORMA Group has pledged to help employees with nursing relatives by signing the Charta Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Pflege (Charter on Reconciling Work and Care).
On September 6, 2016, the Hessian Minister of Social Affairs and Integration, Stefan Grüttner, handed over the instrument of accession at the Frankfurt Haus der Wirtschaft.
“We are pleased that NORMA Group offers its employees help in reconciling their professions with caring for relatives,” said Stefan Grüttner in welcoming NORMA Group as a new member. The Hessian initiative involving politics and business is unique in Germany. Some 130 companies that are committed to a nursing-sensitive personnel policy have already signed the Charter. “The employers thus send a clear signal that they want to contribute to eliminating the taboo surrounding care and communicate openly on the topic inside their companies,” Minister Grüttner said.
“By signing the Charter, we acknowledge that caregivers assume a special responsibility. As an employer, we want to offer our employees support in dealing with this particular situation and are thus also responding to changing demands that accompany demographic change. This is the only way we will be able to attract professionals that our company needs and employ them over the long term,” said Werner Deggim, CEO of NORMA Group.
Several employees of NORMA Group were trained to become Company Care Guides. They are there to assist colleagues who care for family members as contacts. Advice is given confidentially, quickly and in an informal manner. The Care Guides provide an overview of the most important steps in caring for others and provide addresses of the relevant contact points both inside and outside the company.
“Beruf und Pflege vereinbaren” (Reconciling Work and Care) is an initiative of the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration, the AOK – The health insurance company in Hesse, berufundfamilie Service GmbH and the Training Institute of the Hessian Economy. Its goal is for the relatives of those in need of care in Hesse to better reconcile work and care. Among other aspects, company Care Guides are trained. The initiative is supported by the Hessian Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration and the European Social Fund.
