Excellent work-life balance continues
Mareike Wulf (1st from left), Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, officially presented Anja Seehrich from HZB (2nd from left) with the certificate for its family-friendly HR policy. © Jens Schicke/ berufundfamilie Service GmbH
On 17 June 2025, the certificates for the ‘berufundfamilie’ audit were awarded in Berlin. HZB received an award with distinction for its long-standing efforts to promote a work environment that supports work-life balance. The audit is regarded as a seal of quality for the systematic design of family- and life-phase-conscious HR policies.
Anja Seehrich from the Office for Work and Life accepted the fifth certificate from Mareike Wulf, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, at the official award ceremony. The certificate bears the additional designation ‘Predi-kat.’ This special recognition honours HZB's long-standing and sustainable family- and life-phase-conscious personnel policy, which we have been pursuing since 2011 with the audit.
Successful measures for greater compatibility
In recent years, HZB has implemented numerous initiatives, including:
- Flexible working hours with flexitime, mobile working and teleworking
- Establishment of the Office for Work and Life as a central point of contact for employees
- Advice on legal and internal framework conditions
- Counseling for parenting, care and life counselling
- Family-friendly meeting times
- Company health management
- Reserved daycare slots at our Adlershof site
- Work-life balance as a leadership responsibility
- Mental health support and first aiders
Thinking ahead on work-life balance
‘We will not rest on our laurels with the measures we have already implemented. In the dialogue process, which is only open to long-standing certificate holders, we have developed further areas for action for 2024,’ says Anja Seehrich. Among other things, managers are to be more closely involved as multipliers. Target group-specific offerings are also to be expanded and better communicated, for example for international employees, doctoral candidates and managers. Work-life balance is an important issue that is also to be integrated more strongly into guidelines and management formats.
About the audit
The audit is carried out by berufundfamilie Service GmbH. The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs is the patron. A total of 921 organisations are currently certified according to the berufundfamilie audit, including 372 companies, 446 institutions and 103 universities.
- Humboldt-Fellow at HZB: Kayode Adesina AdegokeKayode Adesina Adegoke is a renowned chemist, affiliated with LAUTECH SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities Research Group), Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria. He is collaborating with Matthew Mayer, head of the "Electrochemical Conversion group", to investigate the degradation of electrocatalysts during electrochemical CO₂ reduction. The Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship enables him to stay at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin up to 24 months.
- Humboldt-Fellow at HZB: Alexander R. UhlAlexander R. Uhl, UBC Okanagan School of Engineering in Kelowna, Canada, aims to develop with Roel van de Krol from the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels an efficient and inexpensive photoelectrolyser for producing hydrogen using sunlight. His stay is being funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
- Helmholtz Investigator Group on magnonsDr Hebatalla Elnaggar is setting up a new Helmholtz Investigator Group at HZB. At BESSY II, the materials scientist will investigate so-called magnons in magnetic perovskite thin films. The aim is to lay the foundations for future terahertz magnon technology: magnonic devices operating in the terahertz range could process data using a fraction of the energy required by the most advanced semiconductor devices, and at speeds up to a thousand times faster.