Equal opportunities

ZB MED is committed to developing its organisation and staff to meet future needs on the basis of equal opportunities. In 2010, the ZB MED received the TOTAL E-QUALITY Award for exemplary practices in the sphere of equal opportunities.

Based on the strategy of gender mainstreaming, the library's managers and executives carefully evaluate the implications of measures and decisions for both women and men in order to avoid either gender suffering any unintentional discriminatory effects.

To ensure that both men and women are able to conduct their working lives on an equal footing, the ZB MED promotes various initiatives to help staff combine their career with bringing up a family.

The measures we offer include the following:

• Qualified part-time positions.
• Flexible worktime models (three flexitime options).
• The ability to credit overtime to a time bank.
• Alternative telework and home office options (assessed on a case-by-case basis).
• Emergency childcare facilities at our Cologne site and a parents and children room in Bonn.
• Support in returning to a career after a period of absence.
• An excellent selection of training and development programmes.Programmes to help promote staff health and welfare (for example the “active coffee break” initiative at the Cologne site).
• Career-related mentoring and coaching.