Work-life balance is a prime concern at GTZ. Drawing on the results of berufundfamilie® audits, our sustainable and family-friendly personnel policy is continually adjusted to meet the changing needs of our employees. We aim to be a leader and set an example in the field of social responsibility, and in December 2009 we once again received a family-friendly company award from the Hertie Foundation.

Assignments in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development require both our staff and their families to be mobile and extremely flexible. We offer our employees various possibilities for combining their private and work lives. These include over 350 part-time work models, options for organising work on the basis of annualised working hours, long-term working time accounts, flexitime, unpaid leave (for example if a close relative becomes ill) and sabbaticals. Support for family members who accompany staff on assignments abroad is another important component of GTZ's family friendly policy.

GTZ has long been aware of the need to provide day care for the children of working parents, and opened its own nursery in 1993. Children aged one to six are looked after in ‘Magic Land’ [Zauberland]. In the event that child-care arrangements are unexpectedly cancelled, parents can bring their children to work with them and use the ‘parent-child office’, which was established in April 2009. On GTZ Children's Day, an event as much in demand as the very popular annual Girls' Day, children can visit their parents' workplace and see for themselves what their parents do!

During all phases of parental leave, employees can discuss their leave arrangements with their managers and reach agreements on various matters, for example on keeping in touch with professional life by working part time or taking part in training courses.