"Family Company" in the truest sense of the phrase

VAUDE is a family business - and that goes far beyond the description of the company’s ownership. This concept is the foundational basis for one of our key corporate values: „Family Business".

The basis for our cooperation with each other within the company is our positive view of human nature, that people are basically self-motivated. They enjoy the effort of putting their skills to use and are happy to take on responsibilities. - see also „culture of values and trust".

„Family business" means that the balance between family/private life and career has a very high priority at VAUDE. For VAUDE, the personal lives of our colleagues are important as well. We strive to find joint solutions that also meet their private needs and wishes.

VAUDE offers individualized working models, home offices and part-time jobs. This is especially taken into consideration for our colleagues returning from a longer parental leave, so that they can successfully reintegrate their careers and private lives with a variety of flexible working-hour models.

Especially in rural areas, reliable child-care is a key factor in successfully combining work and family. The VAUDE Kinderhaus has provided exemplary child care services since 2001. Up to 31 children between 6 months and 10 years are cared for in nursery and a mixed age groups with after-school supervision. See „VAUDE Kinderhaus - our company kindergarten”. The birthrate at VAUDE has increased significantly since the opening of the Kinderhaus Child Care Center and is now almost four times as high as the German national average.

Birthrate Germany 2011: 8.1*.

Birthrate VAUDE 2014: 32.9;

Birthrate 2004 when the childcare center was opened: 19.0**

It has become a standard practice for our male colleagues to take at least two months parental leave after the birth of a child. All of our employees, including those in part-time, our interns and our temporary workers, are entitled to parental leave.

This trend was expressed again in 2014 with an increase in the number of employees who took parental leave. In total during the reporting period, 37 employees (report period 2013: 32 employees), of which 25 were female and 12 male, took parental leave. 

In 2014, 17 employees, who took parental leave, planned returning to their jobs. 16 employees returned to their jobs in 2014. One employee prolonged her parental leave. This corresponds to a return rate of 94 percent.

Utilization of parental leave and return to the job

To ensure that our colleagues on parental leave return promptly to work in a way that meets their personal needs, we support dialogue during and after the parental leave period. We organize parent meetings between VAUDE and employees twice a year in order to maintain contact and encourage dialogue.

The head of our Human Resources & Organization department is responsible for the implementation of these measures.

* Source: http://www.bib-demografie.de/SharedDocs/Glossareintraege/DE/R/rohe_geburtenziffer.html

** caculation of birth rates:

2014: 16 births / 486 employees x 1000 

2004: 5 births / 263 employees x 1000