There were 76 companies, public authorities, and NGOs entered to win the Prix Balance in the Canton of Zürich. The Prix Balance is an award for employers who manage to ensure an exceptionally good work-life balance for their employees.
Out of this abundance of fine examples, the jury crowned besides Netcetera six more winners: Hug Publisher, the Secretariat of the Public Buildings Department of the City of Zürich, Kuhn Rikon, the University Centre of Expertise for Healthcare, EMPA, and the Cantonal Bank of Zürich.
All of these companies offer their employees working conditions which are particularly conducive to achieving a good work-life balance that allows employees to meet both professional and private needs, whether this time and flexibility is put towards childcare, caring for elderly, ill, or disabled relatives, or just for practicing a hobby. The prize-winning companies excel in providing versatile working time models, mobility, and particularly supportive measures for fathers, mothers, and for people caring for dependent relatives. The way in which the issue is embedded in the company’s corporate culture, for example by addressing it during staff review meetings, was of particular importance to the jury.
Progressive working conditions regardless of industry and size
The amount of applications received shows that modern and progressive working conditions are important to all: Many applications came from the service and retail sectors and from the processing and construction industries. All sizes of company were represented, from the smallest SMEs right up to huge multinationals.
These employers offer conditions which allow employees in every life situation to reconcile their work and private lives: measures taken range from awareness raising campaigns on part-time work for men and fathers, through activity weeks for employees’ children during the school holidays, right up to assistance from in-house support workers and events concerning care of the elderly.
