Balancing work and family

This has been part of Gemino’s corporate philosophy for years

Flexitime, company kindergartens, telecommuting, a smooth re-entry to the workplace after maternity leave – the incentives that many large corporations are introducing today have been common practice in many smaller companies for years already. This is especially true for industries where the proportion of women is relatively high and where a decentralised workplace is feasible.

One good example is the translation industry. Translation service providers – such as Gemino GmbH, with its 30 employees based in Munich and Berlin – have long since recognised the competitive advantage of offering flexible work conditions: highly qualified employees remain dedicated to the company for the long term and are able to adjust to the needs of the clients.

“Some of our teams have been working together successfully for more than a decade and sometimes aspects of their personal life change. As a business owner, I have to be prepared to respond in these situations if I want to keep the employees,” says Christian Schwendy, owner and managing director of Gemino GmbH. “Since we have the ideal technical basis to network our employees, we are able to offer various employment models, which in turn serve the interests of our clients.”

One of our long-standing employees moved to another city for family reasons, making it impossible for her to continue commuting to work. We integrated this experienced translator into our server-based translation environment via the Internet, enabling her to continue working closely with our project managers and other translators. Other employees have also been connected to our servers at Gemino, allowing them to continue working as translators from home following their maternity leave.

“Our clients benefit considerably from this system,” explains Schwendy. “Because when our translators are flexible, we are able to handle tasks in a more flexible way. So far almost all of our employees have returned to work after maternity leave, whether in a part-time, telecommuting or full-time capacity,” says Schwendy, adding, “But actually, flexible working hours are not just about freedom but about the responsibility that our employees assume. And it works fantastically well – which tells me we must be doing quite a lot right at Gemino.”

With offices in Munich and Berlin, Gemino GmbH supports businesses in positioning their products and services in new markets. The company offers translations in more than 30 languages and works closely with over 300 experienced translation partners around the world. A team of 30 in-house employees provides consulting services to businesses from almost all sectors.

Press Contact: pr@gemino.de