Demanding, but flexible and family-friendly
Ralph Schlapbach was presented with the Golden Tricycle Award at the Executive Board’s Christmas reception this year. The award recognises the father of three as the most family-friendly supervisor at ETH Zurich.
Children like to be picked up from the crèche on time, and sometimes they are unwell. Family-friendly supervisors know that it is possible to work part-time or from home, and are more interested in the achievements of their employees than their mere presence in the workplace. These are some of the criteria for family-friendliness at ETH Zurich used by the jury for the Golden Tricycle Award, which honours the most family-friendly supervisor each year. The award was launched in 2007 by the Academic Association of Scientific Staff at ETH Zurich (AVETH) and is presented jointly by AVETH and Equal!, the ETH Zurich Office of Equal Opportunities. This year’s award winner is Ralph Schlapbach.
The professor at the Department of Biology and Director of the Functional Genomics Center Zurich is very pleased with the recognition. “I feel really good about the award. I try to create a family-friendly environment, without explicitly communicating that”, he says. “And you never know if it’s taken for granted or understood as a way of actively supporting staff.”
Nevertheless, he is very demanding of his staff members: they must be flexible and work to the very best of their ability. “To achieve this, I have to create an environment in which all employees, including those with children, are able to focus on their work. So, if children are unwell, for example, the parents need to be able to look after them. To do this, the parent can work from home, or catch up on their work at the weekend while their partner looks after the children.”
Schlapbach says he treats his staff in the way he hopes a supervisor would treat him. He has three children, aged five, nine and fifteen. His wife works at University Hospital Zurich. “My awareness of family-friendly practices comes primarily from my own experiences and needs.”
Part-time options
The jury for the Golden Tricycle were impressed by the high level of importance that Schlapbach places on good teamwork and the way that he supports staff working part-time in their careers.
“Part-time work is misinterpreted by some as a lack of commitment”, says Schlapbach. But he says this is not the case: “These team members are often more efficient. Because they know that their time is limited, so they fit more into their hours at work.”
Schlapbach explains that organising a team of 40 people in this way is a challenge, and it requires understanding from the whole team: “I create the environment, but the team needs to support family-friendly practices to make it work for everyone. It’s not just parents who benefit from the flexibility – it’s also good for employees with other responsibilities.”
The Executive Board’s Christmas reception
The Golden Tricycle, the prize for the most family-friendly supervisor at ETH Zurich, was awarded at the traditional Christmas reception with the Executive Board on 15 December, 2015.
The ETH President, Lino Guzzella, said goodbye to his Vice President Human Resources and Infrastructure, Roman Boutellier, who will be leaving office in a few days. He handed over the key to his office to his successor, Ulrich Weidmann, during a spectacular feat of climbing on a climbing wall set up specifically for this event.
Lino Guzzella also paid tribute to the successes achieved by ETH Zurich in teaching and knowledge transfer in 2015 and thanked his staff for their outstanding achievements this year.
Photos and a video recording of the occasion can be found at www.ethz.ch/christmasreception2015.