Working Parents Program: Story of a bottom to top CSR program of a voluntary team of a multi-company

By Ildikó Győri and Éva Marton

You are holding a book based on a true story. This book is the story of a mission. A mission that surpassed the level of dreams. A mission, which has materialized so quickly and professionally that it has changed anything we knew of company motivational systems – in the best sense possible. All this happened in the everyday life of one of the biggest companies today.

We recommend this book to You if you are leading a team in an organization. Read this book if you are at the beginning of your professional highway, a new employee, a team member who desires success. This book refreshes your daily routine if you are an HR professional and want to understand the diversity, behavior and motivation of those working around you.

At a company, at your workplace, let it be whatever the size, it is possible that You

- are looking for ways how generations X, Y and Z can cooperate, regardless they being a leader or a working parent or just a talent

- would like to reach commitment from your employees in a way that they feel good at their jobs and do a lot to create and maintain a constructive and inspiring working environment

- are recruiting volunteers and would like to inspire their work because you feel that the value of the workplace grows stronger through their activities

- are curious what you can get out of a local initiative,

- probably want to become a role model in your sector, in the country or regionally

- want to try and see how quickly can a professionally constructed project, one that has not been initiated at company headquarters, but which has originated in Your micro environment, reach from one day to the other several locations in the world…

If any of these thoughts has already crossed your mind, read further!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gyori/Marton
• Release date: Jul 22, 2019

Book preview

VÁLTOZAT

ENGLISH VERSION

WORKING PARENTS PROGRAM

A journey of a workplace social innovation from zero to hero

ISBN 978-615-00-1993-2

Author and publisher: Ildikó Győri – Éva Marton

Photo and illustration: Éva Marton

Editing: Orsolya Büki – László Kosovics – István Pap

Proofreader: Sándor Margay  – István Pap

Partner:

Global Document Outsourcing

Xerox Magyarország Kft.

1138 Budapest, Magyarország, Madarász V. u. 47/49. 2/b. 2. em.

T: [phone] | [e-mail]

www.martoneva.com | [e-mail]

www.workingparentsglobal.com

Budapest, 2018

All rights reserved - Ildiko Gyori / Eva Marton © 2018

WELCOME

Dear Reader,

You are holding a book based on a true story. This book is the story of a mission. A mission that surpassed the level of dreams. A mission, which has materialized so quickly and professionally that it has changed anything we knew of company motivational systems – in the best sense possible. All this happened in the everyday life of one of the biggest companies today.

We recommend this book to You if you are leading a team in an organization. Read this book if you are at the beginning of your professional highway, a new employee, a team member who desires success. This book refreshes your daily routine if you are an HR professional and want to understand the diversity, behavior and motivation of those working around you.

At a company, at your workplace, let it be whatever the size, it is possible that You

are looking for ways how generations X, Y and Z can cooperate, regardless they being a leader or a working parent or just a talent

would like to reach commitment from your employees in a way that they feel good at their jobs and do a lot to create and maintain a constructive and inspiring working environment

are recruiting volunteers and would like to inspire their work because you feel that the value of the workplace grows stronger through their activities

are curious what you can get out of a local initiative,

probably want to become a role model in your sector, in the country or regionally

want to try and see how quickly can a professionally constructed project, one that has not been initiated at company headquarters, but which has originated in Your micro environment, reach from one day to the other several locations in the world…

If any of these thoughts has already crossed your mind, read further!

FOREWORD

In 1991, when I started to study at the Faculty of Psychology, only 24 of us were accepted at the university countrywide. We were living an offline life. There was neither internet nor smart/mobile phones. Computers were provided in one IT room, only in a limited number to be shared among 100 students. The sources of knowledge were the books back then. Books around psychology published in or translated into Hungarian  were to be found only in the library; these were rare and precious copies. It was on a late fall afternoon when I came across Dr. Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, while studying in the library reading room.

Today, 20 years later, in 2018, while this book is being written, we live in an online world. Everybody is connected, and can be reached in six steps. I am watching Dr. Zimbardo’s video message, which is the introduction to our first worldwide conference, Global Working Parents’ Day. The important opening message was filmed by Dr Zimbardo, and has been sent through a smart application to us on my personal request, as I have the honor of knowing him in person.

To me this is a miracle. How could this have happened to me in only a few years’ time?

In 2012, when I started drifting away from constructing organizational structures to creating CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) based on Family-friendly Programs, most of my friends and customers asked the same question: Are you crazy? You are wasting your time on something that nobody is interested in!

Every rational argument was against my decision, nevertheless I believed that I was on the right path. I have spent the next five years developing and executing employee benefit programs a lot of which were on a voluntary basis and operated with volunteers. The first positive feedback came in the summer of 2013: our conference entitled Mothers – Managing Organizations and Families was sold out. One of the round table discussions held by Éva Marton focused on her experiences organizing family-friendly programs within a big corporation.

In that same year I became a presenter at General Electric’s (henceforth GE) event entitled Working Parents’ Day (henceforth WPD). Besides round table discussions, I quickly became involved in the story of WPD: in the backstage I took an active part in the transforming a one-time event into an internationally well accepted best practice. Working with Eva and her team of volunteers, the Working Parents in the last five years has proven to me that if you invest your time and energy into a project, beneficial for others, based on your passion, it will pay off sooner or later and as a result, more people will join the cause you work for.

On that winter night when we were preparing the opening speech of the first Global Working Parents’ Day, we were talking about everyday heroes. All of a sudden it became clear to me that I got to know an everyday hero in the person of Éva Marton. I understood that I needed to share Éva’s story with the world. With you, dear reader, so that you know that you can make the DIFFERENCE, you can make the world a better place anytime. You do not need superhuman capabilities to do so. Whatever you have will suffice. Just be brave to take the first step and the rest will follow.

I hope you come with us!

I believe that our children are the future. Literally. – Éva Marton

The story of Éva Marton

I live my life on the guidelines of Nemeskürty’s words (a poet from Hungary) : "The future of a country lies in how mothers raise their children". To this day I intend to start and finish my day according to this. If we do not invest in the future, if our children are not happy, if they get frustrated parents coming home, it will not be to their benefit on the long run. The things I do on a daily basis as a volunteer with my team are to help the children. I would like to contribute to a happy mother or father picking them up from kindergarten or school. I believe that our children are the future. Literally.

A family-friendly program in place at a company will have a beneficial effect on families and their children, on future generations. In case the company does not care for the fathers and mothers, then a stressful, annoyed and frustrated parent will go home from work, instead of one who loves their job and is happy. In an environment such as this one the future generation will not have a well-balanced lifestyle, albeit they are the ones building the future, our future. The starting and end point of my mission is the child: How can we support the children through their parents? The recent investment will come back to us: as elderly parents we will be dependent on our children’s support. They could rightfully ask: What is it that you had done for me when I needed You? This is how, through the WPD initiative, it all comes together and makes a whole in the end: every generation is involved and included. The people who plan on having children, who are already raising one, who are supporting their child at university, or caring for their elderly parents. If you support your children when they need it, they will probably do the same for you when you will need it.

PART 1

The story of Éva: GENERAL ELECTRIC – supporting the finance functions of 16 countries

It is a fact known worldwide that as other big corporations, GE intends to recruit the most talented employees to fill positions in every field of work, all around the world. In my case, at the first interview, during the selection procedure, it was evident that they pay close attention to