With the Felix Familia, the Upper Austria News and the State of Upper Austria honor family-friendly initiatives every year. This year, the winner in the category “101+ employees” went to the Innviertel, namely to the family business EV Group (EVG) based in St. Florian/Inn. Thanks to extensive, free childcare directly at the workplace, the compatibility of family and career is not a problem for EVG employees.
In November 2012, the foundation stone for a new ensemble of buildings along the Inn was laid on the company premises of the EV Group. In addition to a restaurant, a spacious, modern building with a wooden facade and a continuous window front was built for the planned company kindergarten. EVG was the first company to offer in-house childcare in the Schärding district, playing a pioneering role at a time when comparable offers were still the exception throughout Austria.
The Innviertler high-tech company was and is involved in many current megatrends, from virtual and augmented reality to self-driving cars and big data to new possibilities for medical technology and has recorded strong growth for years. Since 2012, when the plans for the company kindergarten were implemented, the number of employees has almost doubled to over 1100, including more than 950 at the main location in the Innviertel. “EVG also wants to be an attractive employer for women with children. I know from my own experience how flexible, resilient and crisis-proof mothers are. Qualities that can be excellently brought to bear in an international company,” says company co-founder and Executive Vice President Aya Maria Thallner, herself a mother of three.
diversity and inclusion
The Innviertler company currently employs people from over 20 countries. The topic of integration is therefore already a top priority for the “EVG Minis”. Children from a total of eleven different countries are currently being cared for in St. Florian. One of the two kindergarten groups is run as an integration group and accordingly comprises a maximum of 15 children who are looked after, accompanied and encouraged more intensively.
The company kindergarten’s unique English project, which is entirely financed by EVG, also plays an important role in the integration. Once a week “Robbie”, a small hand puppet, visits the children and English is spoken and sung in the morning. In the last year of kindergarten, the program “Hip, hip, hooray!” offered.
All employees’ children are welcome at the “EVG Minis”. The extensive offer, including a freshly cooked lunch every day, is free of charge. One of the special features of the EVG company kindergarten is that it is open all year round.
Information and facts about the EVG company kindergarten
- The EVG company kindergarten is 644 square meters in size. The outdoor area in the green covers an area of 2460 square meters.
- 4 group rooms and bedrooms as well as a spacious gym and exercise room and a separate dining room are offered to the children at EVG. The name “EVG Minis” emerged as the winner from a company-wide competition.
- 8 children were cared for in the first season when it started in 2013. A toddler group was set up in the second year of in-house childcare at EVG. In the current kindergarten year 2021/22, more than 50 children are cared for at the “EVG Minis”. 20 children between the ages of one and three are housed in two crèches, and this season there are also two kindergarten groups with a total of 32 children.
Source: Nachrichten
