Career Life Connection will be exhibiting at the Massachusetts Conference for Women in Boston on December 10.  Stop by the Career Life Connection booth to talk work/life happiness with President and Founder Leanne Chase.

This report describes how a woman’s nation changes everything about how we live and work today. Now for the first time in our nation’s history, women are half of all U.S. workers and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families…It fundamentally changes how we all work and live, not just women but also their families, their co-workers, their bosses, their faith institutions, and their communities. Quite simply, women as half of all workers changes everything…

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection will be attending the Social Recruiting Summit put on by ERE.net in NYC on November 16.  To meet with her to discuss workplace flexibility and talk about work/life issues please email her at chase at careerlifeconnection dot com.

Leanne Chase of Career Life Connection will be attending the OnRec/Kennedy Recruiting Conference in Chicago November 3 & 4.  She will also be discussing some spectacular business failures at the Fail Spectacularly event.  To meet with her to talk about workplace flexibility or work/life topics please email her at chase at careerlifeconnection dot com.

If your work life and personal life are out of balance, your stress may be running high. Here’s how to reclaim control. - by Mayo Clinic

One of the best resources I found for work-life research is the Center for Work-Life Policy, which works with employers to implement policies that will retain women and minorities. The center’s research, led by founding president Sylvia Ann Hewlett, documents trends such as the ways women ramp down and ramp up work to accommodate family needs, and points the way for companies to adapt.

Get to know these companies — they’re among the 100 best companies for working mothers….The take-away message, according to the magazine’s editors, is that “how, when, and where you work” is not as important as the quality of the work produced. In fact, a full 100% offer some sort of telecommuting or flextime schedule; 98% offer job-sharing; and 94% offer compressed workweeks.

A groundbreaking four-year study, set for publication in the October issue of Harvard Business Review, seems to confirm that getting away from work can yield unexpected on-the-job benefits….But the point of the experiment wasn’t to eliminate the “good intensity” in work—the “buzz” from constant learning and “being in the thick of things,” Harvard’s Dr. Perlow says. Instead, researchers targeted “bad intensity”—a feeling of having no time truly free from work, no control over work and no opportunity to ask questions to clarify foggy priorities, she says. Ms. Lovich adds: “We wanted to teach people that you can tune out completely” for a while and still turn out good work. The work itself became the focus, “because if you know a night off is coming up, you’re not going to let things spike out of control,” she says.  After five months of predictable time off, internal surveys showed consultants were more satisfied with their jobs and work-life balance, and more likely to stay with the firm, compared with consultants who weren’t part of the experiment. As word spread, other consultants began asking to join the study, Ms. Lovich says. And some clients told researchers the teams’ work had improved, partly because improved communication among team members kept junior consultants better informed about the big picture.

The twitter stream for work-life balance is #worklife.  Check it out frequently for great links to resources and articles.

We want to live for more than work. We like to feel that we are living for more than just ourselves. Corporate social responsibility initiatives make a company more attractive to us, creating the perception that by not just living selfishly, employers are somehow better people.

We were fortunate that we didn’t have to sell Andrea’s manager on the jobshare concept, but we still wanted to ensure success, so we put together a jobshare proposal.  First we interviewed other jobshare teams to learn best practices. We asked a lot of questions… how did they manage their work days, vacation time, email, voicemail, did they have their own cube or did they share, did they have separate performance reviews and rankings or shared, etc.  After these interviews we talked about what would work best for the two of us, as well as how to make it seamless to our partners and our manager.  We then documented a proposal, which we reviewed with our manager, before we started.  All this pre-work and planning we really think has helped us develop a structure that has been critical to our success. We wanted to share a few of the tools and tips that have worked especially well for us.

Most women around the world are over-extended, over-worked, over-stressed and under-served by consumer providers. They want time leverage, more value and suppliers that specifically understand them.

Those are key findings of a major, just-released global survey conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

The poll of 1677 people by Workingmums.co.uk found that 85% felt that offering flexible working on full-time jobs signified a family-friendly employer, with opportunity to work from home in full-time work coming a close second.  By contrast, only 31% felt that extended paid maternity leave was important in a family-friendly employer.

AARP said Acuity is committed to helping employees have a positive work-life balance.

During Labor Day week, it seems only fitting that we spend a little time on the topic of work-life balance. What do great bosses know about the struggle? Plenty, because many wrestle with it themselves.

The workplace is facing a generational adjustment of values, learning and working styles that will have a huge impact on how leaders think and act. Generation X and Generation Y will transform the nature of the workplace.

Imagine leaving your cubicle at any time of the day and working outside via a wireless campus your company has set up. If you worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, you could. If Utah-based Arup Laboratories were your employer, you’d work seven days on, seven days off — and still be considered full-time. Ever have days where you can’t seem to break away for lunch? NRG::Seattle forces you to. Every day around noon, the insurance company goes dark so that everyone must take an hour break for lunch. The goal: come back feeling recharged.

The National Association of Mothers’ Centers recently told a bipartisan U.S. Senate working group that a lack of flexibility in the workplace is punishing vast numbers of family caregivers in New Mexico and the rest of the country.

The results-oriented workplace model — where employees set their own schedules according to what they get done, rather than simply follow the clock — is said to be a hit with businesses eager to focus on tasks done rather than hours worked.  But is it good enough for government work? Hennepin County plans to find out.

Approximately one in four households in the United States is involved in caring for an aging adult. Kentucky statistics reveal that 1 in 6 adults provide care for an older or disabled adult. Two-thirds of these adults work, and trends suggest this percentage will increase in years to come.

Apparently students still value work-life balance above all else when listing top characteristics of an ideal entry-level employer, placing it well above other factors such as salary and meaningful work.  This according to Tracy Lynn Drye, the Senior VP of Employer Branding & University Relations at Universum USA, the research firm BusinessWeek partners with for the student data portion of our Best Places to Launch a Career rankings.

There are many ways to study the quality of work/life for employees at your company, and it is well worth the effort. Satisfaction with work/life is highly correlated with employee engagement, which in turn boosts productivity and retention. We recommend a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to study work/life.

Gen Ys believe they have more choice about work-life balance than previous generations, and if they don’t have it at your company they are likely to look for it elsewhere.

Findings by Deloitte show business leaders are increasingly focusing on staff turnover. Two-thirds are fearful of losing outstanding employees after the recession.  Work-life balance has become a deciding factor in employee job selection. More than half of the respondents surveyed by HR agency Robert Half and ACCA said they would take a job that paid less but had better work-life balance.

The 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work, just published by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), reveals that even in the midst of a turbulent economy, employers across the country are creating imaginative workplace approaches for improving the work environment and for helping employees navigate the shifting demands of their work and personal lives. They are offering assistance, for example, on how to manage job stress and overwork, welcome a new baby, or cope when a spouse loses a job. What is key (and perhaps surprising) is that these strategies help these companies achieve business results and respond to fluctuations in the economy. They help companies create effective and flexible workplaces, where work “works” for both the employer and employees.

The study, which sought to find out what women want in childcare, discovered instead that part-time work seemed to be desired by many mothers. The report suggests that improving the quality of childcare (a Rudd Government priority) might not be enough to convince parents to use it, since part-time work or flexibility of work is a common goal.

Radio show discussing how agencies can lower costs and increase employee productivity through virtual work options.

Organizations worry about being perceived as offering a good balance between work and personal time.  Many career sites and recruiters stress the ways the organization addresses this through flexible work policies, family-friendly HR polices, child care, and so on. And, for many job seekers, finding a company that offers this magic blend is the Holy Grail.

The findings listed in the bill provide a snapshot into the new norm for families in America. In the segment of married families with children, in 2/3 of the families, both parents work full-time.  The number of mothers with children under the age of 18 that work full-time is 71%.  Further, the bill reports that 70% of employed parents say that they don’t have enough time with their children.  Parents reported that the primary obstacle preventing them from spending more physical activity time with their children is their work schedules.

...the nonprofit Families and Work Institute’s free, downloadable 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work concludes that 81% of U.S. employers are maintaining and 13% are increasing the work flexibility they offer employees. Only 6% acknowledge reduced flexibility.

Smart employers are using flexible work options to manage through the recession—and help their employees manage. The organization I head, the Families and Work Institute, highlights 260 award-winning employers across the US using innovative approaches and practices including:

• Giving employees four Fridays off in the summer in lieu of raises the organization cannot afford
• Allowing employees to work at home 1-2 days a week to save on commuting costs
• Giving employees the option to take unlimited, unpaid personal time off during the downturn, while keeping full medical benefits and the right to return to their jobs
• Allowing employees greater scheduling flexibility if their spouse has lost a job or seen their hours reduced and the family needs to make changes
• Reassigning responsibilities when no hiring is possible
• Offering employees reduced hours or additional unpaid days off to avoid layoffs

In a time of high unemployment and widespread cost cutting, a surprising number of organizations around the country are raising the bar in developing effective and flexible workplace practices. Hundreds of these ideas are captured in the 2009 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work, released today by the Families and Work Institute (FWI).

It was clear then that flexible work practices and the issue of work-life balance were no longer marginal but had entered the mainstream.  In the US, with less than 20% of families having single earner breadwinners, at least one member in over 80% of US families is likely to have to juggle childcare or eldercare with their work.  In the UK, some 14 million people already work flexibly according to the UK government.

Flexible work arrangements traditionally have been the domain of exempt, salaried employees, but now more companies are using them for nonexempt, hourly workers, experts say.  According to a recent study by WorldatWork and Work Design Collaborative, 45 percent of survey respondents report they include nonexempt employees in their flexible work arrangements. The researchers expected to find that only about 15 percent did so, according to the study, which surveyed 135 employers.

According to strategic planning consultant Leigh Branham, SPHR, 88% of employees leave their jobs for reasons other than pay: However, 70% of managers think employees leave mainly for pay-related reasons. Branham says there are seven main reasons why employees leave a company:

  1. Employees feel the job or workplace is not what they expected.
  2. There is a mismatch between the job and person.
  3. There is too little coaching and feedback.
  4. There are too few growth and advancement opportunities.
  5. Employees feel devalued and unrecognized.
  6. Employees feel stress from overwork and have a work/life imbalance.
  7. There is a loss of trust and confidence in senior leaders.

Nonexempt employees participate in flexible work programs to a much larger extent than researchers had anticipated. 45% of survey respondents (61 out of 135 organizations) report they include nonexempt employees in those programs. 

The Office of Personnel Management is launching a series of programs to improve work/life balance for its 5,000 employees, a move that, if successful, many say will cascade throughout the federal government and into the private sector.

In an historic first, three federal department and agency heads met to discuss the creation of a model Work-Life campus that would include more than 6,000 Federal employees on multiple acres.

A powerpoint presentation showing the results of a study by Corporate Voices for Working Families. 

Come join Career Life Connection at the ERE Expo along with hundreds of leading recruiters who want to increase their level of personal performance, represent and brand their companies successfully, and ultimately raise the bar on providing value in difficult economic times.  Come by booth #205 where we will be talking about Workplace Flexibility on camera and off.

“Best Companies For Hourly Workers Survey,” which went live on July 17 (the application period ends October 16). The application measures both the availability and usage of programs that support hourly workers and, to be eligible to apply, companies must have at least 500 employees in the US and 50% of their US employee base must be nonexempt.

In a survey of 400 employers released Thursday, July 23, the Families and Work Institute in New York found that 81 percent have maintained flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting, compressed workweeks, phased retirement and voluntary reduced hours. An additional 13 percent have increased flexibility programs, while 6 percent have eliminated them.

Katty Kay and Claire Shipman are here.  Kay is the Washington
correspondent and anchor of “BBC World News America.”  Shipman is a
correspondent for ABC’s “Good Morning America” and a regular on “This Week
With George Stephanopoulos.”  Their new book explores the struggle many
women live, balancing their jobs and their families.  The book is called
“Womanomics.”

Great Good Morning America TV piece about workplace flexibility for women and how some women still feel they can’t talk openly without fear of retribution while others work for employers who understand that flex is good for your businesses bottom line as well as for attracting and retaining great talent.  There is also a discussion about the new book “Womenomics.”

Resource page covering topics on workplace flexibility including ROI of workplace flex for employers, generational views of workplace flex from the boomers to the millenials, and phased retirement among many others.

Workplace flexibility is good for employee retention:  In the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, 73% of employees with high availability of flexible work arrangements reported a high likelihood that they would stay with their current employer for the next year. Retaining employees translates to saving money on turnover-related costs

Several studies have discussed the return on investment that can result from flexible work options and other family-friendly benefits. A 2000 study by the Boston College Center for Work & Family surveyed 6 large corporations and found that 70% of managers and 87% of employees reported that working a flexible arrangement had a positive impact on productivity. Similar percentages reported positive impacts on quality of work and employee retention.

In 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers surveyed over 4,200 recent university graduates from around the world who either worked for or were about to work for them. They found that while only 3% of respondents expected to work mainly at home, 66% expected to work regular office hours with some flexible working. Keep in mind that presumably most of these workers do not yet have family responsibilities competing with their work responsibilities; they see flexible work as the way in which they want to conduct their working lives from the beginnings of their careers.

According to a study published by the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College, access to flexibility is one of the main drivers of engagement among Gen Y workers. Engagement refers to an employee’s connection with work that motivates them to work with “excellence,” as opposed to just getting the job done.

78% of the workers who expressed interest in a phased retirement program said the ability of this benefit would encourage them to work past retirement age. This is not just a “nice thing to do” for older workers; it cuts down on turnover costs and facilitates knowledge transfer from seasoned employees to younger workers.

31.2% of workers aged 65 and up used flexible schedules for their primary jobs, which is nearly identical to the percentage of workers aged 25 to 34 using flexible schedules, and greater than the number of Older Gen X and Boomers using them. That data is nearly 8 years old now; older workers have been working flexibly for several years now along with workers of all ages.

Workplace Flexibility is Multi-generational: 76% of the Mature workers surveyed, born between 1900 and 1945, agreed that “Freedom to set own hours if work gets done” was appealing to them. In this survey, 74% of Boomers, 73% of Gen X, and 63% of Gen Y agreed, making Mature workers the most enthusiastic about flexible work

A recession makes maintaining a healthy balance between work and life even more challenging. Here’s your evolving guide on how to build a satisfying work life and personal life without going crazy.
Work + leisure = weisure

1. Compensation/pay
2. Benefits
3. Job security
4. Flexibility to balance life and work issues
5. Communication between employees and sr. management

Read more from the 2007 Job Satisfaction Survey by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM).

According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of manager level temporary/flexible workers grew 78% from 1996-2006.  They tend to fall into 3 groups:

• The older, highly experienced executive who doesn’t want a full-time job.
• The experienced professional who is between jobs and wants to focus on a project while deciding what to do next.
• The consultant type, generally younger but experienced and preferring to work from project to project to maintain flexibility.

Read more in the July 2008 Issue of HR Magazine

“In 2004 nearly 30 percent of the full-time and salaried work force was taking advantage of flexible work schedules, according to government figures.”

Check out the entire CNN article that highlights real world examples of flexible solutions including alternative scheduling, leave policies, part-time work/job sharing, and telecommuting.

According to the 2008 National Study of Employers, those most likely to be flexible are employers that:

• are nonprofits;
• are in the finance and in professional services sectors;
• operate in more than one location;
• have fewer union members;
• have fewer hourly employees;
• have more women and more minorities in top positions or who report directly to those in top
• positions; and
• have more part-timers.

Interestingly, more flexible employers report less difficulty hiring hardworking self-starters and less difficulty dealing with the retirement of highly valued employees. It is impossible to separate the cause and effect here. Does seeing one’s employees in a positive light (as hardworking, self-starters) and managing human resource issues well (such as the retirement of key staff) lead to or result from providing greater flexibility?

Taken from a survey of senior Fortune 500 male executives (Miller & Miller, 2005)

• Fully 84% say they’d like job options that let them realize their professional aspirations while having more time for things outside of work.
• 55% say they’re willing to sacrifice their income.
• Half say they wonder if the sacrifices they have made for their careers are worth it.
• In addition, 73% believe it’s possible to restructure senior management jobs in ways that would both increase productivity and make more time available for life outside the office.
• 87% believe that companies that enable such changes will have a competitive advantage in attracting talent.
• Other interviews suggest that the younger a male executive is, the more likely he is to say he cares about all of this.

Check out this quote from a recent Boston College research study Work Life Evolution

According to the Pew Research Center, Fewer Mothers Prefer Full-Time Work:

“Among working mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under), just one-in-five (21%) say full-time work is the ideal situation for them, down from the 32% who said this back in 1997, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Fully six-in-ten (up from 48% in 1997) of today’s working mothers say part-time work would be their ideal, and another one-in-five (19%) say she would prefer not working at all outside the home.”

“Millennials are entering the workforce as quickly as boomers are retiring, and they’ve brought with them a set of ideals and skills that differ greatly from those of previous generations. Needless to say, they’re really shaking things up.

This generation, which most experts define as those born in the 1980s and 1990s, has grown up immersed in a technological world where their friends, families, and almost any piece of information are a click away. They are unabashedly self-confident; they believe they deserve respect; and they value work/life balance even more than financial rewards.”

- William Pisano at ERE.net