Here’s the latest news about the best places to work in order to have a life–and information on how to introduce work/life programs.
Healthy places to work: “Hospitals are pioneers in caring … and have a long history of providing on-site child care for their employees’ children,” observes Dana E. Friedman, senior adviser at Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Inc., based in Watertown, Mass. The firm manages child-care and early education centers in 37 U.S. states and four countries.
Writing in Bright Horizons’ newsletter, “Solutions,” Friedman explains why hospitals have been there for their workers from the beginning.
“With a predominantly female workforce and cyclical nursing shortages, hospitals have used child care as a recruitment and retention tool since the Civil War,” said the consultant, whose organization manages 40 hospital-based centers nationwide.
Friedman estimates that “child care is also part of the business strategy in 18 percent of all hospitals,” not just a routine work/life strategy given out of the goodness of their managers’ hearts.
More Top Picks Wrench Sets
The money market: If you’re a financially oriented professional in search of balancing your personal and professional lives, there’s now a list of the best places for you to work to achieve that often mercurial goal.
The “Best Workplace for Finance Professionals” includes a roster of companies “recognized for their dedication to provide satisfying and innovative work environments that attract and retain top-notch finance talent.”
And the big winners: Kraft Foods North America Inc., based in Northfield; CNA Financial Corp., based in Chicago; and The Vanguard Group Inc., based in Valley Forge, Pa.
Introduced in 2000, the sponsors of the list are the Association for Financial Professionals, The Hackett Group and CFO Magazine.
I’m particularly interested in this recognition because there is no entry fee, which often is a barrier for some companies that try very hard to be good employers.
Several factors go into the final selections, according to its sponsors, among them the quality of work/life.
“Work/life balance is one of the five areas companies were evaluated on,” said Richard T. Roth, managing director of The Hackett Group, a global research firm that focuses on finance and information technology.
One of the reasons Kraft Foods was honored is its cutting-edge work/life programs, including a career development month; CNA, for its support of flexible work hours and community involvement; and The Vanguard Group, for “its generous and comprehensive benefits.”
The latter is what all employees need everywhere.
Tooling up for work/life programs: “Unlike major corporations, which turn to their human resource department when they want to initiate work/life balance, most small businesses don’t have the time or money to develop these programs,” said Jill Wine-Banks, the CEO of Winning Workplaces, a non-profit organization in Evanston that emphasizes the importance of work/life programs and targets small and midsize businesses. “Yet work/life balance is one of the elements of a great workplace.”
And that’s why Winning Workplaces offers a Tool Kit for $20 that serves as a step-by-step guideline to implement cost-effective programs.
“Work/life benefits need not represent a major expense, although they can be expensive,” said Wine-Banks. “Begin with one or two options your employees want. … From there, you can add programs.”
The work/life expert points out that “one practice likely to be well received is flexible scheduling and telecommuting–which require little out-of-pocket expense and are highly-valued.” Wine-Banks is leaving her position at the end of January and will be replaced by Mary Corbitt Clark.
For more information about the Tool Kit, call 847-328-9788 or access www.winningworkplaces.org.
———-
Carol Kleiman’s columns also appear in Sunday’s Business and Wednesday’s Working sections. She is the author of “Winning the Job Game: The new rules for finding and keeping the job you want” (Wiley, $16.95). Send e-mail to [email protected].