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Next-Generation Benefits (Part I)
By Sonja Sherwood
August 25, 2006
Technology, demographics and transformations in generational and gender roles
have made work/life balance everybody's business. Traditional notions of
flexibility are in flux as companies experiment with programs that stretch the
meaning of time and work.
Work/life benefits help employees maintain focus in the face of busy lives
and full workloads. For little or no cost, they make it possible for individuals
to stay and grow on the job throughout important life changes such as the birth
of a child or new-skills training. Employees in flexible workplaces feel more
engaged, satisfied and mentally healthy, which fosters productivity and loyalty,
according to national studies by the Families and Work Institute.
Once perceived as perks, work/life benefits increasingly are a competitive
edge in the war for talent. Fifty-one percent of executive women and 43 percent
of executive men desire more balance, and more than 80 percent of both men and
women dual-earners would seek out flexible work hours in a new employer,
according to surveys by Catalyst, a research group for the advancement of women
in business.
DiversityInc spoke with Abbott Laboratories, Turner Broadcasting System,
Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers—all national leaders in work/life and
retention—about what programs have worked for them, what the future holds for
work/life solutions, and how similar projects can be implemented at other
companies.
The Retention Connection
In an economy where white-collar workers are working longer hours further
from home, programs to ease conflicts between personal and professional lives
pay for themselves with fewer hiring costs and improved retention.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) weighs the cost of its lactation program—which
provides new mothers with board-certified consultation, a subsidized breast pump
and a private pumping room—against the cost of turnover at the firm, estimated
at $80,000 an employee. PwC was one of DiversityInc's 25 Noteworthy Companies
for Diversity in 2005.
"Considering the cost of the lactation program is around $375,000 annually,
if it influenced just five women out of the 630 who enrolled in the program to
return to the firm after their maternity leave, we've recouped the entire cost
of the program," says Jennifer Duris, manager, office of diversity. PwC's
overall retention rate has improved 3 percent over the past two years, during
which time the company extended the lactation program to the spouses of male
employees and expanded paid parental leave from one week to three.
The program also may reduce absenteeism because breast-fed babies are less
likely to experience common infant illnesses that require home care by a parent,
according to employee-absence research conducted by Rona Cohen. Cohen is an
assistant clinical professor in UCLA's School of Nursing and the founder and
president of MCH Services, a Los Angeles consulting company that administers
PwC's lactation program.
Work/life benefits clearly are important to the companies that ranked in the
DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention. All of them
offered telecommuting, dependent-care benefits, adoption assistance, job
sharing, flex-time and cafeteria-style benefits, and half of them have onsite
childcare facilities. By comparison, only 6 percent of companies nationally have
onsite childcare facilities and only 20 percent have adoption assistance,
according to a survey of 2,500 human-resources professionals conducted by the
Society for Human Resource Management.
Abbott Laboratories focuses tremendous attention on solving the balance
issues that impact employees at every life stage, whether a young single, a new
parent or a middle-age executive balancing children and elderly parents. A
survey of 8,000 Abbott managers in January 2004 (originally reported in
DiversityInc's June/July 2004 issue) revealed that 75 percent felt they had the
flexibility they needed to manage life and work.
The pharmaceutical manufacturer enjoys one of the lowest turnover rates in
the pharmaceutical industry, at 8 percent, compared with 10.7 industry-wide,
according to Organizational Research Councilors data cited by the company, with
comparable rates of retention at all levels of employment. More importantly,
according to data submitted for The 2005 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for
Diversity survey, Abbott's retention rate was between 94 percent and 96 percent
for all racial/ethnic groups and for both men and women.
Abbott was No. 3 on the Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention, No.
1 on the Top 10 Companies for Executive Women, and No. 5 on The DiversityInc Top
50 Companies for Diversity lists.
At Time Warner's operating company Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the
average employee is 35 years old, the age when many couples are starting
families. TBS has maintained a low turnover rate (between 5 percent and 10
percent) by allowing parents flexible hours and part-time schedules. Flex
arrangements cost TBS nothing and have earned the company an
employee-satisfaction score of four (on a scale of one to five) around
work/life.
"You can't put a price tag on the flexibility of being on a job that you like
and having that job at a company that's willing to help adapt that job around
your family," says Loretta Walker, senior vice president, human resources at
TBS. "I was just talking to a senior vice president two days ago who works a
flexible schedule, and she said that because of it, she never even considered
looking outside the company for another job."
Turner ranked No. 4 on the Top 10 Companies for Recruitment & Retention,
No. 4 on the Top 10 Companies for Executive Women, No. 10 on the Top 10
Companies for African Americans and No. 2 on The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies
for Diversity lists.
Click here to read Part II.
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