100 Best Companies for Family Friendly Policies – Really?
Posted September 24th, 2009 by Valerie YoungFrom Your (Wo)manInWashington blog
Working Mother magazine has just hit the desk, and the cover trumpets the annual listing of 100 Best Companies for working mothers and other caregivers. The implicit message is that American business acknowledges the value of workers with caregiving responsibilities, and is happily adopting workplace practices to enhance their effectiveness at both the work and family roles. Employers who make the grade enhance their reputation by proving that sensitivity to the needs of a diverse workforce makes companies more productive and boosts the bottom line.
The bright side is that placement on this list is coveted by companies and has over the years made being seen as offering workplace flexibility a positive. But could there be a darker side? Wonks wagging in Washington point to the number of advertising pages bought by some of those very companies whose names are on the list. A personnel officer of one of the winners confided that while the policies are on the books, the corporate culture discourages employees actually implementing the “family-friendly” policies. The survey, of companies with thousands of workers, records the percentage who have access to paid maternity and paternity leave, flexible scheduling, childcare, and sick- or back up child care. Obviously this number could be much higher than those who actually utilize such programs. Rather than serving as an inducement to encourage greater workplace responsiveness, could such listings be the result of corporate PR and publishers’ need for revenue?
Even worse to contemplate, opponents of paid family medical leave, paid sick days, and part-time worker parity, could use such data to argue that legislation making these “perks” minimum workplace standards is clearly unnecessary. If so many employers, who know the needs of their workers most intimately, are voluntarily providing such sterling services on their own initiative, why would we wish to tie their hands by enacting uniform, across-the-board, basic federal labor policies like paid leave or paid sick days? What a chilling effect that would have, they say.
Ironically, the majority of US workers don’t work for corporations, but are emloyed by small or medium-sized businesses. Most workers don’t have access to these policies, let alone actually benefit from them. They would gain the most, in terms of both economic security and the number of households impacted, from paid leave, paid sick days, and the like. Who is actually helped or hindered by Working Mother’s annual list?
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7 Comments
I completely agree with Jackie’s comments. I, too, worked for one of the companies on the top 100 list. Although they have “policies” and “initiatives” to help working mothers, in practice, it was a joke. If you could not respond to an issue immediately or had to be accomodated for because of a special schedule, you were overlooked. There were no role models at the company who were working mothers and in senior positions, unless they worked around the clock. The one woman who was senior was in the office 15 hours a day – there before I got in and there after I left. The top 100 list should be developed by really asking those that work there, at all levels, not just looking at policies a company might have and finding one person who thinks it’s working.
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September 25, 2009 at 9:35 pm by JackieBy the way, both of those bosses were women with children.
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September 25, 2009 at 9:34 pm by JackieI have worked for several large companies with all sorts of “family-friendly” policies on the books, but the reality was that employees were not allowed to use, or were strongly discouraged from using, such benefits. For example, after I had a baby I asked the president of one company about the job-sharing arrangement that was touted in the HR literature. I was basically laughed out of the room. Another boss at a different company once remarked that perks like flextime were for the “dock workers in India.” I remember that verbatim because of course we all laughed about it for months (well, laughed and shook our heads in disgust). It’s a real problem.
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September 25, 2009 at 5:59 pm by Joyce FredoAt Flexible Resources, Inc., a staffing and consulting firm based in Stamford, CT, we see women in our offices every day who work or have worked at companies on this Top 100 list and we know fora fact that many only give lip service to flexibility. These women come to us because they want REAL flexibility. We know that only companies that appreciate the bottom line benefits of flexibility, that is, a more productive, committed, loyal and focused workforce, that appreciates the retention and attraction value of flexible work arrangements, companies that measure results over face-time are truly the only ones who really understand what flexible work arrangements are all about. They are not perks for working moms, and when they are viewed that way, they cause problems: non-parent employees feel resentment, and management believes they can take this perk away as ‘punishment’ or when the economy goes south. Companies that fully embrace flexible work arrangements rarely make this list – they simply employ top talent within budget and appreciate the viral and virtual nature of our global 24/7 workplace.
http://www.flexibleresources.com; flexnotes blog; on twitter at twitter.com/flexresources
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September 24, 2009 at 8:46 pm by Michael Haberman, SPHRMajor corporations may not take care of employees, but many small and mid-size businesses do. I work with many and often they go overboard to be caring and helpful. Many times this is to the detriment of the company. The picture is on a broad canvas and not all companies can be painted with the same brush.
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September 24, 2009 at 7:31 pm by MorraI think there is really a (false) perception that corporations in the US take care of flexible work policies, paid leave, etc., and this is not a role for Government or small business.
As you point out this is SO not the case. How do we shift perception?
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