Family-Supportive Workplace Environments: The Employer's Role

FS-518, March 1993

Deb Gebeke, Family Science Specialist
NDSU Extension Service

In a 1951 Fortune magazine, an IBM executive described his company's pro-family policy: Wives and children of company men should be included in the life of the corporation by the provision of country club facilities, picnics and parties, and special children's clubs. The responsibility of the corporation was to provide entertainment for the family. A work/family problem was viewed as a conflict between excessive work hours of corporate men and the emotional needs of their wives and children.

Since 1951, family life and the business environment have both changed dramatically. The influx of women into the work force, the economic necessity of two-income families, the increase in single-parent families, child care and elder care availability and affordability, and increased time pressure have all contributed to the work and family concerns of the '90s. Yet many families and businesses have neglected to adapt to these changes.

No longer are family concerns strictly individual or female issues. Balancing work and family is an issue for both females and males. Women have rapidly increased their labor participation in North Dakota as well as in the U.S. Men are expected to be more actively involved at home with household duties and the care of children and/or aging parents.

Often we assume that rural states have remained very traditional with the majority of women primarily at work only in the home. Statistics do not support this line of thinking. Businesses in our state are beginning to develop partnerships to address the inevitable work/family conflicts. The corporate bottom line is a must to consider, but in the end, it is the next generation of children who stand to benefit or lose the most.

Ever since the Workforce 2000 report was issued, progressive companies have recognized that if they want to recruit and retain a skilled, loyal work force, they need to become partners at work and in the community to create a family-friendly environment. Offering options such as flexibility to enable workers to manage their work and personal lives is important as is providing training to assure supervisor sensitivity within the company.

Benefits Offered and Expected to be Offered
---------------------------------------------------------
			     Companies	  Companies
Non-traditional		     surveyed 	  surveyed 		
benefits for the	     currently	  that will offer
work force of 2000	     offering	  by year 2000
---------------------------------------------------------
Offering child care and 
  referral service	   	29%	      75%
Subsidization of child-care	12%	      52%
  expenses
On- or near-site child-care 
  facilities	    		 7%	      35%
Sick child-care facility/	 3%	      28%
  home-based care
School/camp advising service	 3%	      14%
Off-hour babysitting	 	 1%	       9%
Elder-care resource and 
  referral service		11%	      64%   
Subsidization of elder-care	 3%	      23%
  expenses
Elder respite care	 	 1%	      19%
Part-time employment		80%	      94%
Flexible hours			52%	      86%
Family leave			49%	      84%
Job sharing			24%	      67%
Telecommuting 
  (home-based work)		15%	      52%
---------------------------------------------------------
Source: The Work and Family Revolution: How Companies Can 
Keep Employees Happy and Business Profitable, Barbara 
Schwarz Vanderkolk and Ardis Armstrong Young, Ed.D., 
(1991), p. 74.

Supervisor Sensitivity

A headline in the Wall Street Journal read:
Managers Navigate Uncharted Waters Trying to Resolve Work/Family Conflicts.

All over the country middle managers and supervisors are on the front lines of handling a variety of issues. How far should an employer go in helping to resolve employee conflicts? How much flexibility and understanding are too much?

Carol Sladek, a work/family consultant for Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Ill., refers to middle managers as "foot soldiers in the work/family revolutions." Their responses range from a fear of getting into trouble to rigid rules to just "winging it."

Flexibility

The national news recently carried this story about flexibility:
Mom Late 54 Times; Judge Proposes Flex-time, Not Penalty.

When Lesbhia Morones, a California mother of five, was late for work 54 times in five months, her employer, the Department of Motor Vehicles, decided to cut her pay by 10 percent. Morones took them to court. Because she couldn't drop her youngest children off at child care until 8 a.m. and had only half an hour to get from one end of San Francisco to the other, chances were she would continue being late. Administrative Law Judge Ruth Friedman proposed revoking all penalties and allowing Morones to start her workday 15 minutes later. The problem,
she said, was not personal but social. The state personnel board appealed the decision, and the matter will go before a state hearing.

Clearly, flexibility is a major concern to employees and supervisors. Employers are looking for creative ways to use flexibility with their work force.

The Business Response

The workplace of the 1990s is a place of increasing pressure -- pressure to perform, to improve. Employers have increased pressure on employees to meet the needs of their customers and run a profitable business. As a result, employers find their employees are in need of support.

Supervisor and management training in handling work and family concerns is surfacing as an important issue for the workplace in the '90s.

The Bottom Line

How can you justify work/family programs without giving away the store? What's in it for the business?

A report from The Conference Board called Linking Work/Family Issues to the Bottom Line offers evidence that such programs pay. The report analyzed 80 research studies and concluded that reduced turnover, lower absenteeism and increased productivity are a few of the benefits to companies that help employees balance work and family.

But these conclusions are not unequivocal. "Research can make the case to those who want to see the connection between the bottom line and family concerns," the report notes, "But it will be unconvincing to those who do not believe in this new role for business." Most companies have examined how unmet needs negatively affect productivity, but to date few have tracked how the company's efforts to help meet those needs have positively affected productivity.

Companies with work and family programs in place put a high value on them. They are at least as recession-proof as other human resource programs. According to a survey conducted by The Conference Board in 1992, more than 60 percent of the 131 companies responding indicated their dependent care, alternative work schedules and family leave programs expanded during the past year. While 32 percent of the companies surveyed experienced declining profits, only 2 percent cut family programs more than other human resource programs.

"To some degree, work/family programs are a means of dealing with recessionary problems," says Arlene Johnson, program director of work force research at The Conference Board. "Employers know that their reputation for how they treat people is made during bad times. It's important to give people the feeling that they aren't disposable, and these programs are less expensive to maintain than many others. Often there are no costs involved other than administration."

Can Small Companies Compete?

Fel-Pro, Inc., a maker of gaskets for internal combustion engines, is a small company that has found family-friendly policies to yield productive workers. The investment in their benefits (child care, summer camp, scholarships, summer jobs, elder care, family leave, emergency care) is rather small. They spend about $700 per employee per year or 35 cents per hour. Employees know the company cares, and Fel-Pro believes that caring about people is good business. The company continues to grow and has few recruitment and retention problems.

Constructing A Successful Work/Family Strategy

As companies recognize and respond to employees' family concerns, their attitudes and strategies evolve in predictable ways. Research indicates there are three discernible stages in the evolution of a corporate work/family agenda.

Stage I: The first stage involves a focus on child care and the implementation of one or two programs as well as a lot of resistance throughout the organization.

Stage II: There is a more supportive culture, a broadened view of work and family, and a coordinated set of responses.

Stage III: Companies begin to challenge the status quo and work toward creating a truly family-friendly culture and surrounding community.

While the vast majority of companies follow the three-stage pattern, some do not. The overlapping of the three stages will become even more commonplace as companies continue to learn from each other's experiences.

Once a company implements one policy or program and initial apprehensions prove unwarranted, the firm is likely to expand its programming and continue to do so over time. Generally, the stages represent a snapshot in a dynamic and quickly changing field. Is your company at stage I, II or III?

The following chart describes the evolution of employer work/family programs according to research by the Families and Work Institute.

How will society, in particular your business, reconcile the dual roles and inherent conflicts of work and family while reaffirming basic values of strong families and a productive work force? The answer rests with everyone. The future of business and economic development in North Dakota and the quality of life for North Dakota families may depend heavily on how work and family conflict are addressed. Attention to these issues will be critical for enhancing growth of the state. With changing structures and composition in the work force, separating the myths from the facts when confronting work/family issues is difficult.

Evolution of Employer Work/Family Programs
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stage I:									
Developing a		   Stage II:					
Programmatic               Developing an		Stage III:
Response		   Integrated Approach		Changing the Culture
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMMITMENT
----------
Emerging but		   Work/Family as a 		Work/Life as a 
Tentative		   Human Resource Issue		Competitive Issue
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overcoming assumptions:	   Focus on child care is 	Work/family issues 
Work/family is not a         expanded to include other    throughout the company
  business issue    	     work/family issues		  are integrated with 
Equity means the same        (elder care, relocation,     such issues as gender
  policy for all	     etc.)			  equity and diversity
  employees		   Programs and policies 	There is a movement 
Work/family is a woman's     broaden			  toward a life-cycle
  issue							  approach, thus broaden-
Child care assistance 					  ing the concept of
  means creating on- 					  work/family to 
  or near-site facilities				  "work/life"
							Company involvement extends 
							  to global issues and 
							  concerns
							Developing work/family 
							  policies is seen as a
							  continuous, dynamic, 
							  problem-solving process
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PROCESS
-------			   Centralizing 
			   Responsibilities
Identifying the Problem	   for Work/Family Programs	Mainstreaming the Issues
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Committed individual(s)/   Part- or full-time 		Implementing flexible time 
  champion(s) takes on       responsibility is	     	  and leave policies 
  the job of making a 	     assigned to an 		  becomes central
  business case for a 	     individual or group,	Changing the workplace to      	
  company response to	     often at the level of        be more flexible calls 
  work/family issues	     director, manager or	  traditional work 
Champion(s) convinces        vice president		  assumptions into question
  others that there is a   Position of work/family 	Work/family management      	
  cost to not responding,    coordinator may be 	  training is undertaken, 
  e.g.: employees may        instituted			  or such training is 
  miss time or be	   Top-level commitment begins 	  integrated into core 
  less productive because    to emerge			  management education 
  of unmet child care 	   Work/family initiatives are    programs
  needs			     seen as a key to recruit- 	If a task force is created, 
Champion(s) demonstrates     ing and retaining skilled	  its focus is on 
  many possible solutions    employees 			  work/family issues 
If a task force is 	   Training to help supervisors 
  created to assess	     manage work/life issues	
  employees' needs 	     may be initiated
  (usually through         If a task force is created, 
  surveys or focus 	     its focus is on work/
  groups), its focus	     family issues
  is on child care
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SOLUTIONS
---------
One at a Time		   Integrated			Holistic and Strategic
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Programs generally focus   The extent to which  	Full consideration is given 
  on child care for 	     personnel policies,	  to company culture and 
  employees with young 	     time and leave policies,	  its effect on family/
  children		     benefits affect family 	  personal life
Separate solutions are 	     life is considered		Consideration is given to
  found in the following   A package of several 	  the effects of using
  areas: child care 	     policies and programs	  family-responsive policies 
  assistance, flexible 	     is developed in 		  on career development
  time policies and 	     response to a 		Work/family issues become 
  flexible benefits	     wide variety of work/	  linked to strategic  
The one or two solutions     family problems		  business planning
  developed are seen as    Policies are periodically 		
  an add-on to other 	     reviewed and revised
  human resource   	   Work/family and other issues 
  programs		     are seen as ongoing and 
			     dynamic
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COMMUNITY FOCUS
---------------
Information Sharing	   Collaborative		Influential
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Companies begin to share   Companies and individuals 	Companies advocate or 
  information with each      come together to share 	  designate funds for
  other, but generally	     information, solve		  improving the quality and 
  act alone to solve 	     problems and develop 	  supply of community-based 
  problems and develop 	     joint solutions		  dependent care services     
  programs		   Companies and individuals	Company programs reach out 
			     reach out to their 	  to the underserved in 
			     communities to share 	  their communities as well
			     resources			  as their own employees
			   Some advocacy for local, 
			     state and federal programs 
			     such as Head Start
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reprinted with permission of Families and Work Institute, New York. Copyright 1991.

Myths and Realities of Work/Family Policies

One size fits all.
No one program will fit all companies nor will it fit all employees within one company. Organizations need different approaches, depending on timing and circumstances, just as individuals need different kinds of support at different times in their lives.

Presence equals productivity.
According to Ellen Galinsky, co-president of the Families and Work Institute, "We are moving the definition of productivity from `How many hours do you put in?' to `What do you actually accomplish on your job?' Quality of work and performance is seen as more important than quantity of time put into the job."

Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile.
"Research shows that if you give 'em an inch, they'll give back a mile," according to Galinsky, who notes that studies show when supervisors are accommodating, workers are more likely to give more effort to the job, even if it means taking work home.

Work/family issues are women's issues.
Michael Macoby in his book "Why Work?" described how women's and men's values are converging into "new generation values" that include independence, self-development and the creation of a balanced life that sacrifices neither work nor family. A Bank Street College study of one high-tech company showed that "42 percent of the male employees and 43 percent of the females felt that their work and family responsibilities interfered with each other a great deal."

Child care is the family's problem.
When family problems interfere with work responsibilities, it's obviously the company's problem, too. Moreover, Galinsky says, "What we're seeing now is the growing assumption that children are our future workers and we'd better consider them a resource just like we consider our current workers a resource."

Many companies are downsizing and don't need family-supportive programs.
An upheaval, such as reorganization, may be the right time to introduce family-supportive initiatives to reduce stress and increase employee loyalty.

Family-supportive initiatives are costly.
Granted, some programs offered by large corporations, such as on-site child care, can be expensive. But many work/family initiatives cost little or no money, such as flexible work hours, flexible spending accounts, on-site seminars and a supportive environment.

The timing is not right.
There is no best time to start implementing family-friendly work policies except now. Taking the first step, however small, is critical to addressing these issues.

References

American Society for Training and Development Info-Line, December 1990, Alexandria, VA.
Work and Family Connection, Minneapolis, MN. Work and Family Newsbrief.
Work and Family Revolution. B. Schwarz Vanderkolk and A. Young (1991)
Hewlett, S. (1992). When the Bough Breaks: The Cost of Neglecting Our Children. New York: HarperPerennial.
Galinsky, E., Friedman, D., Hernandez, C. (1991). Corporate Reference Guide to Work-Family Programs. New York: Families & Work Institute.
Wall Street Journal, December 7, 1992.
Balancing Work and Family. C. Lee. Training. September 1991.
Linking Work/Family Issues to the Bottom Line. The Conference Board. 1991.

Contributors

Helen Danielson, Child Development Specialist, NDSU Extension Service
Kim Bushaw, Parent Line Program Specialist, NDSU

FS-518, March 1993