Corporate Voices Workplace Flexibility Study Featured in “Best Practices” Publication

Best Practices in HR, in its Sept. 5 issue,  features a recent study conducted by Corporate Voices for Working Families regarding workplace flexibility for hourly workers. The publication is produced by Business & Legal Reports.

The study, Innovative Workplace Flexibility Options for Hourly Workers, finds that flexibility arrangements for hourly workers are just as beneficial as those for salaried workers. Furthermore, employers who present this flexibility to hourly employees find that this option enhances recruitment, retention, engagement, productivity and cost control.

In the article, John Wilcox, Vice President of Operations for Corporate Voices, says that although flextime is practical for most hourly positions, it is not always possible. Therefore, employers use other alternatives to provide flexibility such as a compressed workweek, taking vacation or sick time in hourly or partial-day increments, or trading shifts with a co-worker.

Another key finding of the study is the benefit of allowing hourly workers to set their own hours — an option that is not only valuable to employees but managers as well. Ultimately, “managers and employees both report that flexibility positively impacts productivity, customer service, work/life effectiveness, stress levels and well being”.

Also included in the article are Corporate Voices’ recommendations for best practices to follow when applying workplace flexibility for hourly workers. Here are a few examples:

• Empower employees in the design and ongoing management of flexible work practices
• Give employees some choice and control over their work hours
• Train managers on flexible work practices
• Effectively communicate schedules and business information throughout the organization
• Use flexibility as a business tool to help the organization recruit, develop and retain high-performers.

The complete text of the study, as well as other research and information about flexible work options, is available on the Corporate Voices for Working Families Web site.

By Ellie Smeallie

Corporate Voices: Work Opportunity Tax Credit

Corporate Voices for Working Families is featured in a recent article on healthleadersmedia.com titled “Human Resources: Targeted Workers Create Opportunity.”

The article focuses on the Work Opportunity Tax Credit that was expanded as part of the economic stimulus package to include “disabled veterans and disconnected youth.”

Corporate Voices for Working Families played a key role in ensuring that disconnected youth were included in the economic stimulus package. And we did this work in concert with several of our partner companies including Marriott International, TJX, CVS Caremark, and KPMG, and in coalition with strategic outreach partners including the Community Service Society of New York, Jobs for the Future, Year-Up and STRIVE.

Here’s a section of the article, with perspective from Elyse Rosenblum, Corporate Voices Vice President of Workforce Readiness, Research and Policy.

Employers looking at WOTC candidates must understand that they are a work in progress. Though enthusiastic, WOTC candidates often have either been out of the workforce for a long time, or have never been in the workforce. They often lack the specific skills, work experience and the educational attainment of other applicants in the general workforce, says Elyse Rosenblum, vice president of workforce readiness, research, and policy at Corporate Voices for Working Families, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit advocacy group.

Rosenblum says WOTC candidates have to fight stereotypes that they are unmotivated, untrainable, and unreliable. “That is really at the heart of the issue, that there are perceptions around this population that are quite negative,” she says. “You have to anticipate that they will bring with them some additional training and support needs. That is why this tax credit is in place. It is a recognition both of the risk that employers are taking and that it takes some extra effort to help them be successful.”

Additional information, publications and research studies on a host of workforce readiness issues are available on the Corporate Voices Web site.

And we expect to prepare and distribute soon a resource guide to help employers take full advantage of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit as it applies to disconnected youth.

Corporate Voices Partner Companies Top Working Mother’s “Best Companies” List

Congratulations to 23 of our corporate partners who have made Working Mother Magazine’s “100 Best Companies 2009.”

The rigorous selection process involves an assessment of each company’s policies on benefits, woman’s issues and advancement, child care, workplace flexibility and parental leave among others.

Here’s some background:

“The 2009 Working Mother 100 Best Companies application includes some 500 questions on workforce, compensation, child care, flexibility programs, leave policies and more. It also surveys usage, availability and tracking of programs, as well as the accountability of managers who oversee them…With the help of an independent research firm, we validated the applications for completeness and tabulated the scores, which then determined the winners. This year we gave particular weight to benefits, flexibility and parental leave…”

The Corporate Voices’ partners that were honored on this prestigious list are:
•    Abbott Laboratories
•    Accenture
•    Allstate Insurance Company
•    AOL
•    AstraZeneca
•    Bank of America
•    Booz Allen Hamilton
•    CITI
•    Deloitte & Touche, LLP
•    Eli Lilly and Company
•    Ernst & Young
•    GlaxoSmithKline
•    Goldman, Sachs & Co.
•    Johnson & Johnson
•    JPMorgan Chase
•    KPMG LLP
•    Marriott International, Inc.
•    MassMutual Financial Group
•    Merck & Co., Inc.
•    Morgan Stanley
•    PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
•    RSM McGladrey
•    The Phoenix Companies, Inc.

Corporate Voices has recently partnered with Working Mother Media to recognize the Best Companies for Hourly Workers and to highlight best practices throughout the American business community. Those companies that are selected for the Best Companies for Hourly Workers list will be featured in the May 2010 issue of Working Mother magazine and honored at a celebration in New York City.

The application and additional information can be found online.

By Ellie Smeallie

Corporate Voices: National Work & Family Month

October is National Work & Family Month. Corporate Voices for Working Families is going to use this as an opportunity to highlight our research and advocacy on work-life issues and to share the perspectives of others.

First up, a post on The Huffington Post by Kathie Lingle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress, an affiliate of WorldatWork. Here’s from her post, titled “Seven Ways You Can Win the Battle to Control Your Own Life“:

This October is National Work & Family Month, unanimously approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008. Everyone who works – employers and employees – should use this annual opportunity to re-commit to winning the battle of balance. Workers should use this time to take steps to strengthen their physical, mental and financial health. Companies, meanwhile, should take stock of their management strategies in order to maintain productivity and alleviate the burden on their employees.

In the business environment, work-life effectiveness success is defined by measurable gains across seven clusters of people practices known as the work-life portfolio. 20 years of empirical research shows that an investment in any one of them provides a positive return, just like a financial portfolio, and investment in most or all of them yields a cumulative effect that all stakeholders prize: a more productive, engaged and healthier workforce. Ask any “employer of choice”–they know that the strongest weapon for this battlefield is a flexible leadership philosophy, but full battle gear requires a lot more than flexibility.

Here’s a link to a number of publications and toolkits produced by Corporate Voices on flexible work options and other work-life issues.

The material includes the research study we released in May, “Innovative Workplace Flexibility Options for Hourly Workers.”

Read more at:

Corporate Voices: Welcome Ellen Goldstein

Ellen Goldstein has joined Corporate Voices for Working Families as Senior Advisor to the President. Ellen has extensive background gained in senior-level management positions in corporate, government and nonprofit organizations, and her experience adds to the depth and breadth of our management team as we continue to grow and embark on significant new projects.

In making the announcement, Donna Klein, Executive Chair and President, said that at Corporate Voices Ellen will begin by adding value to our project mapping and messaging in the workforce readiness space, strategic planning and coalition building in both the private and nonprofit arenas.

Ellen’s professional experience includes:

• Over a decade with General Electric Company in senior government relations and public affairs executive positions.
• The Alzheimer’s Association as Director of Government Relations.
• American Benefits Council as Vice President for Communications and Health Policy.
• The White House Domestic Policy Council as Assistant Director for Human Resources.

Corporate Voices: White House Article on Community Colleges and Workforce Readiness

The September issue of our Corporate Voices for Working Families electronic newsletter features an article by Heather Higginbottom, Deputy Director of President Obama’s Domestic Policy Council.

Here’s from the article:

In an increasingly competitive global economy, America’s success will depend on the skills of our workforce. And the skill level required to compete is rising. In the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate degree are projected to grow twice as fast as those requiring no college experience.

To meet this economic imperative, President Obama has asked every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or career training. He has set a new national goal – by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

The newsletter also features an article about our Best Companies for Hourly Workers project.

And in the newsletter we introduce Sara Toland, who recently joined Corporate Voices as Senior Manager for Workforce Readiness, Business and Community Engagement.

Teenage Unemployment: A Crisis Today and Tomorrow

Plenty of excellent articles and commentary this Labor Day weekend about jobs and the challenges facing American workers both during this recession and longer term.

Here are a few. All have implications for public and corporate policy — and for America’s workforce and our nation’s ability to compete in today’s global economy.

“Women gain as men lose jobs.” Dennis Cauchon, USA Today.

Women are on the verge of outnumbering men in the workforce for the first time, a historic reversal caused by long-term changes in women’s roles and massive job losses for men during this recession.

“A Reluctance to Retire Means Fewer Job Openings.” Catherine Rampell and Matthew Saltmarsh,  The New York Times.

To the long list of reasons American companies aren’t hiring — business losses, tight credit, consumer retrenchment — add the fact that many of their older workers are unable, or afraid, to retire.

“Bad Future for Jobs.” Robert J. Samuelson, The Washington Post.

The implications of prolonged high unemployment — should it materialize — haven’t been fully explored. People without work don’t acquire on-the-job skills. Young college graduates are already having trouble getting work. High unemployment could depress wage gains for years. It could foster protectionism and long-term poverty. “In a tight economy like the late 1990s, firms are more willing to take chances on more disadvantaged workers,” says Harvard economist Larry Katz. EPI’s Lawrence Mishel thinks that the effects on low-income families would be devastating; the child poverty rate could jump from 18 percent in 2007 to 27 percent, he says.

And one more story that focuses on a segment of the population trying to enter the workforce but can’t.

“Teenage Jobless Rate Reaches Record High.” Catherine Rampell, The New York Times.

This August, the teenage unemployment rate — that is, the percentage of teenagers who wanted a job who could not find one — was 25.5 percent, its highest level since the government began keeping track of such statistics in 1948. Likewise, the percentage of teenagers over all who were working was at its lowest level in recorded history.

Corporate Voices’ research, policy outreach and business engagement touch all of the issues raised in these stories — but particularly the increasingly important issue of how to best help young people succeed in school, on the job and throughout life.

USA Today: In a Recession, Is College Worth It?

With students heading back to classes at colleges and universities throughout the country, there have been a number of interesting and informative articles looking at what students are learning and the value of a college degree in the midst of the current economic recession.

I wrote previously about the perspective of Professor Walter E. Williams, “What Will They Learn?” As a foundation for his commentary, Williams uses the Corporate Voices’ 2006 research report, “Are They Really Ready to Work?”

Now an article by Sandra Block in USA Today asks the question, “In a Recession, Is College Worth It?”

The short answer is yes.

But one of the many points in the article is this: Many students are having a difficult time paying for the increasing costs of a college education, and taking on substantial debt in the form of student loans is an iffy strategy at at time when jobs are scarce.

One solution: community colleges.

Here’s from the USA Today article:

•Community college enrollment is soaring. More than 90% of community college presidents said enrollment was up in January from the previous year, and 86% reported an increase in full-time students, according to a survey by the Campus Computing Project, which studies the role of information technology in higher education.

Alyssa Griffin, 19, of Columbus, Ohio, would like to obtain a bachelor’s degree in interactive media from Capital University, a private school in Bexley, Ohio. But to save money, she plans to spend her freshman and sophomore years at Columbus State Community College and live at home.

This strategy means Griffin will miss out on a traditional four-year college experience, but it will significantly reduce the cost of her college education — by more than $40,000. Tuition at Capital runs more than $27,000 a year, vs. about $6,000 at Columbus State.

“I have no issues with starting at Columbus State and then going on to Capital,” Griffin says.

Community colleges have long provided a way for adults to learn new job skills, often by attending part time. But these days, they’re seeing a big increase in students such as Griffin, says Will Kopp, vice president for institutional advancement at Columbus State.

The median age of new students at Columbus State is 19, he says. By attending their first two years at a community college, Kopp says, “they’re paying maybe a third of the tuition at state universities; maybe a tenth what they’d pay at a private school.”

A recently released Corporate Voices’ research study on workforce readiness training points to community colleges as a way to help solve the problem of an ill-prepared workforce.

And in our workforce readiness policy papers and recommendations for alternative pathways to help young people make a successful transition from school to the workplace we examine the important role of community colleges in postsecondary education.