This weekend’s Dr. Gridlock column in the Washington Post makes the case for an expansion of flexible workplace arrangements within local, state, and federal government agencies to reduce rush-hour gridlock and to set a national example.
The column, titled “Washington Could Beat the Rush on Defusing Rush Hour,” highlights the growing problem of traffic congestion in the Washington metro area, and how workplace flexibility can play a valuable role in helping to ease these concerns.
From the column:
The federal base-realignment program is going to shift thousands of workers to new locations. The sites, such as Bethesda Medical Center, Fort Belvoir and the Mark Center, have created enormous challenges for transportation planners, challenges that many commuters are not yet confident they have met… Several other programs, such as the extension of the Fairfax County Parkway, the addition of a fourth lane to a segment of I-95 in Virginia and the efforts to improve access along the Wisconsin Avenue corridor in Bethesda, are moving forward.
The column also notes, however, that projects to ease congestion are costly and slow to take effect. Private and pubic employers can play a role in easing traffic congestion, helping the environment, and boosting their employees’ productivity by adopting low-cost flexible work arrangements.
According to a recent survey, the Commuter Connections program found that 29 percent of workers in the D.C. region say their employers offer a formal program to encourage telework. About half said their employers do not allow telecommuting.
The survey found that the percentage of federal workers who telecommute at least sometimes has doubled since 2004 to about 25 percent. As the work/life field advances and employers recognize the business benefits of innovative management strategies like workplace flexibility, telework rates will continue to rise.
Of interest is knowing just how much potential there is for a larger share of the labor force to work from home or remotely from a satellite center. The survey found that at least half a million more employees could do so, with 20 percent saying they “could and would” work remotely if given the opportunity.
Corporate Voices for Working Families believes that there is a business imperative for workplace flexibility– flexibility has been shown to improve employee productivity, engagement with work, and loyalty. By using a variety of flexible work arrangements– from job-sharing and compressed work weeks to teleworking or flextime–employers can find the right mix of flexibility that works for their business and their bottom line.
The Administration has also recognized the changing needs of the workforce, and has called on employers to change the workplace to meet the needs of 21st century families. The changing face of the workforce is now more female, younger, and is juggling work with family, childcare, school, and elder-care. In this context, leading employers have a special role to play in expanding support for workplace flexibility.
That is why Corporate Voices, at the request of the White House, has started its national workplace flexibility campaign to create a broader awareness of the positive business and employee benefits of workplace flexibility. It is encouraging businesses to sign its Statement of Support for Expanding Workplace Flexibility and to express their support for this campaign.
We currently have 25 Business Champions leading the way in the trend toward more flexible workplaces– most recent companies to join are Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb. To learn more about the benefits of joining the campaign and how to sign our Statement– please see the campaign website, “Workplace Flexibility: Ensuring Success for the 21st Century.”
With the passage of health care reform earlier this year, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has introduced a new employer requirement to provide space and time for nursing mothers to pump milk at work.
What is this new law, and what does it mean for businesses and employees? How can employers implement successful workplace lactation programs and practices that enhance business performance and help working families?
Corporate Voices for Working Families and the Retail Industry Leaders Association were pleased to host a webinar on this topic for retail businesses on Wednesday, August 25, 2010. Executives from over 55 top U.S. retail companies across several industries, including apparel, consumer electronics, department stores, and home improvement joined the webinar.
Featured speakers were: Tiffany Westover-Kernan, Vice President for Business Development and Government Relations at Corporate Voices, Yvonne Siu, Manager, Communications and Government Relations at Corporate Voices, and Portia Wu, Vice President of the National Partnership for Women and Families. They presented on:
- The new requirements of the amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act;
- What kind of businesses and employees it applies to;
- Next steps on implementation by the Wage & Hour Division at the Department of Labor;
- How businesses can comply with the federal law in a way that increases employee recruitment, retention, and integrates workplace lactation programs into a productivity-enhancing management strategy; and
- Existing practical toolkits and resources employers can use to implement and maintain workplace lactation programs.
Please visit Corporate Voices’ website to access a recording of the webinar, the slides presented, and related studies and materials. We look forward to working with the business community in the coming months to guide them in implementing their lactation programs, and also to highlight and recognize their best-practice solutions.
Feel free to share your company’s best practices with us!
As a nation, we face the critical challenge of how to best prepare workers — especially young people — for jobs in the 21st century workplace and global economy. (See our recent blog post: “Workforce Readiness: The Link Between Education and Economic Competitiveness.”) And policy makers, business leaders, educators and others are focusing on solutions.
The National Governors Association, for example, has launched an initiative, Complete to Compete. Chaired by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, Complete to Compete “focuses on increasing the number of students in the United States who complete college degrees and certificates and improving the productivity of the country’s higher education institutions.”
Here’s from the news release announcing the initiative:
“The nation has fallen from first to twelfth in the world in the number of students who complete degrees. Now, we’re faced with a generation of students that is projected to have lower educational attainment than their parents,” said Gov. Manchin.
“This slide continues at a time when the economy demands more educated workers and Americans increasingly look to higher education as the path to economic success,” continued Gov. Manchin. “My initiative will bring together governors, higher education executive officers, campus leaders and corporate CEOs to make marked improvements in college completion and productivity and get our country back on track to produce a successful workforce for the future.”
In addition to raising awareness about the need to increase college completion and productivity, Complete to Compete aims to create a set of common higher education completion and productivity measures that governors and higher education leaders can utilize to monitor state progress and compare performance to other states and between institutions. A report, Complete to Compete: Common College Completion Metrics, was released during the session. It will be followed in the coming weeks by a technical guide for states.
Concerning the completion metrics, Manchin says:
“As states face the worst economic crisis in modern history, we must collaborate to develop common performance measurements and take concrete steps to increase completion rates within our available resources. From transforming first-year coursework to implementing performance funding, it is up to states and institutions to create policies that can improve degree attainment and more efficiently use the dollars invested by states and students.”
Corporate Voices for Working Families believes that obtaining postsecondary education is critical for the workforce of the future and for America’s economic competitiveness. We are currently researching many Learn and Earn models in which businesses form partnerships with local community colleges and other education providers to help younger workers work while getting their postsecondary education. Additional information, research and publications involving the full range of our workforce readiness work are available on the Corporate Voices website.
This weekend’s Dr. Gridlock column in the Washington Post makes the case for an expansion of flexible workplace arrangements within local, state, and federal government agencies to reduce rush-hour gridlock and to set a national example.
