Press Release and Media Advisory Archive

Audio Conference: “The Changing Face of Labor on Labor Day”

• More than one quarter of employees plan self-employment or start-up businesses in the future
• Employees in effective workplaces are three times less likely than those who aren’t to seek a new job with a different employer in the coming year.

Hosted by Ellen Galinsky, President, Families and Work Institute; Moderated by Cathy Healy, Center for Workforce Preparation, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

What: The one-hour audio conference will explore “the changing face of labor” with employers from across the country telling their own stories of how they started, transformed and manage their businesses to make work “work” better for themselves, their companies and their employees.

This audio conference will explore:

• why employees left larger and more established companies to found their own businesses;
• what challenges employers face in start-up and established companies in making work “work” better for themselves and their employees;
• how they address these challenges through innovative strategies in the workplace.

Featured stories were collected in chamber of commerce forums held in Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Durham, Long Beach, Providence, and Salt Lake City as part of a “listening” tour of the When Work Works project, an initiative of the Families and Work Institute, the Center for Workforce Preparation, and the Center for Emerging Futures, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

When: Monday, August 23, 2004, from 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. EDT

Why: The stories of these employers reflect some emerging national trends:

• There is a widespread concern among employers about the consequences of not having work "work,” which the Families and Work Institute has been able to measure, using nationally representative data of the U.S. Workforce. We found that employees in effective workplaces (using an average of ratings of six specific aspects of workplace effectiveness) are almost three times less likely than those in ineffective workplaces to be making a deliberate effort to seek a new job with a new employer in the coming year (23 percent vs. 62 percent).
• One of the most significant recent changes in the workforce is the increase in businesses that are owned by women. The Center for Women’s Business Research estimates that women-owned firms (50 percent or greater ownership share) are growing at close to twice the rate of all privately held firms (17 percent vs. 9 percent). These firms have sales of $2.46 trillion and employ 19.1 million employees nationwide.
• It seems likely that this trend toward creating or changing one’s business will continue: 26 percent of the current wage and salaried workforce “plans to be self-employed or have their own business in the future.”

How to register for the call: Click here to fill out an RSVP form. A confirmation email with call-in information will be sent to you within one business day.

Media inquiries: Kevin Stewart, Families and Work Institute (973-580-5597 or kstewart [at] familiesandwork [dot] org) or Kelly Sakai, Families and Work Institute (212-268-8635 or ksakai [at] familiesandwork [dot] org ).

New research from Families and Work Institute reveals that in today's global, fiercely competitive economy, businesses are moving away from command-and-control management, and now using strategic tools such as flexibility and job autonomy. No longer seen as simply a perk for employees, working with flexibility is becoming as commonplace as working with technology, and critical for creating an effective workplace, where employees are more likely to be engaged in, committed to, and satisfied with their jobs. This new workplace, however, raises important questions about how employees are recruited and evaluated, and how work is managed.

Please join Ellen Galinsky, President, Families & Work Institute, and JT Childs, VP, Global Workforce Diversity, IBM – and invited U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander and Chris Dodd as they release and discuss the surprising implications of new research.

When: audio news conference, Tuesday, April 20, 12:15 PM EDT.

Accessible by telephone from your desk.

To register, please email or call Sharon Lewis at 914-833-7093.

Journalists registering for the audio news conference will have access to case studies of both small and large business experiences with flexible work options; checklists for both employers and employees to evaluate their readiness to flexible work; and a media brief, executive summary, and full research findings

NEWS RELEASE CONTACT: Elizabeth Miller
Families and Work Institute
(212) 465-8421
emiller [at] familiesandwork [dot] org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Jan. 30, 2007

NEW REPORT SHARES UNIQUE AND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO MAKE WORK “WORK” FOR BOTH EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES ACROSS THE NATION

Employers Profiles Highlight New Strategies from Winners of the
Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility

NEW YORK , NY – Imagine working a seven-day week followed by a seven-day weekend and still working full time. Is this a fantasy? No! It’s a strategic business strategy to attract talented employees, keep employees engaged and reduce turnover. And perhaps more surprisingly, the idea came from employees.

This and other innovative examples are detailed in a new report just released by Families and Work Institute, entitled, Making Work “Work:” New Ideas from the Winners of the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. The report compiles case studies that highlight innovative business practices of small, medium and large employers who realize that the traditional 9 to 5 workplace doesn’t always work best in the 21 st Century.

“In the past, an employee who wanted to work in a different way might have made a personal deal with his or her boss under the table,” said Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of Families and Work Institute, and co-director of When Work Works. “Today employees and employers are working together to find new ways to restructure the workplace in unique ways to give people the flexibility they need and to improve bottom line business measures like productivity and retention at the same time.”

Take ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City, UT, where employees suggested the idea of a seven days on, seven days off scheme. This flexible scheduling option, in addition to other forms of flexibility, helps ARUP to recruit employees in the face of a national health care talent shortage.

At NRG::Seattle, in Seattle, WA, every day around noon, the insurance company goes dark so that everyone must take a break for lunch. Owner Michelle Rupp believes its employees are restored by slowing down for an hour and then coming back to work re-energized.

And if employees are literally looking for a walk in the park, they should check out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at Research Triangle Park in Durham, NC. There, employees can abandon their cubicles almost any time and decamp for the benches and tables the agency has set up on its wireless campus which it has found is more conducive to thinking, meeting, and writing.

The new report is the result of an intensive search in 17 U.S. communities to find examples of American ingenuity and to recognize them with the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. The awards are administered by When Work Works, a joint project of the Families and Work Institute, the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Twiga Foundation, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

“The workforce is aging with four generations in the workforce, the values of the younger generations are more family-centered, and women are playing a more vital role in the workforce,” said Galinsky. “Our research shows that employers who understand these changes and work with employees to create more effective and flexible workplaces, can recruit, engage and retain employees and meet – and in many cases exceed – their business goals.”

The Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility are location-based awards that recognize employers for their innovative workplace effectiveness and flexibility practices using a rigorous scoring methodology that is largely based on employees’ views. At many of the winning sites, employees have taken an active role in suggesting these strategies.

To download Making Work “Work” and see what some of the nation’s leading organizations are saying about workplace flexibility, click here.

When Work Works is a nationwide initiative on workplace effectiveness and workplace flexibility that is designed to share research and highlight promising practice on what makes work “work” in the 21st Century. It is a project of Families and Work Institute sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in partnership with the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Twiga Foundation. For more information, please visit www.whenworkworks.org.

For more information about Families and Work Institute’s research findings, please contact Elizabeth Miller at emiller@familiesandwork.org or at (212) 465-8421.

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ABOUT FAMILIES AND WORK INSTITUTE

Families and Work Institute (FWI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that studies the changing workforce and workplace, the changing family and the changing community. As a preeminent think-tank, FWI is known for being ahead of the curve, identifying emerging issues, and then conducting rigorous research that often challenges common wisdom, provides insight and knowledge, and motivates action. Since the Institute was founded in 1989, our work has focused in three major areas: the workforce/workplace, youth and early childhood. For more information, visit www.familiesandwork.org.