Work Life flexibility grabs attention at Conference Board Program
Work life flexibility strategies are grabbing attention even in the wake of the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. As companies struggle to stay afloat and keep their employees engaged, there’s talk in our WorkLife Nation that perhaps corporations are starting to identify the value of implementing flexibility practices – instead of wielding the ax.
Global consulting firm, Manpower, just released a survey which reflects U.S. employers’ hiring outlooks from April to June of this year. 67% of the companies polled said they would hold the line on hiring until the economy sees an improvement. CFO Magazine breaks down the numbers as does Bloomberg.
That means that these companies must do more with less, which perhaps forces a more constructive look at flexibility arrangements.
This I know has the Conference Board’s Work Life Conference all a buzz down in New Orleans. Gleaned from tweets from a colleague, Cali Yost, (@CaliYost) who is the CEO of Work+Life Fit, there’s a lot of talk on the issue. Prior to heading south for her speaking engagement, Cali penned this blog for Fast Company which is an overview of the issue of flexibility in challenging times: Mangers Uphold Fiduciary Responsibility with Alternatives to Layoffs: Expanding the Cost/Benefit Analysis.
Here’s a short compilation of what’s been streaming out of the conference courtesy Cali.
- Yoursabbatical.com wins innovation award.
- IBM presenting use of Second Life for conference.
- Social Media and its potential for Work Life.
- 73% of IBM managers manage teams that aren’t in the same location.
- Accenture wins award for for combining work life with retained talent strategy.
- Carol Evans from Working Mother receiving media award.
- Reports there’s a bi-partisan senate study group on workplace flexibility.
- State and National stats on Work Life being presented by the Families and Work Institute.
While not necessarily conference related, this is most certainly worth mentioning with regard to flexibility practices. In a post by CV Harquail (@cvharquail) of the blog Authentic Organizations, she wrote that sometimes business decisions made with the best of intensions have “unintended repercussions.” Check out her post:
Flexible Downsizing and Sexism: Should we be worried?
2 Responses to “Work Life flexibility grabs attention at Conference Board Program”
Hi Judy — Thanks so much for mentioning my post on your blog today. It’s great to see the connections being made between what’s good for individuals and good for organizations and the links to larger economic challenges. I continue to hope that organizations will find opportunities within their responses to economic pressure, so that choices they make for “the organization” also work for members. Let’s keep the focus on transformation, and not just reaction! cvh
Comment made on March 12th, 2009 at 6:59 pmHello CV,
Comment made on March 13th, 2009 at 8:59 amYou took the Flexibility issue in a direction that hadn’t even occurred to me. I concur, we might be in challenging times, but such tumult can break open the discussion on concerns that until now have laid dormant. Sometimes from chaos comes that unprecedented shift that leads to innovative change, and clearly as you stated – transformation. Your voice is important now and so relevant. Thanks for visiting.
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