Paper — symbolizing strength from the connection of individual threads — is a traditional gift for a first anniversary.
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Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project, explains why so few workers are truly engaged with their jobs at the moment. Interviewed by Joseph Coombs, Workplace Trends and Forecasting Specialist, SHRM.
What does flexibility have to do with social media?
Plenty. Social media can help employees stay engaged—particularly those who work remotely.
That’s what conference attendees learned during a session at the inaugural Work-Life Focus: 2012 and Beyond Conference held recently in Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Families and Work Institute (FWI), the conference served as a chance for HR professionals to learn how to implement flexible work options into their workplaces.
I saw Jack Welch speak at the 2009 Society for Human Resource Management's annual conference in New Orleans. Welch delivered the opening speech for the conference and completely dissed the idea of work-life balance for women in corporate America.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Welch told the audience, "There's no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences."
Workplace flexibility initiatives are moving more workers out of cubicles and into home offices. This can represent meaningful cost savings for companies, reduced stress for employees and higher productivity. The challenge for management is to keep these isolated employees working well together.
How are you devising ways to make isolated employees feel connected?
We want to hear from you! Share your stories in the comments section below. We’ll feature the most interesting and instructional ones on Next.
Research finds ties between workplace flexibility and positive business results
Workplace flexibility programs benefit employers of all sizes and industries, resulting in increased employee job satisfaction, lower turnover and lower insurance costs, according to a new report, Workplace Flexibility in the United States: A Status Report.
The growth of mobile technology is simply staggering. According to mobiThinking, there are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers (that translates to 77% of the world's population.) By 2014, it's expected that mobile will overtake the PC as the most popular way to access the web. People are using mobile technologies for commerce, entertainment, and productivity.
The Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) anomalous and vague requirements are forcing employers to impose precautionary workplace policies that are overly restrictive and out of step with modern work habits, according to a Nov. 3, 2011, report based on a survey conducted by the HR Policy Association.
The survey, to which 155 HR chiefs responded, found that companies implemented a number of restrictions on nonexempt employees because of the law, such as restrictions on:
Like most developed countries, the U.S. faces a major demographic challenge. This year, the oldest of nearly 80 million baby boomers turn 65. According to the Pew Research Center, about 10,000 Americans reach that milestone every day.
Most organizations can’t afford to suddenly lose such a reservoir of work experience and seasoned judgment. And that maturity and judgment is of particular value in forging collaborative teams within a workforce that now includes four and soon five generations.
Supervisors find creative ways to engage remote employees
What’s the biggest obstacle to telework? It’s not technology.
It’s management.
So some human resource professionals say they’ve begun to tie management acceptance of telework directly to managers’ performance evaluations and pay. Having managers telework has helped as well.
By Shirley Davis and Lisa Horn, Co-Project Directors, SHRM’s Workplace Flexibility Initiative
One-third of U.S. chief financial officers (CFOs) say remote work arrangements—such as telecommuting and working from satellite offices—have increased at their companies in the prior three years, according to a survey by staffing services firm Accountemps.
The 2011 survey drew on telephone interviews with 1,400 CFOs across the U.S.
Men in the United States—especially those in two-income families who are fathers and working 50 or more hours a week—are experiencing the kind of work/family conflict that women long have felt, according to a study, The New Male Mystique.
Researchers Ellen Galinsky, Kerstin Aumann and Kenneth Matos of the Families and Work Institute (FWI) discussed their findings during a Sept. 8, 2011, webinar. The report, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the IBM Corp., was released June 2011.
Since October is National Work and Family Month, it’s a good time to discuss work-flex.
I love how Jason Seiden described “work/life balance” recently at Illinois SHRM: “We talk of it as something we separate by a slash and then hope we can balance everything in between. Trying to package them and keep them separate doesn’t work…There is no rigid separation.”
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) continued to push flexible workplace options as a business imperative during a congressional briefing that SHRM and the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute Inc. hosted Oct. 12, 2011, on Capitol Hill.
“This is an issue whose time has come. It’s good for workers, it’s good for businesses,” said Sara Manzano-Diaz, director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, during her keynote remarks.
Few would argue the pace of change is increasing, especially in business and technology, along with their impact on the workplace. Wise company leaders sense these changes, and adjust, adapt, plan and execute. Each day brings an evolving convergence of many external influences that shape upcoming days, weeks and years. The workplace is greatly impacted by this convergence of external influences.
The workforce is aging around the world. Estimates indicate that by 2050, the number of people over the age of 60 will exceed the number of those in younger generations. Experts say companies should prepare now for this global shift.
Yet what most U.S. companies don’t realize, experts say, is that they need to reduce the chance of financial and legal problems arising with these employees—a group more subject to disabilities than younger workers.
