In 1989 when the first of her two children was born, Shari Mann became a pioneer. A document production marketing executive with Xerox Corp. in Chicago, Mann engineered the company’s first-ever job-share program. In fact, she and her partner shared one sales job and were first in sales in the country for the company in 1990.
“That is what I am the most proud of,” says Mann, who handles $3 million in new business each year, as well as $4 million in existing business.
In the last few years, more innovative ways for employees to schedule their work hours, vacations and leaves have emerged. More companies are initiating programs such as paid time-offs or PTOs, allowing employees to combine, delay or pool sick, vacation or personal days in any way they need.
At Hewlett-Packard Co., in Palo Alto, Calif., PTOs have been in place since the mid 1980s. They are a combination of vacation, sick and personal days that workers can use in any increment, including hourly.
“People really like a lot of flexibility,” says Mary Lou Simmermacher, Hewlett spokeswoman, “even if they have to take a few hours off to pick up someone at the airport.”
Another progressive program, leave banks, allows employees to deposit unused paid vacation days in a company bank for any employee to use, a far cry from the traditional non-transferable, use-it-or-lose-it vacation policy of corporate America.
At the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, D.C., a publishing company, a leave bank was implemented in 1991.
With substantial vacation policies (two weeks a year upon hiring and five weeks after 14 years), bureau employees regularly donate unused time, says editor Elaine Kessler. Requests to borrow from the bank often come from women with high-risk pregnancies and employees with serious illnesses who need recovery time. One woman used banked time to recuperate from donating a kidney to her son.
In a 1995 study by Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire-based human resources and employee benefits consulting firm, 73 percent of the 1,050 major employers surveyed reported they had flex-time programs, or options for employees to work hours that accommodate family responsibilities. More than a third of employers offer job-sharing, the report says, while 19 percent of companies allow employees to work at home.
“It tends to be women who take advantage of this more than men,” says Carol Sladek, a national manager tracking work/life issues for Hewitt. “Women are juggling more work and life issues and it is more socially acceptable in the business world for women to use flex time.”
According to a July work/life survey of 800 companies by William M. Mercer Inc., a human resources consulting firm, 64 percent of companies surveyed reported that programs such as flex time and PTOs boost morale. More than 50 percent of the employers said these programs reduce absenteeism and 47 percent of those surveyed said work/life programs increase productivity.
“People do more and are paid less, so . . . employers need to recognize they have needs and support them,” says Dawn Schauble, a principal in Mercer’s Chicago office.
With flex time, an on-site day-care center, a subsidized summer camp for employees’ school-age children and a generous unpaid leave policy, Fel-Pro Inc., in Skokie, has long embraced the need to integrate work and family life for its employees, says Arlis McLean, vice president of human resources.
Shifts in management and downsizing can reduce the support for some work/life benefits, however successful.
After OAG (formerly Official Airline Guides) was sold in 1993, Linda Ceratto, director of human resources for the Oakbrook-based company, says its on-site day care center, a national model, was closed. The company’s reduction in employees from 1,000 to 400, made the option of on-site day care no longer feasible, Ceratto says.
But the value of programs helping workers balance work and family continues to be confirmed by employees and employers.
“It is important for the employer to be flexible and understanding that the employees have personal lives,” says Ceratto. “Then the employee becomes much more loyal.”
