Earlier today the latest workplace flexibility research from the Families and Work Institute and SHRM came out, and there were some very interesting data points in the study. A few quick hits from the 2014 National Study of Employers (link to the full study below):
- The presence of women/minorities impacts offerings: Organizations with more women and racial or ethnic minorities who are in or report to executive leadership positions are more likely to offer a high level of health care and economic security benefits than organizations with fewer women/minorities in those positions.
- How are employers preparing their people? Employers are more likely to provide training for supervisors in managing diversity and least likely to have a leadership development program for women (63% vs 11%).
- The all important culture discussion: Respondents were asked to assess the supportiveness of their workplace cultures… The majority of respondents indicated “very true†to statements assessing whether supervisors are encouraged to assess employee performance by what they accomplish rather than “face time†(64%) and whether supervisors are encouraged to be supportive of employees with family needs and by finding solutions that work for both employees and the organization (58%). Far fewer employers, however, responded “very true†to statements asking whether management rewards those within the organization who support flexible work arrangements (11%) and whether their organization makes a real and ongoing effort to inform employees of the availability of work-life assistance (24%).
- Twenty one percent of employers overall indicated they must comply with the FMLA but fail to offer at least 12 weeks of paid or unpaid leave for at least one type of leave. In other words, approximately one in five employers appear to be out of compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Other notable comments
Huge recruiting/retention benefit: allowing new mothers to phase back into work. 74% of employers allow this. #SHRMTalent
— Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks) April 29, 2014
80% of employers make contributions to employee retirement plans. Another smart recruiting/retention tool. #Workflex #SHRMTalent
— Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks) April 29, 2014
42% of employees have had elder care responsibilities in the last 5 years. #SHRMTalent
— Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks) April 29, 2014
Dependent care assistance plans more popular in recent years as a #workflex, taxfree benefit. #SHRMTalent
— Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks) April 29, 2014
Latest research on #workflex: Despite Yahoo's attention, the ability to work from home increased since 2008. 23% vs 38% #shrmtalent
— Ben Eubanks (@beneubanks) April 29, 2014
The chicken or the egg?
Organizations who report doing better than their competitors (28%) are more likely to offer a high level of health care and economic security benefits than organizations who report doing worse than their competitors (8%).
It’s interesting to look at the results like those and ask the question: do better organizations offer these types of benefits, or are organizations better because they offer these benefits?
It would take digging into additional data from previous years to be able to ascertain the answer to that question, but it’s something worth considering. Sometimes companies want to wait until they are doing better to offer benefits like these, but they might have their priorities backwards.
