Today’s webcast will focus on work/life initiatives and how to measure the impact of these programs.  What does work/life have to do with talent acquisition?  We’ll discuss that in a bit.  First- let’s define what “work/life” is.  According to our presenter, Dr. Amy Richman of WFD Consulting, “[w]ork-life is a perspective. Companies that take a work-life perspective regard employees from a whole person point of view. They acknowledge that it is not just skills, abilities, and career goals but also work environment and personal and family life that give employees the energy and commitment to contribute fully. “

Creating, fostering, and nurturing a healthy work/life strategy is a competitive edge in talent acquisition- especially amongst semi-retiring Boomers and smart young Millennials.

Dr. Richman encourages organizations to ask this question: Does your company’s work-life effort have these components?

•Dependent care programs & policies

•Health and wellness programs & policies

•Education benefits and programs

•Financial and legal programs

•Flexible work practices

•Organizational culture that enables employees to work efficiently and manage work and personal responsibilities

•Workload and work redesign efforts to eliminate low value work and achieve business results

•Community focus and collaboration to leverage investments

Are there any  missing components?  Do you disagree with any?

Finally, Dr. Richman demonstrates how to measure the impact of work/life programs, and share some metrics from a case study at IBM.  And those metrics are pretty darn powerful- through the lens of an employee survey, IBM found that over 40% of their employees ranked work/life balance as the 1st or 2nd reason for continuing to work for the company.