WorkFamily Reconciliation Policies for the United States: Lessons from Abroad

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Caregiving in a Work-First World The Tentative
Emergence of Employer-Based Policies Tiffany
Manuel, Ph.D. Department of Political
Science University of North Carolina at
Charlotte 9201 University City Blvd, Fretwell
445E Charlotte, NC 28223 tamanuel_at_uncc.edu Cou
ncil on Contemporary Families Symposium WHO
CARES? DILEMMAS OF WORK AND FAMILY IN THE 21ST
CENTURY October 20, 2006
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..modern welfare capitalism is in a transition
period. Corporations today are less willing to
shoulder the risks for their employees than in
earlier years. Mass layoffs are one sign of
this other indicators include outsourcing,
managed-care health insurance, the shift from
defined-benefit to defined-contribution pensions,
and the rise of other kinds of at risk
compensation. If these changes continue, they
will cause the death of welfare capitalism by a
thousand cuts. (Sanford Jacoby, 1997)
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• Forcing business to provide leave is both
  inefficient and unjust. It in effect
  discriminates against single persons and against
  married women and men with no children or with
  grown children. Its one thing to call for a
  gender-neutral productivity test for pay hikes
  and promotions but another to make business give
  preference to persons with young children
• (Gary and Guity Nashat Becker, 1997).
• Children, like the environment, are a public
  good. The individual decisions that parents make
  about childrearing, and the level of resources
  they can devote to this work, have economic
  consequences for everyone
• (Nancy Folbre, 1994).

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• When it comes to facilitating family leave as a
  way of providing some balance between work and
  family, on the federal level we spend practically
  nothing primarily because we are concerned about
  the effects the costs might have on employers and
  wages
• (Selmi, 2000).

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The Business Case Work Family Policies

• Reduced casual sickness/absence
• Improved retention
• Improved productivity
• Improved morale and commitment
• Improved recruitment
• Other Externalities to society
• Healthier children, less stressful parents, fewer
  dollars spent by public health agencies, etc.

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Emergence of Employer Policies

• Often initially define work-family integration as
  childbirth and child care issue.
• Over time broadening of policies practices to
  support participation in additional life roles
  community, elder care, teen supervision, personal
  health care, personal values (e.g. political,
  religious), military service, domestic chores, or
  exercise.
• Work-life trend shows some recognition of need to
  support not only those with visible family needs
  (e.g., child care), but all employees at many
  life stages who may experience work life stresses
  regardless of family status.

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Employee Demand

• Flexible hours this does not necessarily
  translate into demand for fewer hours. Some
  employees want occasional or permanent
  flexibility in starting and leaving times to deal
  with longer-term childcare arrangements.
• Part-time working some employees cannot work on
  a full-time basis owing to their caring
  responsibilities. Others need variation in their
  contracted working status to accommodate
  life-cycle changes (eg from full time to part
  time and back to full time).
• Understanding and trusting culture in firms with
  significant provision, some employees are made to
  feel guilty about taking up family-friendly
  policies because they might appear less committed
  than colleagues. Providing supporting evidence
  for the commercial benefits of being
  family-friendly, is one way of eroding hostile
  organizational cultures.

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Employee Demand

• Emergency or short-notice flexibility employees
  with care responsibilities feel most vulnerable
  when care arrangements break down at short
  notice, causing them to miss appointments,
  deadlines or meetings, or at very least appear
  unreliable and disorganized. Caregivers need
  practical support in managing unanticipated
  domestic care needs that affect work attendance.
  This requires tolerance and understanding on the
  part of managers and co-workers.
• Paid or unpaid special leave many employees with
  caring responsibilities are able to resolve
  short-term care problems if given the flexibility
  to reorganize their working time. Employees are
  far more confident about resolving short-term
  care difficulties if offered a limited number of
  paid or unpaid days special leave for emergencies
  or special circumstances.

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Alliance of Work Life Professionals Surveys1999
and 2001

• Employee Ass. Programs 77 84
• Flexible Schedules 77 83
• Child care referrals 83 75
• Elder care referrals 76 74
• Tuition assistance 70 71
• w-f seminars 78 69
• Wellness program 64 65
• Telecommuting 70 64
• Paid mater. Leave 51 52
• Medical services 38 40
• On-site child care 37 40
• Back-up child care 43 39
• Child care subsidy 29 35
• Paid family leave 34 35
• Concierge services 21 24
• Paid paternity leave 27 21
• Other programs 25 21

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Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

• http//www.bls.gov/ebs/

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BLS Data
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Families and Work Institute Data

• www.familiesandwork.org

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Families and Work Institute Data on Employers

• Periodically change starting and quitting times?

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Caveats

• Current adoption research (and the media) may
  have overstated policy availability.
• Much of the published research in management and
  the social sciences involves larger employers who
  are most likely to give research access.
• Mostly for high level, scarce employees and
  consistent findings of low use rates.
• Policy use is often left up to supervisor
  discretion and needs of the business, so there
  can be wide variation in a single firm in the
  adoption of policies across business units
  employee groups.

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• Such efforts to help employees make a life as
  well as a living are really no more than
  recognition of the new reality. You can ask
  people to leave their personal lives at the
  factory fence in the old days, that was the
  culture of most corporations, including our own.
  But youre really just kidding yourself if you
  think that they have the capacity to comply. You
  cannot hire part of a person. You get the sore
  back along with the skillful hands. You get the
  anxious heart along with the educated brain
• (Randall Tobias, 1998).