April 26-27, 2011: Global Workforce Roundtable Summit in San Francisco, CA

Renaissance Stanford Court Hotel

We are very excited to see so many of you soon!  Many thanks to Chevron for sponsoring this meeting!

This year's Global Summit will focus on the theme of Addressing Global Talent Challenges-sessions will explore topics including:

·         Integrating female talent featuring a keynote by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

·         Mary Teagarden will lead a workshop on Developing global leaders with a global mindset

·         Cross-national comparisons of flexibility will be presented by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes.

·         PLUS** a Senior Leadership Panel including Rohini Anand (Sodexo), Roz Hudnell (Intel) and Jim Norman (Kraft Foods) will share their global talent strategies. 

Recent events:

The CWF FlexJam  was a huge success.  We had over 150 contributions to the FlexJam and now 40% of our National Work & Family Roundtable and Global Workforce Roundtable members have created profiles on the Virtual Roundtable.  Check out the informative interchanges on Launching Global Flexibility, Dell's Connected Workplace Initiatives,  and Workplace Flexibility Tools and Metrics, just to name a few.  If you missed the FlexJam, you can still review the materials shared or add your own comment by signing up for the Virtual Roundtable...a free, new,member benefit!

The Center for Work & Family Virtual Roundtable

Please join us on the CWF Virtual Roundtable-

an online community that allows members to share best practices and resources, as well as connect on multiple levels in a secure online outlet. The Virtual Roundtable consists of interactive features such as forums, live chat, groups, a CWF blog, and up-to-date resources and events, as well as other aspects of the community. 

GLOBAL RESOURCES

Work and Family in the Southern African Region

To what extent do family-related policies in Southern African countries help working parents with young children reconcile responsibilities associated with work and family life? In an attempt to answer this question, this article reviews and summarizes the policy documents of the 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community.

The importance of Work-Life during times of global turmoil

With a slew of devastating events in 2011, companies are grappling with how to protect their workers. But the global turmoil so far this year has tested even the most experienced crisis managers.

Pacific Bridge, Inc. - Asian HR eNewsletter

Important work-life related news from the Asia Pacific region including: PENSION REFORM BILL REINTRODUCED INTO INDIAN PARLIAMENT, POST-DISASTER JAPAN FACES LABOR SHORTAGES, 2012 MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE LIKELY FOR SOUTH KOREA, and RETIREMENT AGE IN CHINA TO RISE.

Predicting excellent management performance in an intercultural context

Research found that in international contexts, leaders who are best able to empathise with the feelings, thoughts and behaviours of team members, to take the initiative in social situations, and to have an open attitude towards other cultural groups are likely to have a much better chance of developing the transformational leadership style needed to manage team performance successfully in such a setting.

Have a question about what's happening at the Center for Work & Family?   Please contact us - we always love to hear from you!

Listserv Responses

• Responses to inquiries on Self-Funded Sabbaticals and HRIS Coding of Remote Workers are now posted on the Members-only website 

• If your organization is looking for some benchmarking information, feel free to send an e-mail to newfa@listserv.bc.edu    

Global and National Roundtable Members receive complimentary membership in NEWFA! If your organization has representatives in New England, we would love to get them involved! For more information about NEWFA, please contact Jennifer Fraone at 617-552-2862 or sabatinj@bc.edu. 

Mission

The Boston College Center for Work & Family is committed to enhancing the quality of life of today's workforce by providing leadership for the integration of work and life, an essential for individual, organizational, and community success. Our vision is that employers and communities will work together to ensure their mutual prosperity and the well being of employees and their families.

Values

Bridging Research and Practice

We seek to advance the depth and quality of knowledge in the work-life field and serve as a bridge between academic research and organizational practice.

Transforming Organizations

We believe any work-life initiative is also an organizational change initiative. We help identify and develop organizational models to meet the needs of a contemporary workforce and provide expertise to assist in implementing these changes successfully.

Strengthening Society

We believe employers who recognize and manage the interdependence of work, family, and community build stronger organizations and a more vibrant society.

In recent years, a lot of smart people have begun to pay attention to what would seem a pretty obvious question, "Are we happy?" Suddenly (actually not so suddenly but it is gaining much greater visibility of late) scholars from a whole range of disciplines -economics, psychology, sociology, management, etc. - are paying attention to whether we are getting any happier as time marches on. Economists, for example, look at whether economic prosperity brings greater happiness to a country and even begin to think we should use measures beyond GDP to evaluate the quality of life in a given country, a sort of Gross Happiness Index (GHI).

This month in search of greater knowledge on the subject and no doubt, an increased level of self-awareness on the topic, I read some research on the subject. One particularly good piece was called International Happiness: A New View on the Measure of Performance by David Blanchflower (an economist from Dartmouth College in the US) and Andrew Oswald (Dean of Research for Warwick University Business School in England). The authors did a good job of synthesizing a lot of research on the topic, and I thought I'd pass along my version of their findings, albeit in a less sophisticated form. Any mistakes made in an attempt to convey their work simply are my own and I offer apologies in advance to the authors. But since we are all in the business of trying to help people be happier and more fulfilled in their work and lives, I thought this simple checklist might be useful.

According to my reading of the authors, and their review of years of happiness studies, you are more likely to be happy if:

1.     You are young or old. If you are middle age, not so much.

2.     You are working. If you're reading this newsletter, you probably get a point for this one.

3.     You are rich. You know that old cliché that money doesn't but happiness? It's not true, it does! I always had my doubts about that one.

4.     You are well educated. It seems the more educated you are, the happier you are. Although for some people, the authors suspect this is because well educated people make more money. In which case, refer to point 3.

5.     If you are from Denmark, the Netherlands, or Ireland (being of Irish descent, I never thought we were a particularly happy lot, but I need the point so I won't debate it.)

6.     If you are married or in a committed relationship. I didn't run this one by Annie but I'm sure she would agree.

7.     You are in good health. This is kind of obvious but reflects on old saying my dad shared with me a hundred times. "If you have your health, you have everything."

8.     Now the tough ones begin. If you exercise regularly. I wonder if monthly is considered regularly. I do it every single month.

9.     If you eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables.

10.  If you are slim.

I really enjoyed reading this well written and informative article. But I must admit I had no idea how unhappy I was until I did. The good news is, I'll be improving my score on Point 1 in the very near future!