Welcome to the Roundtable, Discovery Communications! Discovery Communications is the world's #1 nonfiction media company reaching more than 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in 210 countries and territories. Please join us in welcoming Jane Badger , Learning and Work-Life Manager & Jessica Aitchison, LifeWorks and Diversity Specialist to the Global Workforce Roundtable!

UPCOMING EVENTS 

Web-conferences:

December 13: Wellbeing and Work: Towards a Balanced Agenda, featuring Dr. Cary Cooper CBE, Lancaster University Management School, 10:00-11:00am EST, Time Zone Converter

Additional web-conferences (dates and times forthcoming):

• Global Financial Wellness
• Work-Life in Germany

Global Summit 2012

Johnson & Johnson has offered to host our next Global Workforce Roundtable Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil! 

Recent Events:

Leading from a Distance: A Practical Guide for High-Impact Virtual Leadership, featuring Darleen DeRosa, Ph.D, Managing Partner, OnPoint Consulting

• Presentation Slides 
• Webconference Recording 

MEMBER RESOURCES

Listserv Summaries

• EAPs in China 

GLOBAL RESOURCES

Harness the Global Workforce: Strategies for identifying and engaging the right employees

Director of Corporate Partnerships Danielle Hartmann was featured in this article in APICS (Association for Operations Management) Magazine.  Danielle provided insights into managing a global workforce and concrete tips on developing effective virtual teams. 

Global Mindset Inventory research and findings

In just three years, a research team at Thunderbird's Global Mindset Institute has amassed 10,000 survey responses from dozens of companies all over the world.  The milestone - which Thunderbird passed on May 10, 2011 - means the sample size is now large enough to make every type of statistical analysis by gender, region, industry, job function, company size and other variables. Thunderbird researchers can identify trends, make predictions and refine the way companies develop talent and improve a person's Global Mindset.  Read and see video about some key findings about energy, generational differences, and the importance of English language.  More on mindset v. skillset.

SOUTH KOREA: WORKERS STRIKE OVER MERIT-BASED PAY

Foreign companies setting up business in Korea should recognize the country's distinct cultural traits and labor dynamics before implementing global HR practices into the Korean workplace.  For example, Standard Chartered (a London-Based Bank) caused significant tension with its Korean employees after the bank's decision to switch from seniority based pay to performance based pay.

CHINA: FIRST COMPREHENSIVE SOCIAL INSURANCE LAW NOW IN EFFECT

On July 1, 2011, the Chinese national government implemented the Social Insurance Law. This law will affect, at least in theory, all employers in the country. The Chinese social insurance system includes the following five insurance areas: 1. pension, 2. medical, 3. unemployment, 4. maternity, and 5. work-related injury insurance. According to the new national law, all five areas are mandatory employee benefits for all companies operating in China. Both employers and employees are now required to contribute to: pension, medical, and unemployment insurance. All employers, both foreign and domestic, are also now required to pay work-related injury and maternity insurance.

Work and Family in Bulgaria

In post-communist Bulgaria, the public debate about work and family life has been strongly linked to the country's transition from central planning to a market economy and the concerns about the dropping rates of both fertility and employment. Women have been working in the public sphere, at least since the middle of the 20th century, and the current mass feeling of imbalance comes from a forced retreat to more traditional gender roles.

Insights from Mercer's What's Working Study

Mercer's employee research group conducted a series of national studies around the globe, entitled What's Working, which analyzes national trends regarding employee perceptions and identifies the key drivers of employee engagement - by country and on a global basis. 

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

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. 

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 multiples 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.

NEW Forum Posts

• Retention Consultant In Brazil 

NEW Academic Alcove Posts

• Opting In-Between: Women's Career 'Choices' and Advancement Potential 
• Friendly Workplace, Healthy Employees: How Co-worker Support Influences Employee Health Outcomes 
• Dual-Career, Dual-Care: How Modern Family Structures Can Be Beneficial For All 

• Please feel free to pose a discussion question in the forums section, and comment on or continue any open discussions!

Please contact Catie Maillard at maillarc@bc.edu if you would like a tutorial of the CWF Virtual Roundtable or would like more information about joining and participating.  The Virtual Roundtable is available only to BCCWF members. 

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.

Like most Americans, for me the tenth anniversary of September 11 brought with it a flood of emotions. At the time of this terrible event, I was the new director of the Center for Work & Family having started in my role there the week before. It was clear to me at that time that 9/11 was the most vivid example imaginable of the comingling of work and family. On that morning, our daughter Hannah, then nearly 4, was preparing for her first day of pre-school. Dressed well ahead of schedule in her favorite blue and white seersucker dress, she danced with excitement in our family room in anticipation of her big day. The phone rang about 9:00 AM and a friend of Annie's suggested that we turn on our TV. The heart wrenching images we saw of the World Trade Center juxtaposed with Hannah's exuberance will be etched forever in our minds. 

In speaking to colleagues and friends during the weeks leading up to the anniversary, there seemed to be a split between those who felt compelled to focus on the day and what it marked and those who could not revisit those terrible events once again. I found that I fell into the camp of those that needed to relive and remember. Two things in particular stuck with me about 9/11/2011.   

First, was an ESPN story about a former Boston College lacrosse player who lost his life on that fateful day (22 BC alumni died on 9/11). Thanks to a NY Times article, Welles Crowther became known to much of the country after 9/11 as the "man in the red bandana."  Welles had been a trader in the World Trade Center and always carried a red bandana with him - a reminder of the one his father had given him as a small boy. It seems that a man who saved at least a dozen people's lives in the South Tower on 9/11 wore a red bandana and that article of clothing became the key to his being identified. Others, including those he had saved, remembered him as the self-sacrificing hero who "gave the last full measure of devotion." ESPN's story recounted the events of Welles last hour so vividly and so well. When you have ten minutes, it's well worth watching.

What struck me most about this story was what happened years later. In spite of being an equity trader, Welles had always dreamed of becoming a firefighter. As ESPN recounts, it was while in high school that he first volunteered with his local Empire Fire and Rescue in Nyack, NY. When he told his Dad shortly before 9/11 that he couldn't spend the rest of his life as a trader and wanted to be a New York City firefighter, his father asked him if he really understood what he would be giving up to do so. After his death, when visiting Welles's apartment, his parents found an unfinished application to the New York City Fire Department among his belongings. It seems he decided not to follow-through on his goal perhaps in part out of fear of disappointing his father. But on December 6, 2006 when Welles was posthumously made an honorary NYC Firefighter for his acts of heroism on 9/11, his father called it "the proudest day of his life." It's funny how even as loving parents and family members we may not always grasp the true source of our love and pride for those most dear to us.

Second, in recent months I had become quite discouraged by the deep divisions in the country and the partisan bickering and mean spiritedness that was on the news night after night. Then last Sunday, on a picture perfect morning that was so reminiscent of the terrible day a decade earlier, I watched as the family members of the 9/11 victims read the names of those who had died. As the photos of each victim were displayed at the bottom of the screen I, perhaps for the first time, fully grasped that the people lost on September 11th were as beautiful and as beautifully diverse as our country.

As the family members - who were also from all walks of life - came up two-by-two with an unrelated partner to read the names of the 3000 lost with such grace and dignity, I couldn't help but be struck by the strength and character of my fellow Americans. At the end of alternating the reading of their assigned list, each person uttered a few words of love and remembrance for their own lost loved one. Very often this led to an understandable rush of emotion on the part of the speaker. But their partner, whether white or black, Hispanic or Jewish, Muslim or Irish-American, rich or poor, old or young, always seemed to offer just the simplest touch or gesture of love and support to bolster them. Watching this filled me with a great sense of hope for America, and the world.