BCCWF is excited to bring our more than 20 years of research and applied experience in the area of employee engagement and effective workforce practices to new Executive Education Workshops on topics such as Implementing Workplace Flexibility, Managing Change, Women's Advancement: Navigating Career and Leadership Success,  Managing a Global/Remote Workforce, Managing a Multi-Generational Workforce, Managing in the New Inclusive Workplace: Understanding and Addressing Unconscious Bias, Career Management and Work-Life Integration and The Changing Role of Fathers in the Workplace. For additional information, visit our Executive Education website or contact jennifer.fraone@bc.edu   

(member log-in required)

Family Leave Benefits Households, Businesses, Taxpayers

A new study concludes that providing paid family leave to workers leads to positive economic outcomes for working families, businesses and the public.  The research analyzes data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 to 2009 and finds that women who take paid leave after a child's birth report stronger labor force attachment and positive changes in wages in the year following a child's birth, when compared to those who do not take any leave. 

 

Welcome Bristol-Myers Squibb to the Global Workforce Roundtable! Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global BioPharma company firmly focused on its Mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.  The company has been recognized all over the world for their innovative people, business, and sustainability practices.  We welcome Linda Konrad, Associate Director, WorkLife Programs & Liaison Bright Horizons Child Development Centers to the Roundtable!

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

We look forward to seeing each of our member companies in Brazil!  Thank you to Deere & Company and Johnson & Johnson for your sponsorship!

 

Global Summit 2012: Contextualizing Work-Life In Brazil

Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 6-8, 2012

**Register Online by 17 February 2012**

 

Hilton Sao Paulo Morumbi

Av. das Nacoes Unidas, 12901, Sao Paulo, Brazil 04578-000

Tel: 55-11-2845-0000    Fax:  55-11-2845-0001

**Reserve your room on-line by February 17**

 

Sampling of agenda highlights:

• Quality of life and creating a culture of wellbeing in Brazil
• Supporting employees with disabilities, best practices in Brazil
• Workplace flexibility, remote work, and overtime: implications in Brazilian organizations
• Unconscious bias: interventions and applications

 

Recent Events:

Member Benefits Review

This call highlighted all of the services and resources that are available to you as a Global Workforce Roundtable member, such as the Members' Only Website, Member Email Listserv and Archive, Information Requests, Center Research and Publications, and the CWF Virtual Roundtable.

• Global Member Services Review Recording    

 

Wellbeing and Work: Towards a Balanced Agenda, by Dr. Cary Cooper CBE, Lancaster University Management School

•  Webconference Recording 
• Presentation Slides  

GLOBAL RESOURCES  

Focus: International Women's Day 2012

You are invited to attend Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited Webcast celebrating International Women's Day, Friday, March 2, 2012 - 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. EST (GMT-5). More information: Embedding diversity into the organizational culture to advance women

 

India Struggles To Bridge Gender Gap At Work

A recent report by the World Economic Forum found that India ranks 113 out of 135 countries in gender equality in the work place. Only 14% of the companies in India have 40% or more women among their employees. Women who are employed are mostly in the entry and middle levels of management, with very few in senior management.  

 

How Economic Development Helps the World's Women

The authors of this article have taken 5 key measures for treatment and economic development of women around the world and created a global analysis.  Nations where women have more opportunity and face less inequality have higher levels of human capital and more knowledge-based economies. The treatment of women also reflects levels of tolerance, openness, and diversity in a society.

 

Japanese Women Quit Jobs Because Of Unrewarding Careers

A recent survey in Japan found that 74% of degree-holding Japanese women voluntarily quit their careers. This is a significant 28% more than American women. Many people believe that Japanese women leave for traditional reasons such as childcare.  However, the survey found that the great majority of Japanese women leave because their careers are stalled.

 

Flexible work arrangements make for happier employees-Singapore

While flexibility at workplaces is increasingly a "declared human resource" policy, such work arrangements are not always available to all, said Singapore Human Resource Institute executive director David Ang.

 

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

Please contact Jennifer Fraone with topic/speaker suggestions!

Welcome New Members!

We are pleased to send a warm NEWFA welcome to

Commonwealth Care Alliance represented by Kim Kettner and Brenda Madden! We'd also like to welcome new TJX representative Sandi Anderson and new BayState Health representative Jenna George!

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. 

Members of our Corporate Partnerships are encouraged to join the CWF Virtual Roundtable: our own members-only social network filled with information on topics that are relevant to the field of work-life.  Please sign up or sign in in order to access all of these resources!

 

Members: Participate in this quick poll! Would you

be interested in having an open forum call to discuss the Working Mother Application?  Please submit responses via the  Virtual Roundtable. 

 

Please contact cwf@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.

 

For more information about the Center for Work & Family visit our website at www.bc.edu/cwf  or review our CWF brochure.
To contact us please e-mail cwf@bc.edu or call 617-552-2844.

We are appreciative of your support and proud to have your organization as our corporate partner.  Any feedback on this newsletter or about the Center for Work & Family is always welcome!

 

Sincerely,

 

In spite of the recent improvements in the US employment numbers, the last few years have been extremely trying for many individuals' careers. While anytime is a good time to tweak your career management strategy, these days it is especially important to be sure your plans and your portfolio are up to date. This is especially true for three groups:

• Employees who feel they have been stuck in a less than ideal job. The numbers are actually startling. According to the Gallup Employee Engagement Index, it is estimated that 70% of American workers are disengaged at their job. About 50% report they simply don't feel connected to their work. 20% are actively alienated from their work or employer.

• Employees who are rightly worried about the stability of their position. Since the recession began, we may feel we've been laboring beneath the Sword of Damocles, simply waiting for the bad news to come around to us. Obviously, this is unnerving and can lead to high levels of anxiety.

• Employees who struggle with their career-life fit. Those are the fortunate ones that have good jobs but feel the challenge of integrating their work with other life priorities is extremely difficult. These employees may go out looking for other jobs when, in fact, simply working with their manager and thinking creatively may allow them to happily stay in their current role.

For those of you who fall into one of these categories - that may be many or perhaps most of us - now is the time to reflect and take actions to re-focus your career strategy. I have written before about a new career model that Prof. Tim Hall has called the "Protean career". Protean skills include being able to change frequently or easily, to be able to do many different things, to be versatile.  A Protean career is one that is characterized by such adaptability and versatility. 

To succeed in a Protean career, the individual must take responsibility for charting his or her own career path - one that leads to their definition of success. There are three characteristics that are foundational in managing a Protean career. First is simply committing to be proactive. Many of us say we'll do that, but as the Gallup data suggests, most of us do not. Second is possessing a high degree of self-awareness (i.e. a clear sense of "identity"). Third is demonstrating adaptability; using our increased level of self-knowledge to adapt to the ever-changing professional and personal circumstances we encounter.  

 

So where to begin? Once you have made the commitment to be proactive, you need know yourself. Specifically, to understand your skills, values, desired lifestyle, and career/life aspirations. How do you do this? In the Career Management and Work-Life Integration course I teach at Boston College, I ask students to complete a battery of exercises to increase their level of self-understanding. There are two activities in particular that are simple and fun to do:

• The first is the "Peak Experiences Exercise." It asks participants to describe a number of events / moments when they felt particularly proud of an accomplishment or just happy with their life or their work. Reflecting on these moments can tell us a great deal about what we value, the skills we possess, and what we feel a strong emotional connection to.

• The second is the "5 or 10-Years-Out Exercise". The goal is to paint a word portrait of what you would ideally like your life to look in the future. This is your personal vision. Simply writing down a detailed description of what you hope for greatly increases the likelihood that you will achieve it and will help you determine/consider the path you need to take to get there.  

We've posted these exercises on our Center's website homepage. If you have time, try them out. I believe you will find them enjoyable and they will start you on the road toward improved career health. You don't want to be one of the 70% of the employees who aren't excited to come to work each day. It isn't fun, and can lead to your becoming what my old boss called a "WCRT" - that's a walking cost reduction target for those unfamiliar with the acronym.  My hope is that completing these exercises will represent the first step in taking charge of your career and life.

 

 

 

                     Brad