Moms eye part-time jobs to achieve work-life balance
How families can get more face time and companies can retain top talent.
from the September 17, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Two-thirds of these mothers had been able to arrange some kind of part-time work schedule after becoming parents. But even this arrangement proved unworkable for all these mothers.
"Their work hours started ramping up, they felt dead-ended in their jobs, and their meaningful responsibilities were taken away" because they had become part-time workers.
"As the women encountered all this negative reinforcement, they started disengaging," says Stone. "They began wondering why they were taking time away from their family for a job they hadn't been trained to do."
Mentors keep moms on track
But clearly, some businesses realize they can't afford to lose such talent. And as more workers in general – not just moms – seek greater work-life balance, as well as career development, new solutions to these needs are emerging.
For instance, just over a year ago, the international professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in New York launched Full Circle. The program is designed for PWC professionals who want to leave the workforce for up to five years to care for their children or parents. During this stint, program participants get annual training to keep their skills fresh. They also have a coach – a PWC employee – who keeps in touch with them while they are gone and helps them transition back to the firm when they are returning to work.
The idea is to retain talent, explains Jennifer Allyn, PWC's managing director in the Office of Diversity.
"Every time a professional leaves us, it costs the firm $80,000 in recruiting costs and lost productivity," she says.
The New York-based Deloitte & Touche USA is now rolling out a broad new program, called Mass Career Customization (MCC). According to the firm, this "unique" program is "designed to encourage more robust and transparent career conversations."
Specifically, it provides all 40,000 of Deloitte's US employees with a framework for discussing with supervisors their career goals in four areas: pace of career progression; workload; location and schedule of work – i.e., where and when it gets done; and work role, which involves an employee's position or job responsibilities.
"The objective is to allow each employee to partner with his or her supervisor to customize their career path over time by making choices along each of those dimensions, understanding the trade-offs of their choices," said Anne Weisberg, a director in the Women's Initiative at Deloitte. She is also coauthor of the new book, "Mass Career Customization."
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