Author: Diane Newman

Working mothers are the largest group of entrants into the workforce.

    One of their biggest challenges is balancing work and family responsibilities. Typically these women continue to care for their family’s child rearing and elder care needs. As of the early 2000s, more mothers in the U.S. are working than ever before.

    According to a Pew Research Center survey completed in July 2007, among working mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under):

• 21 percent say full-time work is the ideal situation for them;
• 60 percent say part-time work would be their ideal; and,
• 19 percent say they would prefer not working at all outside the home.

    In the study, mothers most inclined to endorse their current situation as their ideal are those who work part time. Among this group, 80 percent say that part-time work is their preferred option.

    Part-time work is also the preferred option of about half (49 percent) of mothers who work full time and a third (33 percent) of mothers who don’t work outside the home.

    USA Today recently declared that “[s]avvy employers realize that labor shortages will return, making it important to reach out to this largely untapped labor pool of returning mothers.”

A study published in the Harvard Management Update of 88 managers and executives in 20 companies in the U.S. and Canada found that companies that allowed employees to craft nontraditional workloads and schedules yielded significant payoffs.

    There was a higher retention of high performers, greater productivity and efficiency, improved team functioning, and deeper cross-training and development within the group. A program implemented by Best Buy known as ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment), confirms the findings.

    To address low morale and the level of stress in its corporate offices, Best Buy allowed employees to work when and where they like, as long as they get the job done. Since employees have stopped counting the number of hours they work, they are more productive.

    With the first experimental group of 300 employees, turnover in the first three months of employment fell from 14 percent to 0 percent; job satisfaction rose 10 percent; and team performance scores rose 13 percent.

    Some employees who were contemplating leaving said they no longer had the desire to leave, and many employees said the program was “changing their lives.”

    Best Buy recognized that the new approach was not just about helping employees; it was about staying competitive. The five-year-old plan now covers 60 percent of the employees at Best Buy’s corporate headquarters near Minneapolis.

    By all accounts, it’s working. Employee productivity has increased an average of 35 percent in departments covered by the program.

    Best Buy is poised to test the program in select retail stores