Prioritizing Work-Life Balance through Flexible Hours, Day Care, and PTO
Work today is changing so quickly it can be dizzying. I have a poster made about 40 years ago that breaks out the 24 hour day – eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, eight hours for leisure and family. Today, that concept is laughable. We’re always available to our employers – responding to emails when we first wake up, when we’re making dinner, during kids’ bathtimes. In lower-income jobs, many have to work two or more jobs to keep up. And we’re often struggling with childcare and building more time for our family and friends.
And as a result, we’re increasingly experiencing workplace burnout – which the World Health Organization recently named as a syndrome and occupational phenomenon in its 11th International Classification of Diseases.
Caused by long-term, unresolved, workplace stress, occupational burnout can lead to exhaustion, reduced professional efficiency, and serious illness. And with 11% of U.S. employees working 50 hours or more per week – and the psychological and physical problems faced by burned-out employees costing an estimated $125 to $190 billion per year in healthcare spending in the U.S. – the issue poses a serious problem in corporate America today.
The public agrees – and in our 2018 Survey, let us know that good benefits (including paid time off) and work-life balance (including flexible working hours and daycare services) must be top priorities for companies. Fostering worker well-being is essential to being a just company, and happier workers are in fact more productive, better able to support the companies they work for and bring their full selves to work.
With worker issues overall identified as a top priority by the public, we looked at how the largest, publicly traded U.S. companies measure up on nine key workplace policies that support employee well-being – including whether they disclose policies on flexible working hours, daycare services, and paid time off – with the hope of better understanding the state of corporate America today, and creating a playbook for how companies can improve. Here’s what we found:
Flexible Working Hours
This week, Bill Gates proposed that, in order to attract the best talent, providing flexible work options is a necessity. And with up to 90% of the U.S. workforce saying they want to telework at least part time, it’s clear Americans expect this benefit more and more. Especially valuable for working parents and caregivers, flexible working hours policies are disclosed by 45% of the companies we ranked in 2018. And they provided a win not only for employees, but for the bottom line as well: the companies offering flexible working hours had an ROE advantage 2 percentage points above their peers.
Day Care Services
Also of obvious value to working parents is the provision of day care services, which enable employees to balance the demands of their home life with the demands of their career, and more easily return to work after the birth of a child. We found that just 23% of companies disclose that they offer supplementary or backup day care services, but the win-win again can be clear: the companies that offer this benefit to employees had an ROE 2.5 percentage points higher than the companies that did not.
Paid Time Off
PTO as well provides an essential tool for employees to find balance as prioritize their personal needs, and while 85% of companies disclosed that they offer PTO, only 28% shared detailed information around their policies. This suggests that paid time off is quite standard in corporate America, but there seems to be a reticence to publish the specific benefits offered to employees. Of all the workplace policies we analyzed, this is the only one that did not correlate with an ROE advantage.
We often think of work-life balance as a focus primarily offered in the tech industry, but our research showed that companies across sectors are taking the lead. In Consumer/Diversified Finance, 60% credit card companies – like Capital One and Moody’s – offer day care services, while 88% of Telecommunications companies – like AT&T and Verizon – provide flexible work options. Perhaps surprisingly, 33% of companies in the Restaurants & Leisure sector – including Starbucks and McDonald’s – disclose the details of their paid time off policies, above the average disclosure of 28%.
Workplace burnout is a problem faced by employees across the country – and the impacts are most keenly felt by women and people of color, who typically have lower salaries and less decision-making power, alongside greater caregiving responsibilities and fewer resources. There’s much work to be done in corporate America to create workplace cultures that both prevent and help manage burnout – and in strengthening core work-life balance policies, companies can help curb the impacts affecting Americans today.
To explore the data and links to all the relevant policies at the 890 companies we analyze, visit the JUST Jobs Policy Tracker, and select any issue and industry from the pull-down menu.
Last week, Amazon announced that it would launch a massive new retraining program, committing $700 million over six years toward retraining about a third of its staff – from headquarters staff to warehouse workers – to transition to more high-tech jobs.
Globally, companies spend over $200 billion annually on training programs, with about $141 billion of that coming from U.S. employers. Companies like JP Morgan Chase, AT&T, Walmart, and Accenture have all recently committed significant resources toward training initiatives. And we hope to continue to see more investments on this scale in the months and years to come.
While economists and policy-makers continue to debate the jobs impact of automation and A.I., it is clear that many business leaders are moving forward with plans to retrain their workforces and are encouraging others to do the same. IBM CEO Ginni Rommety, for example, has spoken out in the media and before Congress about the training needs that coincide with the rise of A.I., stating “our challenge as a society isn’t about A.I. replacing jobs—it’s about people and skills.”
For decades employers have utilized training programs to meet their workforce needs. Yet, as structures of work continue to change, and new technologies emerge companies face a renewed responsibility to ensure their workforces have access to training throughout their careers. These changes are fueling businesses’ adoption and expansion of long-standing training strategies, such as apprenticeships, across industries including the tech sector.
In our recent analysis of human capital disclosure at the largest, publicly traded U.S. companies – the Win-Win of JUST Jobs – we analyzed what companies disclosed on nine core worker policies, including career development and training.
What we found is that 72% of companies disclosed that they offer career development – and what’s more, those companies boast an ROE advantage 1.4 percentage points higher than their peers, showing that skills training is not just a win for workers, but a win for companies.
While the benefits of training programs are clear, companies still face myriad challenges and stumbling blocks when implementing reskilling programs. It’s difficult and costly for employers to map the skills of their current workers and identify what they need, and layoffs remain par for the course as training strategies are often not shared across all levels of a company. Training also can be lengthy and cumbersome for employees, and it’s difficult for employers to measure the impact, not only against employee experience but company productivity and success in the market.
Moreover, these types of training don’t exist in a vacuum and must reinforce other just business practices like paying a living wage, as well as programs that support worker safety and well-being. While Amazon’s retraining initiative signals an important investment for its low-wage workers, the company has continued to come under fire for its working conditions and pay practices. Just this week, Prime Day sparked a wave of demonstrations in Minnesota, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, as well as in Europe.
In all of this, transparency is key. The more companies disclose their career development programs and investments, the better poised we are to help evaluate the impacts of these initiatives on the American workforce. In the coming year, we will continue to push for disclosure on this and other core worker policies, as we track how companies are responding to and preparing for the future of work. No matter what, as Rometty said, we must create “a culture of lifelong learning” – preparing workers for an ever-shifting technological landscape at work.
To explore the data and links to all the relevant career development policies at the 890 companies we analyze, track, and rank, visit the JUST Jobs Policy Tracker, and select “Career Development” from the pull down menu.
The push for healthier workplaces is growing every day – with corporate leaders creating employee wellness programs that foster work-life balance, and building more comfortable and productive workspaces.
And yet, there’s something more fundamental missing from the conversation around corporate health and wellness. While companies are increasingly attending to the comfort and well-being of their employees at work – many of Americans’ essential needs remain unmet, with inequality on the rise and economic stability out of reach for more than a third of the country.
Creating a culture of health in our nation must start by addressing these essential needs, and corporate America – with its substantial impact on jobs, housing, transportation, education, and the environment – plays a critical role in leading the way.
To show how business can and must cultivate a culture of health, JUST Capital has released new analysis, with support from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, evaluating how companies perform on core issues – from paying a living wage and providing good benefits to maintaining strong community relationships and minimizing pollution.
Below, we’re highlighting the top ten from our list of 100 U.S. Companies Supporting Communities and Families and some recent initiatives. These companies understand that health begins with how they operate their businesses and impact the everyday lives of their employees, customers, and communities. And many of them do go above and beyond – providing fitness memberships, remote work opportunities, and outstanding workspaces. But when it comes to building healthier workforces and communities, these are, dare I say, just icing on the cake.
Microsoft
Earlier this year, Microsoft made national headlines by investing $500 million into affordable housing in Seattle – a move that signals a long-term commitment to the company’s local community.
Cigna
In 2017, Cigna expanded its paid parental leave policy to offer employees worldwide up to twelve weeks of maternity leave, four weeks of paternity leave, and four weeks of adoption leave.
Intel
In 2016, Intel launched WarmLine, a hotline where employees can confidentially raise workplace issues and work with case managers toward resolution.
Humana
Among its many efforts to address community health, Humana reduced the number of members receiving opioid prescriptions above high-risk dosages by 36% in 2018.
Medtronic
Medtronic’s excellent benefits include a highly detailed paid time off policy (20 to 35 days, based on tenure) and paid parental leave, as well as adoption assistance.
Abbott Laboratories
Abbott Laboratories’ philanthropic arm – the Abbott Fund – “drives social innovations that lead to more resilient, healthier communities” and in 2017, contributed close to $65 million toward product donations, patient assistance, and grants.
Autodesk
Autodesk’s software products provide technology for green building, sustainable manufacturing, and circular design – creating tools for more sustainable environmental outcomes and a healthier planet.
Salesforce
In 2017, Salesforce opened a new child care center at its headquarters, serving more than 100 working parents, and provides subsidized backup child care at other locations.
NVIDIA
Through its employee charitable giving program, NVIDIA matches up to $1,000 annually, allowing workers – who also receive unlimited time off, which they can use to volunteer – to support their local communities.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments sources most products and services locally to drive economic growth, and supports minority- and women-owned businesses in communities where it operates.
Explore the details in the 100 U.S. Companies Supporting Communities and Families.
This week marks the beginning of a critical step in creating the JUST Capital rankings of the largest companies in the United States – the corporate data review process. Our polling and research teams have been hard at work over the past couple months, gathering data – including company reports, 10-K filings, crowd-sourced Glassdoor findings, and other sources – based on the priorities the American people shared with us during our survey work.
From June 12 to July 31, all the corporations we’ll be ranking have the opportunity to login to our secure Corporate Portal to review the data we’ve collected on their companies, to ensure that the data collected by our research team is as accurate as possible. Our research team conducts a rigorous review process, but there are instances where companies have not published data for a certain metric, or where information publicly available is out-of-date. In these cases, it’s essential that these companies have the opportunity to provide, correct, or verify the data we’ve collected.
Ultimately, JUST Capital seeks to build a more just marketplace, and we can’t do that without communicating and working with the corporations we rank. We’ve instituted this corporate review process in an effort to create not only accuracy, but transparency. It’s our hope that, armed with the rankings, and a detailed understanding of our methodology and research, corporations will work to establish more just processes and systems.
JUST Capital will publish its full ranking of the Russell 1000 in Forbes Magazine later this year. The “Most JUST Companies in America” list will include all industries and rankings based on our survey of the American people and what they let us know was most important to them when it comes to just corporate behavior. In the meantime, we look to corporations to use our Corporate Portal to help us build the most accurate and comprehensive rankings possible.
The JUST Capital Corporate Portal will be live June 12 through July 31. For questions about access for companies, please e-mail corpengage@justcapital.com.
