Meeting The Work & Family Challenge
A Business Perspective

Clinton O. Larson
Retired Corporate Vice President for Honeywell

Business and society today face many problems and not many solutions. Two important and strongly related challenges are: the business challenge in creating competitive, high performance organizations and the societal challenge in parenting and education. The link between them is business policies and practices called Work and Family or, more recently, Work/Life.

Well-designed and effectively implemented Work/Family policies strengthen business by boosting productivity, by lowering costs through improved retention, reduced absenteeism, and lower levels of stress, and by enhancing worker commitment. The evidence of these benefits to business mounts daily. Company after company which has analyzed their particular business challenges and developed effective Work/Family pilot projects has concluded that both the business and the employee benefit.

Similarly, effective Work/Family policies in business will strengthen society, boost the capacity of families for sound parenting, re-inforce educational outcomes, and create a stronger, better-skilled future workforce. Most important, we have seen evidence that the type of worksite training required for self-directed work teams and improving quality have a positive effect on the capacity of employees to function well at home. Workplace skills in communication, cooperation in teams, and shared responsibility overlap dramatically with skills needed for creating a functional and healthy family. By recognizing and addressing this linkage, business can improve its competitiveness and contribute to the solution of educational and societal problems.

The drive to improve competitiveness, financial health and shareholder value is nothing new for business. Quality management, for example, has been one critical strategy in this effort, and one that illustrates a key point. At one time, quality was seen as an added cost. Today, companies see it as an asset that generates revenue, profit, and most important, customer satisfaction.

Work and Family can be as significant a vehicle for improving company performance as Quality. Getting similar results, however, requires a shift in our thinking about employees. Restructuring or "right-sizing," another widely embraced strategy to boost shareholder value, has resulted in significant loss of jobs. I believe we've reached the right-size point. To move forward, we must truly see employees as assets.

Many companies say "employees are our most important resource," but too often this is more rhetoric than reality. Pressures to cut costs divert attention from developing employees as partners and assets. The result -- we are missing valuable opportunities to grow more competitive and address issues related to parenting and education.

For several years, I've assisted MCCR in developing Work and Family principles and now in developing implementation processes. My experience as an executive at Honeywell convinces me that these ideas have a significant positive impact on business. Enabling employees to balance responsibilities at work and at home is the key. When a company helps an employee achieve that sort of balance, the evidence is clear -- those employees are more productive and more committed, and costs are reduced.

Sick child care is one small example that allows an employee to be productive and not worry about staying home or leaving a child home while ill. There are many useful programs and policies. Flexible scheduling, alternative job arrangements, telecommuting, information and referral programs, parental leave, and services such as child care or elder care assistance are just a few. By no means do all focus on parents and children; many are equally applicable in enabling workers to meet other personal or family obligations.

The Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility's primary goal is to strengthen both sides in the stakeholder relationship. Yes, we have built a "societal case" for Work and Family. Of equal value, the Center and its Task Force from member companies is building a strong "business case" arguing that effective Work/Life or Work/Family programs benefit the corporate bottomline.

More and more companies support this view, and many have excellent programs and policies. Unfortunately, our Task Force concluded that far too often companies fail to achieve the full potential of Work/Family. On paper, the written policies look good. However, in practice, managers make only a few "exceptions-to-the-norm," and policies are underutilized. There are numerous barriers -- more psychological than practical, some more imaginary than real.

Frequently, employees fear that they will be seen as "lacking commitment" if they use such options. Companies whose policies focus primarily on employees who have families with young children can trigger resentment among other employees. In addition, managers may worry that they will "lose control," and some managers fear creating a new entitlement -- making the error of seeing this as a cost or benefit instead of an investment in productivity. Inadequate, training in how to use key flexibility strategies can be another pitfall. Most important, top leadership hasn't given this priority, and everyone in the organization can read that signal.

MCCR's Task Force finds that we must focus on the entire employee work force, to look at "Work/Life" inclusively for all employees. Further, creating an organization that genuinely embraces flexible work arrangements is critical. The framework of a cafeteria benefit plan, for example, is one strategy that ensures fairness and access to all. Information, education programs, and referral services are likewise pieces of the puzzle. And some companies can offer specific programs or services such as child care, sick child care, health and wellness activities, concierge services, support groups and networks, or elder care.

Technology is one bright spot today because it supports creating flexible Work/Family relationships -- telecommuting, e-mail, fax, virtual office. The tools are available, but it takes trust and hard work among all parties to exploit these techniques in ways that benefit both companies and families.

Finally, developing comprehensive measurements to track progress and results is of central importance. Measures might encompass: profit, attendance, productivity, reduce costs due to lower employee turnover, benefits of retaining talented employees, changes in training costs, changes in workers compensation or medical insurance costs, litigation expenses, etc. We need to shift from monitoring "seat time" or "face time" to tracking performance and results.

We should not underestimate the difficulty of building these policies and practices into the day-to-day operations of our businesses. Traditional ways of doing business present formidable barriers to change. It is easy to write a flex-policy; it takes imagination, experimentation and persistent effort to build it into the organizational culture.

We must understand how Work/Family policies and practices can solve business problems, how they can be integrated into core business strategies, how their impact can be enhanced through synergy with other strategies focused on gender equity and diversity in the workplace.

Committed executives can develop many equitable and effective ways to boost competitiveness by enabling employees to balance commitments in work and personal life -- just as executives have in the past found ways to increase shareholder value. The Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility Task Force is not calling for a revolution inside our corporations. Employers do not need to reinvent their workplaces all at once. We know, however, that there is substantial room for improvement. Solid progress can be made one-step-at-a-time.

Effective Work /Family strategies -- think of it as promoting excellence at work and at home -- offer us real opportunities to create healthy, high performance organizations. Embedding these strategies in our businesses is a challenge, but a worthwhile one. I urge business leaders to take a hard look at what your company is doing in this field, how well you are doing, and most important, what are the economic benefits to your business from comprehensive Work/Life - Work/Family strategies. You'll find win-win solutions for all parties -- at work, at home and in your community.

About the Author

Clinton O. Larson chairs the Task Force on Work and Family for the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility. Mr. Larson is Corporate Vice President, Retired for Honeywell, Inc. He joined Honeywell in 1952 and served the company in many leadership capacities. He became Vice President of Operations in 1980, Vice President of Underseas Systems Operations in 1981, group vice president for Honeywell's Marine Systems Group in 1985, and in 1987 Corporate Vice President for Operations. His responsibilities in that capacity encompassed manufacturing, electronics, information systems, business development and strategy, quality and human resources. Mr. Larson retired from Honeywell in 1993.

Mr. Larson brings a wealth of practical experience to MCCR and to the Task Force on Work and Family. He participated in the Task Force preparation of a report titled The Work and Family Dilemma, and he is leading the Task Force in its effort to promote wider implementation of effective Work/Family policies, strategies and practices.

Clinton O. Larson, chairs the Task Force on Work and Family for the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility. Mr. Larson is Corporate Vice President, Retired for Honeywell Inc.

April 1996

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