It’s no secret that a happy worker is a productive worker and a new analysis by scholars at The University of Texas at Dallas finds that family-friendly policies are beneficial for increasing productivity of employees. Yet the benefit for 
employers is unclear, since that may be offset by the same turnover rates.
Family-friendly policies are a big concern in science academia. Though free from the ‘corporate’ environment, most academic labs are a small business – they have a grant recipient who pays a small team. In a small business, every person is important so when it comes to family planning, no time is a good time. As the only gender that can have babies, that impacts women the most. For that reason, many have advocated being more like corporate science, with family-friendly workplace policies, and a paper in Public Personnel Management adds weight to the argument, using the Korea Workplace Panel Survey data from 2005 to 2009, consisting of 158 public organizations in South Korea.
South Korea has experienced a significant increase in female employees over the past 50 years. These workers, however, have remained economically inactive as a result of a male-centered workplace, cultural barriers, societal pressures and gender inequality, according to the report. Many women quit their jobs to focus on child care.
Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Family-Friendly Workplace Policies Make People Happy, But Don’t Affect Turnover Rates.
Related Posts
Work and Family / The 10 Best Jobs For Balance
According to a recent survey by career website FlexJobs, an overwhelming majority of parents (96%) say having a traditional full-time job conflicts with important parts of taking care of their families, and two-thirds report frequent conflict. At the same time, a whopping 97% of respondents feel that having work flexibility (such as working from home … Continue reading
Increase Workplace Flexibility – Where to start
The potential benefits of workplace variability are numerous — increased morale, motivation, and the ability to attract and retain talent — yet many managers don’t know where to start. Others are afraid that performance could suffer or something important could fall through the cracks. Even the most employee-oriented managers have concerns about having employees work outside … Continue reading
Flexible Working in UK – After the June 30th new legislation
On 30 June, new legislation was enacted that allows all employees the right to request flexible working. This means a company has to ‘reasonably’ consider flexible working requests, whereas previously only employees with caring responsibilities were legally covered. While the laws have been cautiously welcomed by most corners of business, and certainly by this publication, … Continue reading
Job Search tool for Flexible Jobs
There are a lot of perceptions of what work from home jobs and other flexible jobs can be, and quite honestly, most of them are outdated. We compiled this list of 100 of the Most Surprising Flexible Jobs, Past and Present, in order to help showcase that flexible work meaning telecommuting, freelance, part-time, flexible, … Continue reading
UK – An additional 8.7 million want to work flexibly right now
Flexible working is now an everyday part of life in Britain. 8 million people work part time (30 hours a week or less) and around 4 million usually work from home. For the first time, Timewise can reveal that an additional 8.7 million UK-based full time workers want to work flexibly right now (whether part … Continue reading
The Talent War – Workplace flexibility is the key (Infographic)
As if finding great employees wasn’t enough of a problem for small business owners, keeping them poses yet another HR challenge. Plantronics Workplace Flexibility Survey of 270 small business owners conducted last year by the Corporate Executive Board found that 44 percent say that finding and retaining talent is the most difficult aspect of HR/labor … Continue reading
Ending the 9 to 5 and choosing workplace flexibility over pay
The 9 to 5 job may soon be a relic of the past, if Millennials have their way. Continue reading
Randstad launches report on flexible labor and employment
Modifications to the needs and desires of the global labor force mean that the demand for flexible employment is growing, but new research from Randstad reveals that availability of flexible work has remained stagnant over the past decade. Although businesses and the wider economy stand to benefit from the trend, it seems that many employers … Continue reading
Gen Y / Looking for flexibility over financial reward
Generation Y would choose workplace flexibility, work/life balance and the opportunity for overseas assignments over financial rewards, a study published by PwC has found. The PwC NextGen survey of 44,000 workers, in conjunction with the London Business School and the University of Southern California, reveals Generation Y are more likely to stay in a job … Continue reading
The Flexible Work: What About Telecommuting
Marissa Mayer left Google to tackle what ailed Yahoo. And this week she took on … telecommuting. Yahoos were pleased with the new iPhones and free food from the new boss – a Google-icious touch. But, depending on the speaker, this “bold,” “outrageous,” or “1950s” decree eliminating work from home has stirred up comment, incredulity … Continue reading
Job Market Monitor 
Discussion
No comments yet.