Group items tagged

When work works "When Work Works is a nationwide initiative to bring research on workplace effectiveness and flexibility into community and business practice. It is a project of Families and Work Institute in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for a Competitive Workforce and the Twiga Foundation, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation It seams that the site is very user friendly and is intended for the general public. It is a site that provides links to information on topics concerning workplace effectiveness and workplace flexibility. There is no certain level of knowledge assumed. When Work Works has grown from eight community partners in 2005, to having locations today that span the country that covers nearly one third of the total U.S. population. Families and Work Institute's National Study of Employers (NSE) is the most comprehensive and far-reaching study of the practices, policies, programs and benefits provided by U.S employers to address the changing needs of today's workforce and workplace. Conducted in 1998, 2005 and most recently in 2008, the NSE provides trend data on changes that have occurred over the past ten years. Any group can give itself an official sounding name or logo. What beyond surface credibility gives you clues about the reliability of the site and its information? I am not really sure. I know there was a lot of links to very interesting articles. Is the sponsoring organization involved in research and/or does it provide supporting documentation to back up its points? The whole organization is involved in research as a group. Does the site have built in bias? For example is the Web page an advertisement for a product or service? No, there were actually no advertisements. Does it have a particular political or social agenda? (Please see table 1 following these instructions for websites you can refer to about evaluating the credibility of web page sources.) Ther

Website Overview: This is a company website for an organization that offers consultation to employers who wish to provide a "healthier, flexible, effective, and supportive workplace." The site offers organizations insights into assessing staff and how to improve engagement and motivation. WFC utilizes online and Telework training e-courses to implement best practices and to share information and research related to transforming company cultures. Relationship to work, family, community class: Recognizing the need for change is important for any decision maker in any organization. Acting on that recognition may, perhaps, be just as important. This website sells that action in the form of changes to work practices, leave policy, time-saving assistance, in addition to better management of existing services already offered by the organization. The website briefly describes work-life as the "interaction between employers and employees, because everything that happens at work has an impact on workers' lives." It's not that I don't believe they are a credible resource in turning around a drowning corporate culture, it's that I generally don't believe anyone or thing that can't give me some example to support their cause. The site promotes its cause with scientific and academic research, but cost $29.99. So, I moved on. Next stop, case studies. I clicked on the "Business Case for Work-Life." In one of a handful of actual statistics, WFC cites a SHRM report that "work-life balance and flexibility were winners when recruiting skills, compensation came second." An agreeable statistic no doubt, unfortunately, this is the entire scope of this business case. No particular reference to a success of the company on implementing such a balance in any organization. However, respectable organizations such as Xcel Energy, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and decision makers of a few other companies offer words of appreciation The President of StressStop.com

I agree with you in that paying for this information is probably not our best option. It seems to be a good site with credible information. The company I work for does a lot of in-house training for managers and executives in order to provide better working environments to our employees so I think it would be interesting to read into some of their strategies.

Corporate voices for working families a business membership that is dedicated to helping public and corporate organizations discusss working family issue. It is clearly lead by private and publicly traded companies. I believe that the intended audience for this site is both corporate managers and working families that have hourly and non exempt worker. The corporate voices for working families work on 5 key issues and they are workforce readiness, workplace flexibility, family economic stability, work and family issues and legislative issues. Overall I think the website offered some great information as to how managers can implement more family friendly policies. I also thought the website is non partisan because it has section dedicated to Congress men and women that have helped to advance the work/family issue. In reading some of the information the site provide one of the things that I really enjoyed reading was the idea of helping make hourly employees just as successful as non hourly employees. One of the things comapnies forget that their hourly employees are just as important as non hourly employees. The website does provide documentation as to who are the corporate partners are and in my opinion does not have a hidden agenda. It seems to care about issues that working families face and how to improve work/life issues for hourly employees. There are several issues that I learned about in reading the website. First is that companies need to be concerned about work family issues not just for managers and exempt employees but also hourly workers. Many companies only look at work life from an exempt employee point of view and not hourly workers that are just as critical. I also learned about lactation programs for working mothers. I also learned about work place development. That at a time when there is so many having economic hardship that now is not the time to eliminate work for development programs. One of the best things that I learned in readin

Ernest - I really like this site. What impressed me is the annual report that is on the site which lists 64 corporate sponsors and included the full board member list and their corporate affiliation. The site is going on my favorites list. I especially like the area they call workforce readiness where they offer information about our education system and the changes needed to get our young person's ready to join the workforce. The brochures are a nice touch that highlights the corporate sponsors that helped to evaluate or study the area covered in each handout. This really showcases the corporate involvement in the community.

Chrysula's website is a blog where she writes about work life balance strategies. She also has a section to where you can contact her for coaching and advisement. Many of her posts focus on ways to lead an integrated life to include raising a family, working, and living by your values. She seems to usually write from either personal experience or the experiences of acquaintances. She also includes categories from work life balance to mothering, fathering, and reforming and has links for work life reformers such as Sloan Foundation Work and Family and Alliance for Work Life Progress. Chrysula's experience and qualifications include a Masters degree focusing on work life issues and training and development. She blogs regularly with MomsRising.org and the Huffington Post and she will also have work published in two books this year: Dare to Dream and The 12 Powers of Motherhood. She is the Social Media Marketing Director for Foundation/Mashable Digital Media Lounge for UN Week on Changing the World One Mother at a Time. Chrysula's information was both subjective and objective. She listed links in her blog posts to different research that was done on the topic she was discussing to back up her opinion or information. She also provided links to changes in government policy that dealt with work life balance. Her blogs and information were all current as well and the website was easy to navigate. It was also well maintained and every link to outside sites worked. Chrysula's attended audience seemed to be geared toward working mothers and women in general although she has a whole category on fathering and much of her advice can used by both men and women searching for balance in their lives. One thing that Chrysula mentions in many of her blog posts is the importance of actually talking to your boss about you work/life balance issues. You can complain all you want, but if you never ask for flexibility then you are never going to get it. I think that

Twiga, which is Swahili for giraffe, is a non-profit organization founded in 2005 "promoting family consciousness in the home, workplace, and community." The website discusses involvement and support for work and family related projects around the nation. Also its success is measured by the partnerships from different organizations. The site offers many links to other websites dealing with similar ideas like Twiga. They also offer consulting services in health and wellness, workplace flexibility, and other helpful tips. The intended audience for this website includes families, employers, employees, and any individual who wants to learn a healthy life balance. The website offers proof of their dedication with projects and articles written. Twiga makes sure you can contact them for consulting services regarding anything from family to work and overall health. Twiga's website seems to be informing as well as educating it's intended audience. The URL (.org) also indicates the legitimacy of the organization. The website gives the audience all the contact information needed to reach the staff. Twiga is an authentic organization with a legitimate website. The website is an advertisement for their company improvement services but it's informative to say the least. The founder and President/CEO, Patricia Kempthorne, has a degree in business management and has a lot of experience in her field as well as her staff. This website was very well organized and easy to follow. It's amazing the time and effort people put into an organization that helps the balance of work and family. I think this is a great company to be involved in regarding not-for-profit companies.

I am impressed with the drive that Patricia Kempthorne and fellow founders had to start up such an organization that has thrived. The overall appeal catches the viewer's eye and the organizational structure of the website is user friendly and logically organized. This website seems similar to the AWLP website I reviewed in the fact that both organizations in nature are created around the premise of helping those in the workforce to handle issues that conflict between family and work. I appreciate the links to consulting services that the organization lists that help provide a good opportunity for those looking to gain help with their issues. Go Twiga!

The name caught my attention, but the site kept it. I was really impressed with this site and think that the giraffe metaphor fits their purpose nicely. Although, they have a small staff, they seem to be very involved. I particularly like that their focus is on trying to mesh everything together to make it work rather than taking the approach of changing one thing and assuming that will solve the issues. I noticed on a couple of the site reviewed that there is big spotlight on health and nutrition. I find that interesting and this site was no exception. The "Health and Wellness" section had a lot of really good information/reminders. So often, this aspect of life is overlooked, but balancing your health is an important component to help balance the rest of work and life.