How Does Your Firm’s Work-Life Culture Compare?

By David B. Bohl | April 23, 2007 | No Responses Yet

The corporations out there that embody philosophies that allow their employees to lead well-balanced, fulfilled lives will benefit immensely from this. There are also companies that are going above and beyond, breaking the molds and thinking outside the box. Read about three companies that are doing just that - Chaparral Energy Inc, Best Buy and Netflix.

Many companies today have recognized their employees’ needs to balance their personal and work lives.

Many employers have responded by creating initiatives that support this awareness by not only offering time off and leaves, as well as child care support and assistance, but making it known that utilizing this time will in no way jeopardize one’s standing at one’s firm.Others go a step further by allowing workers to work part time, flex their hours, and telecommute.

Then there are those that go above and beyond. These companies are breaking the molds and thinking outside of the box:

Chaparral Energy Inc. in Oklahoma City gives its employees Friday afternoons off as part of its official year-round work policy. Read more about Chaparral Energy in ScrippsNews.

Best Buy’s “results-only-work-environment” (ROWE) attempts to judge an employee’s performance not on hours worked, but on performance. The official policy is “that people are free to work wherever they want, whenever they want, as long as they get their work done” according to BusinessWeekOnline. “Work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do.”

Netflix has a vacation policy that essentially allows an employee to take as much time as he or she would like as long as his or her work is done. Chief Executive Reed Hastings calls vacation limits and face-time requirements “a relic of the industrial age” according to the San Jose Mercury News.

This is the new frontier. Those companies out there that embody philosophies that allow their employees to lead well-balanced, fulfilled lives:

That have paid attention to what is most important to the needs of their workforce
That have designed situations and opportunities to enable individuals to create more time for family, community, and themselves;

These corporations will benefit immensely from these cultures.