 A recent poll by the Sloan Work and Family Research Network revealed that “family friendly employers” is the work and family topic of greatest interest, according to work-family scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. Fifty-six percent of respondents asked the Network to develop work-family resources on family friendly employers, followed by resilience, stress and coping (39%) and return on investment or the business case (34%). The poll was available to Network affiliates from November 12-December 3, 2007, and completed by 440 people.
Seventy-one percent of respondents identified themselves as academics, scholars, researchers or students, 24% were workplace practitioners such as HR or union representatives, and 5% were policy makers or advocacy organizations. What is particularly surprising about the findings, according to the Network's Director, Judi Casey, is that “family friendly employers” is the number one area of interest for the majority of respondents who represent an academic audience. We would have anticipated that being an employer of choice would be a priority area for workplace practitioners, but not as much for the academy. The poll validates the importance to all working adults, regardless of their workplace, of a work environment that supports the personal and work lives of employees.
Other areas of interest include: global perspectives (30%), fathers (24%), diversity (23%), small businesses (17%), immigrants (12%), employed parents with disabled children (11%), military families (6%) and adoption (3%).
A follow-up poll to learn more about your information needs in this area will be available in a few weeks. Please provide us with your thoughts!
Sandee Shulkin, Project Manager for the Sloan Work and Family Research Network and Christina Matz-Costa, Research Associate for the Center on Aging & Work/Workplace Flexibility presented a poster-- "Linking Social Environments with Well-being in Adolescents from Dual-earner Families "-- at the 2008 Society for Social Work and Research annual conference in Washington, DC. Sarah Morrison, Research Assistant for the Sloan Work and Family Research Network, collaborated on the project.
Thank you to our Roving Reporters, Tripti Desai of India and Anna Borg of Malta, for global What's New in Work and Family additions.
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