Workplace Flexibility 2010 is a research, outreach, and consensus-building initiative with the mission of advancing workplace flexibility through thoughtful public policy. As part of the Sloan Foundation’s National Initiative on Workplace Flexibility, we are working to spur meaningful dialogue on how public policy can help create an American workplace that allows employees to balance work and life responsibilities – while also allowing businesses to succeed.
The national policy debate around workplace flexibility typically happens within the confines of Washington. But we believe local business and community leaders bring essential perspectives to that discussion. For that reason, Workplace Flexibility 2010 – in partnership with The Twiga Foundation – is hosting six community policy forums on workplace flexibility in cities across the country. Through these forums, we are able to hear directly from local employers and community organizations on how they are experiencing the need for flexibility – and to bring their insights back to the national policy debate on work and family.
To date, we have hosted two policy forums in Chandler, Arizona and Rochester, Minnesota. We cosponsored both these forums with dynamic Chambers of Commerce committed to promoting flexibility as a tool for economic and community development. In each city, the Chambers helped us bring together a group of 40 – 50 business owners and managers, human resource representatives, and nonprofit agency directors from workplaces ranging in size, structure, and industry.
In both Chandler and Rochester, we were struck by the widely shared view among participants that workplace flexibility has become a critical business strategy in an increasingly competitive market. Many participants told us that implementing workplace flexibility is complex and challenging – but that effective flexibility policies can provide important benefits to both employees and employers. In addition, participants shared with us a number of innovative ideas on how the private and public sectors might work together to support and expand access to workplace flexibility.
Through just these first two discussions, we have already learned a tremendous amount about how businesses and communities are approaching flexibility on the local level. Those lessons will continue to inform our efforts toward creating common-sense policy solutions to advance workplace flexibility – and we look forward to learning more in the policy forums to come.
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