Jennifer Lawless October 30th, 2009
New from the Network:
National Work and Family Month at the Huffington Post:
Karen Corday October 16th, 2009
New from the Network:
- Please take our new poll: Compared to before the recession, has your overall (mental and physical) health improved, declined, or stayed the same? Available on our home page or blog.
National Work and Family Month at the Huffington Post:
New, free work-life content online:
Featured Guest Blogger October 7th, 2009
Mary Curlew is a Policy Assistant for the Sloan Work and Family Research Network.
The Statutes by Theme series joins our already successful Policy Briefing and Bills by Theme series. Our aim in providing this series is to give legislators and other interested groups a concise, timely, and user-friendly way to find statutes related to work and family topics such as breastfeeding in the workplace, telework, and flexible work schedules.
More specifically, this new product will:
- highlight related statutes in one particular state;
- make it easier to compare legislation between states; and
- illustrate varying legislation language and content
We hope you find this new product helpful. Please take a look and let us know what you think!
Karen Corday October 2nd, 2009
New from the Network:
Big news:
New, free work-life content online:
Karen Corday September 25th, 2009
New from the Network:
New, free content in work-life:
Karen Corday September 18th, 2009
New from the Network:
- Please take our new poll: At your workplace, do you experience tension between workers of different generations around work style and expectations? Available on our home page or at our blog.
- Who’s Who in Work and Family: Our own Policy Specialist, Julie Weber
- New Statutes by Theme, which are presented primarily for state policy makers to help provide an overview of the laws that have been passed in various states that are relevant to work and family issues: Breastfeeding and the Workplace, Flexible Work Schedules, and Telework.
New, free work-life content online:
Karen Corday September 11th, 2009
New from the Network:
- Please take our new poll: At your workplace, do you experience tension between workers of different generations around work style and expectations? Answer on our home page or on the blog.
- Who’s Who in Work and Family: Jamie Ladge
- All of the maps from the Policy Briefing Series are now in one place on Mapping State Policies.
New, free work-life content online:
Julie Schwartz Weber September 9th, 2009
The policy team is eager to announce that we are in the process of updating our older briefs that we originally issued in 2005 and 2006. The first of these updated briefs, Phased Retirement, is already online.
If upon reading this updated brief you are interested in learning even more about phased retirement, a unique part-time work arrangement for older workers during their transition to retirement, please also see our one-page Effective Workplace Series and our related Topic Page.
Please also stay tuned these next few weeks, as we will uploading updated briefs on Telework and Flexible Work Schedules!
Karen Corday September 4th, 2009
New from the Network:
- August issue of the Network News: For this year’s international issue, Suzan Lewis interviewed Marian Baird on paid parental leave in Australia, and Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay wrote about paid parental leave in Quebec.
- We updated many of our Topic Pages over the summer: Afterschool Care, Changing Definitions of Family, Dependent Care Tax Assistance, Employer Supported Child Care, Family and Medical Leave Act, Family Leave, Flexible Work Schedules, Gender and Use of Workplace Policies, Generation X/Generation Y, Military Families, Older Workers, Overwork, Paid Sick Days, Phased Retirement, Return on Investment, Shift Work, Small Business and Work Family, Spillover: Negative Impacts, and Telework.
New, free work-life content online:
Jennifer Lawless September 2nd, 2009
In February of this year, the Network staff conducted a usability study on our website. We recruited five adult participants, each with some experience using computers, with the goals of the capturing initial reactions to the website and collecting feedback on the interface’s functionality.
Key findings and recommendations from the usability study include:
- The majority of participants rated finding information as “easy” and organization of the site as “effective.”
- Participants found the classification of content appropriate. Information relevant to their tasks was found quickly, and most participants did not need to use the search tool to find it.
- Some participants felt overwhelmed by the amount of content presented on the homepage and thought it would benefit from improvements.
Overall, the Network website generated positive reactions by the participants. They found the site well organized which made finding information quick and easy. Many of the participants appreciated that the site was presented in “chewable” pieces.
You may have already noticed that we made changes to the Network website as a result of the study findings, most significantly to the layout of the homepage. We would love to hear any additional suggestions or comments that you might have as we are always looking to improve our website and ultimately, our service to you.
