Working Mother Top Ten

Working Mother Top Ten

• Baptist Health South Florida
  
• Booz Allen Hamilton
  
• Ernst & Young
  
• General Mills
  
• IBM
  
• KPMG
  
• The McGraw-Hill Companies
  
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
  
• UBS
  
• Wachovia

Those who dare to climb Mount Everest battle brutal winds, freezing temperatures and dangerous paths, all because they want to reach the top of the world. Like other peak performers, our Top 10 know that it takes special qualities to reach the pinnacle of innovation in the area of family-friendly benefits—perseverance, ingenuity and courage. It also takes listening. We asked human resources execs at our Top


10 what female staffers say they need most.

The companies' responses show an unusual level of mindfulness. Whether it's cutting-edge time-off options at General Mills, a growing career development focus at KPMG or ramped-up networking opportunities at Wachovia, each of our Top 10 enacts programs that make women feel like they are being heard.

Baptist Health South Florida
Kathryn M. Fisk / Corporate Vice President, Employee Services & Human Resources
"The health-care profession asks a lot of its employees. We've heard from our working moms that they love their jobs, but they need a little extra help. We responded with our Great Place, Great People initiative and have introduced a housing benefit, special retention and appreciation bonuses and a backup child-care and elder-care service."


Booz Allen Hamilton
Horacio Rozanski / Vice President & Chief Personnel Officer
"Women at our company have been asking for flexibility—not only in work arrangements but in choices, too. We've revamped our paid-time-off structure for greater flexibility. We've created a new part-time career model, and we've introduced a series of initiatives aimed at increasing representation of women in the pipeline. We're committed to finding ways to say yes."


Ernst & Young
James L. Freer / Vice Chair of People
"This past year we heeded the advice of our women employees and enhanced our parental leave policy to include six weeks of fully paid leave for primary caregivers, in addition to six weeks of fully paid short-term disability for birthmothers. The firm also introduced the Working Moms Network to help women make the transition back to work following parental leave."


General Mills
Kelly Baker / Vice President of Corporate Diversity
"While our vacation benefits are among the best—with 90 percent of employees recommending us as a great place to work—flexibility in managing work/life balance continues to be a big concern for women when deciding where to work and whether or not to stay. We created new time-off options to help staffers maintain balance, including flex vacation and sabbaticals."


IBM
Ronald C. Glover / Vice President, Global Workforce Diversity
"Women have been asking for greater flexibility in where, when and how they get their work done. They're also asking for tools that enable them to network with colleagues, develop their skills and grow their career. To help them, we offer a range of programs, from flexible work schedules and meeting-free Fridays to online resources that identify job and learning opportunities."


KPMG
Bruce Pfau / Vice Chair, Human Resources
"Our female employees have asked for more opportunities to have meaningful discussions about their careers. This year we launched Web-based training for employees and managers to help them have more productive conversations about career development. We also introduced an interactive website to help staffers identify steps for building more satisfying careers."


The McGraw-Hill Companies
David L. Murphy / Executive Vice President, Human Resources
"We acknowledge and facilitate the powerful contributions of our female employees by providing resources such as parental leave, adoption assistance, elder-care case management and flexible work arrangements. Our rich portfolio of resources supports and addresses employees' needs at every stage of their lives, fueling their career aspirations and their personal fulfillment."


PricewaterhouseCoopers
Roy Weathers / Partner & Chief Diversity Officer
"Women want more time—whether to bond with a newborn or adjust to their role as a parent. Our leadership recognized this as an opportunity to make a significant investment in our people. As a result, effective January 1, 2007, we gave mothers three extra weeks of fully paid maternity leave, which can be used at any time up to one year following a child's birth or adoption."


UBS
Mona Lau / Global Head of Diversity
"To ensure career success for talented flex employees, we have been rolling out a Managing Flexible Workers workshop for managers globally. These programs give managers tools to support flexibility within their teams. We've also focused on ensuring that women are adequately represented in our talent pool identification and career development programs."


Wachovia
Shannon McFayden / Director, Human Resources & Corporate Relations
"Our female employees repeatedly speak to the need to connect across our organization. The company's leadership panels allow women to get advice from other women. Our affinity networking gives women a chance to connect with others who have similar interests. And our annual balance event enables women company-wide to share how they align work and life."