Dying for a Paycheck by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Author:Jeffrey Pfeffer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-01-27T05:00:00+00:00

WHY SOME COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES ARE DIFFERENT

Not every employer and not every country encourages long hours and work-family conflict, of course, and evidence suggests they may be onto something. Patagonia’s head of human resources, Dean Carter, described the very generous, family-oriented benefits the company provides:

Family is really important here. We have integrated on-site childcare. Any parent, at any time, is encouraged to go hang out with their kid. You can eat lunch with them, eat breakfast with them. If you want to just sit on the ground with them for a play break, you can do that. We have really generous [paid] maternity and paternity leaves, twelve weeks for dads and sixteen weeks for new moms. You can have up to twelve weeks of paid leave to take care of an elderly parent.

If I could pick one thing about the culture at Patagonia that has a bigger impact than anything else, I would pick that our childcare and family policies are really extraordinary. For example, if you’re a mom and you’re nursing and you need to travel for work, we will pay for the child to travel with you as well as a nanny to care for the child while you’re working.

Countries and companies compete for talent with other locales and employers. Those that make it possible to reconcile the demands of work with the rest of life do better in that competition. At Patagonia, “We know that about 99 percent of our moms return to work, which is about 20 percent above the national average, because we make it super easy.”

The “war for talent” is an already long-established phrase. Countries invest, through education and training mandates, in building the quality of their human capital. Companies, too, invest not just in training but also in identifying high-potential employees and instituting policies and programs to ensure their retention. Interestingly, work hours, scheduling flexibility, and policies that foster work-family conciliation are important means for accomplishing these goals.

At the company level, firms on Fortune’s Best Places to Work list regularly outperform their peers on shareholder returns. And these companies are more likely to offer job-sharing programs, compressed workweeks, telecommuting opportunities, and more generous family benefits to create environments more supportive of employees seeking work-family conciliation rather than conflict. Numerous organizations including Deloitte Consulting, Google, and some management consulting, accounting, and other professional service firms have sought to address issues of work hours and flexibility in order to attract and retain employees who increasingly do not want to trade off their life for a career. Family-friendly work environments offer companies an edge in recruiting and, possibly more important, in retaining employees.

Google, frequently rated as the best place to work in America, has a vision “of making its staff the healthiest and happiest on the planet.” As described in a 2011 article:

Google launched its “optimize your life” programme in 2010, as an extension of a new healthcare plan. . . . Google’s emotional wellbeing benefits include an employee assistance programme . . . life coaching, deep-sleep sessions, brain training, support groups, and recharging spaces .

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