1 What Your Institution Needs to Become an Employer of Choice for Working Mothers: Policies, Services, Supports & Resources Susan Abramson Manager, WorkLife and Child Care Yale University HERC Presentation

Agenda  Background  Why?  Policies  Services & Supports  Challenges  What can you do?  Resources Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Background  Best Places to Work Lists  Robert Levering  Milton Moskowitz  Carol Evans Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Why?  Recruitment  Women  Top Talent  Diverse candidates  Retention  Workforce stability  Profitability (shareholders)  Decrease costs (hiring, training, less abseentism)  Benchmarking Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Policies  Parental leave  Caregiver leave  Phased return to work following leave  Sick Days  Vacation and personal time  Flexible work arrangements  Telecommuting  Community Service Susan Abramson - Yale University - 10/13/065

6 Creating Family Friendly Policies  Collect and use data to demonstrate the need for the policy  Encourage collaboration among supportive individuals and institutional groups  Examine and articulate policy goals  Use precise, positive and normative language "Developing and Implementing Work – Family Policies for Faculty" by Beth Sullivan, Carol Hollenshead and Gilia Smith inDeveloping and Implementing Work – Family Policies for Faculty" Academe: Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (vol. 90 No. 6).

Services & Supports  Child Care/Eldercare/Special needs  Back up care  Training/Education  On-site ■ Off-site support ■ Tuition reimbursement  Career Development  Career Advancement opportunities  Mentoring  Web site  Affinity/networking groups Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Services & Supports cont’d  Lactation Rooms & Information  Employee Assistance Program  Flexible Spending Accounts  Health and Wellness resource access  Dual Career Assistance Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Challenges  Array of policies  Decentralized environment  Lack of commitment  Culture  Prioritization  Data collection/tracking  Time and people Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Susan Abramson - Yale University - 10/13/0610 What can you do?  Get involved  Be an advocate  Educate  Benchmark  Find champions  Know the data/know the facts  Partnerships on campus  Become familiar with the application process, timeline and institutional supports for the process.  Be realistic!

Resources  Battling To Be The Best: Why Companies Compete for Best-Places-To- Work Lists by Richard Federico. World at Work Press  Work Life Law – a center of UC Hastings College of the Law (  Working Mother Best Companies ( companies) companies  The Chronicle of Higher Education – Great Colleges to Work For  College and University Work Family Association (CUWFA) Susan Abramson - Yale University –

Susan Abramson - Yale University – 12— Thank you! Susan Abramson Yale WorkLife Program Coordinator 221 Whitney Avenue New Haven, CT (203)