Business Impact Matrix

Work-Life Effectiveness Category

Company/Source

Business Initiative

Result

Workplace Flexibility

Hewlett Packard

Compressed workweek

200% increase in the number of transactions conducted on a daily basis
50% reduction in overtime
Nearly doubled productivity*

Watson Wyatt Human Capital Index

Workplace flexibility

Companies that support flexible work arrangements had 3.5% higher market value than companies without.**

London School of Economics and Policy Studies Institute

Job autonomy

Research of 2,100 employees found that the amount of pressure, stress, motivation and enjoyment of the job is more influenced by how much control employees feel they have over their time rather than by long hours worked.**

IBM

Workplace Flexibility

Workers who believe they have flexibility are able to work eight hours more a week and still feel they have work-life balance. **

UPS

Flexible Work Schedules

Reduction in turnover from 50% to 6%**

Illinois Bell

Telecommuting

40% increase in productivity*

Health and Wellness

PepsiCo

Fitness Program

The company's fitness program produced a 300% ROI ($3.00 for every $1.00 invested) ****

Finnish Hospital Study

Focus on interpersonal treatment

A study of 4,000 hospital workers in 10 hospitals in Finland found "attention to interpersonal treatment" decreased the risk of ill health. Male employees who felt they were treated unfairly at work were 41% more likely to take sick leave; women were 12% more likely than those who felt respected. **

DuPont

Short-term and Long-term Disability Program

The company found a 14% decline in disability days over a 24-month period due to lower disability costs, which offset program costs during the first year. The savings provided return of $2.05 for every dollar invested. ***

Applied Materials

Fitness Center

Fitness center participants had medical payments one fifth lower, accident-related disability costs a third lower and workers' comp costs per claim 79% lower than non-participants**

Steelcase

Wellness

55% lower medical claims for participants in their wellness program over six years**

Johnson & Johnson

Corporate Wellness Program

A nine-year study of the corporate wellness program saved $225 per employee per year in reduced hospital admissions, mental health visits and outpatient services, even after deducting the cost of paying employees to participate.**

Caring for Dependents

Bright Horizons Study

Child care resources

A study of eight Bright Horizons clients found a $3.4 million aggregate cost savings as the voluntary turnover of child care center users was almost half of the voluntary turnover among the total workforce. In addition, there was a 97% retention rate of top performers using child care centers.**

KPMG

Emergency back-up child-care program

Program yielded a 125% ROI within 6 months of implementation; steadily ramping up to a 521% ROI by the fourth year.**

Kaiser Family Foundation survey

Eldercare

The number of employed caregivers will rise dramatically as Americans age; 33% of families will be providing care for an older or disabled adult by the year 2003. By 2020 the over-50 population will increase 74% compared to 1% for those under 50.**

Bank of America

Child Care

Child-care subsidy enhances retention.**

General Services Administration

Child Care

55% of workers who were offered a child-care subsidy were better able to concentrate at work and 48% were more likely to stay. 19% reported fewer days absent from work and three-fourths felt that the subsidy has improved their job performance.**

Bristol Myers Squibb

Child Care

Users of the company's child-care centers had a deeper commitment to the company and felt better able to balance work and life responsibilities. Parents who had children in the centers felt more positive about their relationship with their supervisor and were much more positive in general than non-users.**

Children's Health Systems

Emergency back-up child-care program

The center helped 336 parents find child care help out of 2,900 and saved 4,020 work days. Turnover went down to 12% from 22% the previous year, with an ROI three times higher than the cost.**

Community Involvement

DePaul University Study

"100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2001"

Companies who are socially responsible were found to have more than a 10% higher sales growth, profit growth and return on equity than companies who not on the list.**

New York University Stern School of Business

Influence of good reputation and social responsibility

Fortune 500 companies with a good reputation are actually more profitable and stock prices were relatively higher among 216 companies known for being socially responsible.**

Cone Corporate

Citizenship Study

Influence of good reputation and social responsibility

77% of adults surveyed indicated a company's commitment to social causes influenced their decision about where to work.*

Financial Support

Ryder

Retention

HR practices such as competitive pay, performance-based compensation, communication and advancement opportunity, increased employee satisfaction which in turn reduced turnover. Lower turnover was associated with lower workers compensation claims, higher return on controllable assets and higher net profit before taxes.*

Blasi, Douglas, Sesil, Kroumova & Cranberry

Broad-Based Stock

Companies that adopted broad-based stock option plans had 27.7% more productivity than other public companies as a group.*

Culture Change Initiatives

Watson Wyatt Human Capital Index Study

HR Practices

43 specific human resource practices are associated with a 47% increase in shareholder value. 10 practices cluster into a category labeled Total Rewards and Accountability, which together account for 16.5% of the increase. 8 practices cluster into the creation of a Collegial, Flexible Workplace, which contributes 9% to the positive impact on shareholder value. Of these, "company shows flexibility in work arrangements" adds more to shareholder value than any other single people practice, except for one in the Communication Integrity cluster, "employees have easy access to technologies for communication".**

Gallup Study

Relationship with Supervisor

Two million employees at 700 companies rate having a caring boss higher than money or fringe benefits. This study confirms findings by a 1999 Lou Harris Assoc./Spherion study that found 40% of employees who rated their supervisors as poor were likely to leave their company, compared to 11% who rated them as excellent.**

Families and Work Institute

Retention

77% of workers who experience their culture as being supportive say it is highly likely they will stay, compared with 41% who don't describe their culture as supportive. What do they consider supportive? More than twice as many respondents with access to flexible work arrangements are highly satisfied with their jobs, as are more than three times as many who have supervisor support.**

Paid and Unpaid Time Off

Johnson & Johnson

Work-Life initiative

Employees who used the company's work-family benefits (e.g., on-site childcare and flexible work) were absent for less than half a day in a 3-month period compared to one day for other workers who were non-users.**

CCH

Unscheduled Absence

Work-life practices help cut absences, and organizations with better morale had more work-life initiatives.**

Aetna

Extended Maternity Leave

Approximately $1 million saved annually by extending the job guarantee for new mothers on maternity leave to six months.*

Radcliffe Public Policy Center

Family Time

A survey of 1,008 male workers between 20-39 found that spending more time with their family was more important than challenging work or earning a high salary. 70% said they would be willing to give up some pay in exchange for more family time.**