Archived News
As Labor Day Approaches, National
Study of Off-Site Work Finds Major Shift in Traditional Work Environment
The American Business Collaboration
(ABC) Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary As the Largest Private Sector
Investment of Its Kind to Support Employees
"Credit Where Credit Is Due" Tax Booklet
Offers Maximum Tax Benefit To Working Families
New Study Finds Corporate Support of
Child Care Programs Has Strong Impact on Job Performance
National
Corporate-Sponsored Training Program Attracts Child and After School
Professionals from Across the Country
Training
Grant funded by Local Companies Helps Child Care Providers Teach
Science to Preschoolers
As
Labor Day Approaches, National Study of Off-Site Work Finds Major
Shift in Traditional Work Environment
The
American Business Collaboration Funds Study to Address Workforce
of the Future; Finds More than Eighty Percent of All Employees Work
at a Distance
BOSTON, MA -
(August 26, 2002)
- As Labor Day approaches and the country prepares to celebrate
the advancements of the American worker over the last 120 years,
a national study shows a new era in the American workplace, with
only 17 percent of respondents untouched by work at a distance.
The national study, "When the Workplace is Many Places: The Extent
and Nature of Off-Site Work Today," was commissioned by the American
Business Collaboration (ABC) as part of its tenth anniversary commitment
to provide leadership on issues affecting the future U.S. workforce.
The newly released
report is the first nationally representative study to profile the
extent and nature of off-site work from the 360-degree perspective
of off-site workers, their colleagues, their managers and their
family members. Conducted from March 26 through April 21, 2002 by
WFD Consulting and Harris InteractiveŽ, the study surveyed approximately
2000 full-time adult (18+) workers in companies of 500 or more employees,
and a sample of family members of off-site workers, using on-line
interviews.
"These data
reflect a new reality in the American workplace," said Debbie Phillips,
Director of the ABC. "As corporate leaders, the ABC commissioned
this study to provide the business community with information and
data that can be used to maximize the productivity and satisfaction
of the workforce."
The major findings show:
- The impact
of off-site work is wide-reaching: only 17 percent of respondents
are employees who work exclusively in a company office and don't
experience some form of work at a distance.
- Companies
benefit too. Off-site workers, on-site workers and managers all
rate off-site workers as doing as well or better than on-site
workers when it comes to employee productivity, commitment and
job satisfaction.
- The experiences
of off-site workers studied vary widely, from remote and regular
tele-workers who are very satisfied with their arrangements to
mobile workers who are less so, to customer site workers who are
the least satisfied of any group. Training has a strong, positive
impact on manager attitudes toward off-site workers, but only
one in eight managers receives training in this area.
"Only a small
portion of the workforce is untouched by the experience of working
over distance," said Karen Noble, WFD Senior Consultant and Director
of the Study. "The good news is that businesses can use these findings
to change culture and practices which are based on the assumption
that employees are physically working in the same location. By implementing
policies, guidelines, supports, training and infrastructure changes,
companies can tap into the high returns of an effectively managed
distributed workforce."
The report also
puts to rest several assumptions and myths about off-site and on-site
workers:
- Contrary
to fears that employees who work from home will not work as hard
because they are out of a supervisor's line of sight, the study
finds that off-site workers usually work more hours, are less
stressed, and are at least as or more productive than on-site
workers.
- While many
managers assume it will be difficult to manage off-site workers,
the study finds that most managers with experience and/or training
show no preference for managing on-site workers over off-site
workers and are satisfied with the performance of both.
- Concerning
the notion that only certain jobs are conducive to off-site work,
the study documents that off-site workers currently exist in a
wide range of professions and industries.
Intended to
help companies better manage today's distributed workforce, the
report identifies factors that help or hinder employee effectiveness
in working over a distance. "The top barrier to effective work-from-home
is not technology as is commonly believed, but the main-site office
culture that values face-time and operates in an 'out-of-sight,
out of mind' mode," said According to Amy Richman, the study's lead
researcher and Senior Consultant at WFD. "The greatest concern,
voiced by on- and off-site employees alike, is deterioration both
in communication and in a sense of connectedness to the company
for those who work at a distance." In addition, many off-site workers
also report that technology is inadequate and one-third to one-half
rate their technical support as "only fair or poor."
"The ABC has
spent 10 years working to address issues concerning the US workforce,"
said Elaine Chao, US Secretary of Labor. "We commend them on their
continued commitment and look forward to seeing how US businesses
use this comprehensive data to improve business practices and employee
satisfaction."
In the past
10 years the ABC has invested $136 million and impacted more than
135,000 children and elders through more than 1,500 innovative programs
for backup care, elder care services, intergenerational programs
and school-age programs. Today, nine U.S. national and international
corporations (Champions) form the core of the ABC collaboration.
They include: Abbott Laboratories, Allstate Insurance Company, Deloitte
& Touche, Exxon Mobil Corporation, GE, IBM Corporation, Johnson
& Johnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Texas Instruments.
To learn more
about the ABC and to request a copy of the study, please visit http://www.abcdependentcare.com,
call 800-767-9863 or e-mail ABCinfo@WFD.com.
The American Business Collaboration is administered by WFD Consulting, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458, 800-447-0543.
- Click
to read related article: "Survey notes increase in off-site work"
(Boston Globe, September 8, 2002)
- Click
to read related article: "Telecommuting Rewires Traditional Views
of the Workplace" (Washington Post, August 31, 2002)
- Click
to view an interview with co-author Karen Noble on the "Changing
American Workplace" (NECN New England Business Day, August
30, 2002)
- Click
to read related article: "As Labor Day Approaches, National Study
of Off-Site Work Finds Major Shift in Traditional Work Environment"
(CBS MarketWatch, August 26, 2002)
- Click
to read related article: "Managers adapt slowly to off-site work"
(The Christian Science Monitor, August 26, 2002)
The
American Business Collaboration (ABC) Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary
As the Largest Private Sector Investment of Its Kind to Support
Employees Since 1992, The ABC Has Invested $136 Million in America's
Workforce
BOSTON, MA -
(March, 2002)
- In celebration of its 10th year, The American Business Collaboration
(ABC) announces its continued commitment to provide dependent care
benefits and services to support employees in the workplace. To
mark its 10th year, the ABC will announce highly anticipated research
results concerning tele/remote workers, and host a series of web
teleconferences to highlight dependent care issues affecting employees,
including: tele/remote work, elder care, school age programs and
affordability of care.
The ABC will
launch these initiatives under an expanded model of collaboration
that includes the sharing of expertise, information, leadership
and financial resources among ABC Champion members in an effort
to find new ways to support their employees in the evolving workforce.
"The ABC was built on the theme of 'Doing together what none of
us can afford to do alone'," said Ted Childs, IBM Vice President,
Workplace Diversity. "After 10 years, ABC's collaboration of nine
leading US companies is stronger than ever as we come together to
pool ideas, expertise, data and resources. We are committed to meeting
the increasing demands of work/life balance that face employees.
Our goal is to create new choices that will allow our US workforce
to excel in today's challenging and dynamic work environment."
ABC's 10th
Anniversary year will address key issues affecting the US workforce
of the future by hosting four webteleconferences as online forums
to examine critical dependent care issues including teleremote workers,
school age care, eldercare, and the affordability of care. The web
teleconference series will feature expert speakers and target a
business audience of corporations interested in improving their
dependent care programs in order to impact their bottom line. The
teleconferences will encourage discussion of "best practices" between
participating companies. Additionally, during its 10th anniversary
year, the ABC will reveal findings of the ABC-commissioned teleremote
worker research study that point to the future of the US workforce.
The tele/remote worker research study is the only study of its kind,
taking a multi-directional, multi-variant view of the tele/remote
worker for the purpose of identifying the root causes of tele/remote
worker success or failure, and offering options for creation of
solutions to ensure tele/remote worker success. The full schedule
of the web teleconference series will be available on the ABC website
at www.abcdependentcare.com.
"These turbulent
economic times call for a greater sense of collaboration among our
business leaders in order to retain skilled employees and meet the
needs of a changing workforce," said Deb Phillips, Director of ABC.
"The ABC continues to be a remarkable step for American business:
to share information, data, ideas, as well as resources, between
competing companies in order to make a difference for their employees."
Between 1992
and 2001, the ABC invested $136 million in funding for child, school
age, and elder care programs to fulfill its mission to create and
fund programs and resources that merge the goals of corporations
with the needs and responsibilities of employees as caregivers of
children, teens and elders. During these first nine years, innovative
programs for backup care, elder care services, intergenerational
programs and school age programs were developed to alleviate gaps
between the needs of working families and available services and
programs in identified communities across the country. In this time,
more than 1,500 childcare and eldercare projects were funded through
collaboration by companies participating in ABC's efforts. These
projects impacted more than 135,000 children and elders in more
than 65 communities. However, the ABC recognizes that there is more
work to be done. It is committed to continuing to provide services
including school-age care, infant care, back-up care and elder care
to meet the needs of employees.
To achieve
these goals, today, nine U.S. national and international corporations
(Champions) form the core of the ABC collaboration. They include:
Abbott Laboratories, The Allstate Corporation, Deloitte & Touche,
Exxon Mobil Corporation, General Electric, IBM Corporation, Johnson
& Johnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Texas Instruments. To learn
more about the ABC, call 800-767-9863 or e-mail ABCinfo@WFD.com.
The American Business Collaboration is administered by WFD Consulting, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458, 800-447-0543.
"Credit
Where Credit Is Due" Tax Booklet Offers Maximum Tax Benefit To Working
Families: National Women's Law Center and American Business Collaboration
Partner on Timely Resource
WASHINGTON,
DC - (March 6, 2002)
- The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has created a tax booklet
aimed at working parents, outlining four of the federal tax breaks
available to them to help pay for child and dependent care expenses,
reduce their taxes, or increase their tax refunds. The publication,
"Credit Where Credit Is Due," was created with funding from the
American Business Collaboration (ABC), a ground-breaking collaboration
of leading U.S. companies working together to improve the quality
of dependent care and to create a work environment that is positive
for employees and productive for businesses.
The booklet
is designed to inform individuals about four tax breaks in the federal
income tax code: the Dependent Care Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit,
the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Dependent Care Assistance
Program. The information provided in the publication can help individuals
determine their eligibility to receive the tax assistance these
provisions offer for tax year 2001, provide an idea of the amount
of tax assistance the individual can expect to receive and how to
claim it, and answer some other questions about these tax breaks.
The booklet is not intended to provide legal assistance but to help
individuals understand their eligibility for tax breaks.
"The tax booklet
is a timely and useful answer to helping parents, especially those
with moderate incomes, meet the high cost of child and dependent
care," said Betty Purkey, Work/Life - Diversity Programs for Texas
Instruments. "As corporate leaders for the evolving workforce, ABC
Champion companies strive to make a difference for their employees
by funding dependent care programs that have a measurable impact
on working families and individuals caring for dependents."
"High-quality
child care is essential to helping parents work and for the healthy
development of their children, and many families need dependent
care as well. But both child and dependent care take a big bite
out of the family budget. Every family should make sure it is getting
the tax breaks it is due, and this booklet can help," said Nancy
Duff Campbell, NWLC Co-President. Childcare expenses account for
between six and 35 percent of a family's income and dependent care
expenses are even higher.
The booklet
will be distributed to employees of the ABC member companies, childcare
resource and referral agencies, and professionals via print and
electronic forms. It will be offered to the general public through
the NWLC web site at www.nwlc.org and on the ABC website at www.abcdependentcare.com.
To ensure that the booklet information is kept current, NWLC will
provide updates on the tax laws through 2003.
Since 1992,
the ABC has invested more than $125 million in funding for child,
school age, and elder care programs to fulfill its mission to create
and fund programs and resources that merge the goals of corporations
with the needs and responsibilities of employees as caregivers of
children, teens and elders.
During ABC's
first nine years, innovative programs for backup care, elder care
services, intergenerational programs and school age programs were
developed to alleviate gaps between the needs of working families
and available services and programs in identified communities across
the country. Between 1992 and 2001, more than 1,500 childcare and
eldercare projects were funded through collaboration by companies
participating in ABC's efforts. These projects impacted more than
135,000 children and elders in more than 65 communities.
Today, nine
U.S. national and international corporations (Champions) form the
core of the ABC collaboration. They include: Abbott Laboratories,
The Allstate Corporation, Deloitte & Touche, Exxon Mobil Corporation,
General Electric, IBM Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
and Texas Instruments. To learn more about the ABC, call 800-767-9863
or e-mail ABCinfo@WFD.com.
The American
Business Collaboration is administered by WFD Consulting, 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458, 800-447-0543. WFD Consulting was
responsible for the design and printing of the "Credit Where Credit
Is Due" tax booklet.
The National
Women's Law Center is a non-profit organization that has been working
since 1972 to advance and protect women's legal rights. NWLC focuses
on major policy areas of importance to women and their families
including economic security, education, employment and health, with
special attention given to the concerns of low-income women, and
has particular expertise in tax policies that finance child and
dependent care. Through extensive educational efforts, NWLC helped
secure improvements in the federal Dependent Care Tax Credit, the
Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit as part of the
federal tax legislation enacted in June 2001, which will help millions
of families pay for their child and dependent care expenses.
Later this
spring, NWLC will release a comprehensive report on the effectiveness
of state tax credits for employers who offer child care assistance
to their employees. In April, NWLC will release a report and state-by-state
"report card" analyzing and evaluating states on their tax provisions
for child and dependent care. To learn more about NWLC, call 202-588-5180
or visit www.nwlc.org.
New
Study Finds Corporate Support of Child Care Programs Has Strong
Impact on Job Performance
BOSTON, MA -
(October 5, 2000)
- The American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Cares
(ABC) groundbreaking $125 million effort to improve the quality
of dependent care has had a strong impact on job performance, according
to a study released today.
The study, conducted
by Abt Associates in Cambridge, also found high employee support
for corporate-funded child care programs.
The Collaboration
is composed of 21 of the largest corporations in the country. Since
1992, the participating companies have invested in more than 1,000
projects to expand the quantity and enhance the quality of dependent
care in 66 communities nationwide.
The report
said that among 1,483 employees surveyed at ABC companies in 10
communities across the country, 63 percent reported an improvement
in productivity because of Collaboration programs. The study looked
at productivity measures among employees and found:
ABC
Study-2-2-2
40
percent felt less stressed by family responsibilities and spent
less time at work worrying about their family.
35
percent were better able to concentrate on work.
30
percent had to leave work less often to deal with family situations.
"The
study reinforces our belief that investing in dependent care programs
for our employees is beneficial in attracting and retaining a
more productive and motivated workforce," said Betty Purkey,
manager of Work/Life Programs at Texas Instruments and chair of
the Collaborations Measurement Committee.
She said the
study demonstrates that ABCs efforts to improve the quality
of child care resources for employees has paid off:
63
percent felt that their current ABC-supported child care program
is better than child care programs they previously used.
71
percent felt that their ABC-supported program was of higher quality
than other child care programs in their community.
The study
surveyed employees utilizing the five major types of child care
programs supported by ABC center-based care, family child
care, school-age child care, summer school-age programs and backup
child care. Across all five types of child care programs, the
principal findings were the same:
Employees
were aware of their employers support for their child care
providers and strongly favor this support.
ABC
Study-3-3-3
Employees
felt that use of ABC-supported child care had improved their productivity
at work.
Purkey
said that ABC is committed to improving the quality of care for
children of all ages and has been instrumental in developing national
quality standards for child care and school-age programs.
While the
assessment focused on child care initiatives which constitute
94 percent of ABCs investments, surveyed employees who utilized
ABC-supported elder care programs also reported high levels of
satisfaction and improved productivity.
National
Corporate-Sponsored Training Program Attracts Child and After School
Professionals from Across the Country
ATLANTA, GA
- (October 16, 2000)
More than one million children from throughout the country
could benefit from enhanced child care, after school and summer
programs as a result of an innovative, corporate-sponsored national
training event taking place this month in Atlanta.
More than 250
child care and afterschool professionals have received grants to
attend the ABC 2000 National Training Event Oct. 19-20.
Participants
will attend workshops to learn how to introduce science to preschoolers,
enhance homework skills in afterschool programs and institute family
friendly practices in child care settings.
The two-day
event is believed to be the largest corporate-sponsored training
program solely dedicated to the child care needs of working parents.
The American
Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care (ABC) will fund
the cost of travel, lodging and training for the 250 participants.
The Collaboration,
a coalition led by 18 major corporations, has invested over $125
million to improve the quality and expand
the quantity
of dependent care programs in 68 communities since 1992.
ABC
Training-2-2-2
ABC is supporting
this training event to enhance its legacy of improving dependent
care and to share its expertise to benefit a greater number of
children and families.
Participants
will attend sessions led by nationally recognized trainers from
leading organizations and educational institutions such as Educators
for Social Responsibility, Wheelock College and the University
of Southern Illinois.
The workshops
will focus on training methods and best practices for improving
programming for family and center based childcare as well as school-age
care. All of the 11 workshops will teach the participants how
to train others in the state-of-the-art curricula and materials
developed by ABC.
As a way to
maximize the benefits of the training event, each representative
will conduct at least four training sessions in the community
over the next year to share the knowledge and skills acquired
during the ABC 2000 National Training.
In addition,
ABC has allocated over $500,000 in training grants to community
agencies sending participants to the event. Agencies will be invited
to apply for grants to support their local training initiatives.
Training
Grant funded by Local Companies Helps Child Care Providers Teach
Scienceto Preschoolers
DANBURY,
CT (October 6, 2000) - A new program designed to teach science
to preschool children at 15 area child care centers will be launched
this week in Danbury.
The Discovery
Science Preschool Project offers child care providers training,
materials and resources on how to teach science to this young age
group.
The program
is funded by GE Capital Services and IBM through their participation
in the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care
(ABC).
ABC is an effort
to improve child and elder care programs in 68 communities throughout
the US, and has invested over $125 million to date in programs around
the country.
Locally,
Infoline, a program of the United Way of Connecticut, is coordinating
the Discovery Science Preschool program. Child care centers located
in the greater Danbury and Stamford areas as well as in Westchester
County are participating in the project.
The six
month long program kicks off Sept. 22 when 45 local child care providers
will undergo two days of training from nationally recognized leaders
in the preschool science program from the Southern Illinois University
at Edwardsville.
Dr. Heidi Gold-Dworkin
and other trainers from Little Scientists in Ansonia are involved
as the local science specialists and will be providing technical
assistance as well as help with community resources.
In addition
to the hands-on training, each participating center receives a Discovery
Science Project kit containing $1,000 worth of materials and equipment,
a science library and certificates for books, materials and software.
The training
project also includes regular meetings of the participants where
they can monitor progress and share successes. A Discovery Science
Evening of Celebration will be held later in the year when participants
will share the childrens work done in their respective centers.
Child care
centers participating in the program are encouraged to host an event
for parents, children and teachers to showcase the new science activities
that have been incorporated into the curriculum.
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