Forget salary, perks, the corner office—most working mothers will tell you that almost nothing is as important as flexibility to create work-life balance. Six of our Working Mother 100 Best Companies have become the vanguard for flexibility, offering parents the tools they need to succeed at home and work. These six Best in Class companies—Baptist Health South Florida, Capital One Financial, Deloitte, Grant Thornton, PricewaterhouseCoopers and RSM McGladrey—scored highest on our annual application for both their impressive array of flexible work options and the number of employees who use them.
In Pictures: Flex in Company Culture
To help employees take advantage of its flexible culture, Baptist Health South Florida, a large health-care provider for Florida’s Miami-Dade, Monroe and Broward counties, encourages them to use a Web-based system to request formal flextime and also allows them to work out informal arrangements as needed. Last year, 30 percent of Baptist Heath South Florida employees worked a part-time schedule, and 30 percent used job-sharing.
Accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton, based in Chicago, offers five flex scheduling options, including compressed workweeks and telecommuting. Last year, 448 employees, or nearly 10 percent, developed their own customized, flexible work plans. At the McLean, VA–based Capital One Financial, more than 60 percent of associates in non-customer facing roles use Flexible Work Solutions, flexibility is on the move: The company provides a free shuttle bus—complete with power outlets and worktables—between its campuses and a shuttle from its McLean campus to two Metro subway stations.
The concept of a “corporate ladder” is out at the New York City–based professional services firm Deloitte; it’s been replaced by the more inclusive notion of a “corporate lattice” that allows working mothers to climb different paths at different rates throughout their career. The result? In a survey late last year, Deloitte saw career-life satisfaction ratings rise 25 percent.
At New York City–based PricewaterhouseCoopers, which provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services, an internal database of open jobs helps guide employees to roles that can be performed flexibly, while at the Bloomington, MN–based accounting, tax and business consulting firm RSM McGladrey, the FlexCareer program allows employees to take up to five years of personal leave, during which the company pays for professional association fees, subsidizes training and provides networking opportunities.
These are turbulent times for
Forget salary, perks, the