By Stephen Miller (from SHRM online)
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was among representatives of prominent recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility who shared their experiences “moving work forward” during a Feb. 1, 2011 press event in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Families and Work Institute (FWI). The event announced the launch of a SHRM/FWI partnership to transform the way organizations view and adopt workplace flexibility (see Workplace Flexibility Partnership to ‘Move Work Forward‘).
Mullen and business thought leaders discussed why flexibility is important to making their organizations successful, and why adapting to the changing workforce is necessary for greater productivity and employee retention.
“The 21st century workforce bears little resemblance to the 20th century’s,” said Ellen Galinksy, president and co-founder of FWI, which has sponsored the Sloan Awards as part of the When Work Works initiative (going forward, the awards will be a project of the SHRM/FWI Moving Work Forward partnership). “It’s not our mothers’ or our fathers’ workplace, and neither is the business environment in which companies operate. Change is not optional; change is mandatory, and we must adapt to the realities in today’s business world.”
Admiral Mullen: Alleviating Stress on Military Families
“People are our best resource, and we have moved to a much broader and deeper understanding of what that means,” said Mullen. “Military families have been through an extraordinarily difficult time,” he noted, with one parent often away for extended periods while their spouse holds a full-time job. Even with both parents stateside, military careers have involved strenuous (and often inflexible) hours. “The strains this imposes on families has led many star performers to abandon their military careers at a time when the nation simply can’t afford to lose their talent and experience,” Mullen observed.
Read the entire article at: http://www.shrm.org/about/news/Pages/ThoughtLeadersFlexibleWorkplaces.aspx
