The Future of Work: Recommended Resources

For more information:

The Boston College Center for Work & Family has an extensive list of research publications on various issues related to flexibility. Some important ones include:

•  Overcoming the Implementation Gap: How 20 Leading Companies are Making Flexibility Work
• Model Programs and Policies for Hourly and Low Wage Employees:
• The New Dad: Exploring Fatherhood Within a Career Context
• Balance Sheets, a series of very short, advice-oriented introductions to flexibility topics.

Catalyst, the consulting firm on women in business, has dedicated research publications specifically related to work-life effectiveness. Especially notable:

• One of their recent Catalyst Award winners was the Commonwealth Bank of Australia; their profile includes information about the banks efforts to build a progressive workplace.
• Making Change: Beyond Flexibility: Work-Life Effectiveness as an Organizational Tool for High Performance

Corporate Voices for Working Families has an useful report called Innovative Workplace Flexibility Options for Hourly Workers.

The Families & Work Institute has in-depth research into what flexibility and work-life practices employers are actually implementing. The most recent is their 2012 National Study of Employers.

The Society for Human Resources Management has an in-depth project on workplace flexibility, with a variety of publications. In partnership with the Families & Work Institute, SHRM determines the winners of the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness & Flexibility, whose innovations they profile in 2012 Guide to Bold New Ideas for Making Work Work.

The White House Council of Economic Advisors' March 2010 report, Work-Life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility, examines how flexibility promotes productivity.

--E.J. Graff