Back to Womenomics…

Working Mother Magazine has just announced its winners for this year’s most family-friendly places to work in the US. From flextime to telecommuting to backup child care, Working Mother says these are companies that realize that in order to compete for good talent they have to allow for the ever-changing schedules of professional moms. In the midst of the current economic crisis it’s tempting to think flexibility goes out the window. But most companies are looking at the next 6 – 12 years not the next 6 – 12 months and the looming talent and labor shortages are very real.

Some of the companies on this list may be more policy than practice when it comes to flexibility. Others though have gone through the kind of mental shift where managers genuinely understand that if they want well-qualified women to stop leaving the workplace in order to stay home with their kids then the workplace has to change, really change. We’ve spoken to lots of great firms throughout the U.S. where flexibility isn’t an individual favor, it’s seen as a sound business strategy.

And, guess what, those companies have found that when they really give people control of their work lives, when employees are judged by results not hours, then productivity actually increases – across the board.

Check out Working Mother’s list and see if there are any more companies you can think of that should be on it. And if you know of others that shouldn’t be there – companies which only talk a good flex game – let us know about those too.

Katty