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Chapter 7

Action Agenda

If a $2,000 fully loaded laptop computer disappears from an employee’s desk, there’s guaranteed to be an investigation. But if a $200,000 executive with a rich network of client relationships is poached by a competitor—or quits to stay home with her children—the reaction is rarely more than a sigh and a shrug.

The loss to companies of their highly qualified women can’t be overestimated. The Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, estimates that replacing a professional worker costs an organization 150% of that person’s annual salary.14 In the U.S., economists estimate that attrition costs American companies $437 billion annually.15 On top of the quantifiable costs, when an experienced knowledge worker quits, she often takes an unrecoverable wealth of connections and intellectual capital with her. These factors apply to all knowledge-based economies.

In short, no organization can afford to ignore, underutilize, or lose the talents of the cream of the educated workforce. Conversely, those organizations that enable their talented women to rise into leadership positions become talent magnets, attracting and retaining the best and brightest over the long haul and creating lasting competitive advantage.

The ultimate goal of this study, as in our previous one, is to give employers the insights and the tools to effectively compete in—and win—the war for female talent. What more can they do?

What Should Companies Do?

The full realization of female talent over the long haul involves implementing an agenda comprising six essential action steps. We first proposed these steps in 2004, and they remain relevant today. They are:

1. Providing scenic routes

Flexible work arrangements dominate women’s wish lists: reduced-hour options, flexible stop and start times, telecommuting, job sharing, and seasonable flexibility—time off in the summer balanced by long hours in the winter—are among the policies and practices women yearn for. As extreme jobs have become more widespread and as the economic slump has dumped more of the workload on fewer shoulders, flexible work arrangements have become a lifesaver, eliminating the need to quit a hard-won, much-valued job.

One caveat: In far too many organizations, flexible work arrangements are seen as an accommodation to women’s family lives. Forward-thinking companies know to position flex as a business imperative—a powerful weapon in the battle to attract and retain key talent.

Examples: American Express BlueWork, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Greater Returns, Boehringer Ingelheim Workplace of the Future, General Mills Flexible User Shared Environment.

2. Creating flex over the arc of a career

Flexible work arrangements provide flexibility in the here and now—over the course of a day, a week, or a year. But a related set of policies is enormously important to women: policies that provide flexibility over the arc of a career and allow a woman to ramp up after having taken time out of the paid workforce.

Arc-of-career flexibility is a brand-new concept, requiring innovative policies that are both multi-layered and multistep. Enabling talented women to resume their careers involves more than merely increasing opportunities to on-ramp. On-ramping women need access to flexible work arrangements and the ability to reconnect to mentors and support networks.

On a larger scale, reimagining the conventional career path requires conceptualizing work in different ways: unbundling jobs, sharing clients, and redeploying work teams to allow high-value, high-impact work to be done by experienced professionals working in “chunks” or “nuggets” of time and seamlessly handing off responsibilities to designated colleagues and teammates. Examples: Cisco Extended Flex Program, Deloitte Personal Pursuits, Goldman Sachs Returnship, Accenture Future Leave.

3. Reimagining work-life

For many years, the best benefits—and finest support programs—within large corporations have gone to a specific demographic: employees who are married with young children. This doesn’t work for half of all women. A large proportion of highly qualified women are childless, and almost as many are single.

However, these—in fact, almost all—talented women will be confronted with serious eldercare and extended-family responsibilities. The data shows that a significant number of women are already forced to off-ramp because of an eldercare crisis. This is just the tip of the iceberg. An aging population and a fraying healthcare system will inevitably worsen the situation for adult daughters everywhere. Examples: Citi Maternity Matters, Citi Hungary Maternity Leave Coordinator, Deutsche Bank Familienservice, Goldman Sachs U.K. Great Expectations Maternity Strategy, Intel New Parent Reintegration Program, Moody’s Backup Childcare and Eldercare.

4. Claiming and sustaining ambition

Confounded by the escalating pressures of extreme jobs and penalized for taking an off-ramp or a scenic route, many talented women downsize their expectations for themselves. This is a huge issue. An employer cannot promote a woman if she is not enormously vested in this endeavor.

How can ambition be rekindled and nurtured? Women’s networks create a myriad of leadership development opportunities by connecting women to their peers, boosting confidence through teaching presentation and organizational skills, and providing access to senior women who can act as mentors and role models. But more and more companies realize that networks are not enough. Talented women need advocates and sponsors, senior managers and executives who are willing to introduce them to influential contacts, recommend them for high-profile assignments and “use up chips” to guide them to the next level.

Examples: Boehringer Ingelheim Inclusive Leadership Conference, Deutsche Bank ATLAS, EY Board of Directors, EY Leadership Matters Workshops, Moody’s Women’s Network Brown Bags, Siemens GLOW.

5. Tapping into altruism

The aspirations of women are multidimensional, rather than centered solely on money. Financial compensation is important to women, but it’s not nearly as important a motivator as it is for men. While men list money as either the first or second priority of their wish list, women rank other career goals as top priorities: working with “high-quality colleagues,” deriving “meaning and purpose” from work, and “giving back to society” all overshadow financial rewards.

These findings remained solidly resilient despite the economic meltdown. It’s likely that the disillusionment with many corporations, both on and off Wall Street, only strengthened women’s desires to believe in the products they sell and the services they render and coalesced their commitment to give back to their corporate and civic communities. Companies that recognize and reward altruism not only give an important lift to women’s careers but cement loyalty to their employer.

Examples: GE Developing Health Globally, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, Pfizer Global Access.

6. Combating the stigma associated with flexible work arrangements

In many corporate environments, flexible work arrangements and other female-friendly work-life programs are heavily stigmatized. Either a manager openly says that telecommuting will hurt a career or subtler clues emanating from gender-based stereotypes convey the unspoken but unmistakable understanding that someone who has opted for a reduced-hour schedule will simply never be considered for promotion. The message is the same: Flexible work arrangements, no matter how well designed, are a career killer. In focus groups, we found that women—often high-performing, ambitious women—routinely quit rather than take advantage of flexible work options that were on the books but had become stigmatized. In the words of one female executive, “These policies label you as some kind of loser.”

Reducing stigma and stereotyping is the most challenging element in this core package of action steps. Even the most exemplary programs are meaningless unless they are not just supported but celebrated and even utilized by senior managers in the corporate environment. When senior executives take a flexible work arrangement and shout it from the rooftops—letting everyone in the office know they’ve done so—it can have a transformative effect on what is possible for everyone else. Suddenly, flexible work arrangements become a business booster, not just legitimate but desirable. Examples: Best Buy ROWE, Booz & Company Partial Pay Sabbatical Program, Citi Alternative Workplace Strategies, KPMG Flexible Futures.

Providing Scenic Routes

American Express: BlueWork

Work happens in different ways. American Express recognizes the opportunity to drive real business benefit by aligning the way people work with how they utilize their physical real estate footprint—and enhance the value proposition for employees. AmEx workplace studies revealed that on any given day its office space would see occupancy rates of anywhere from 40–50%. Not because the space was mismanaged, but because people attend meetings, travel, take time away from work—and they’re not at their desks. In addition, American Express employees said they want more ways to collaborate and connect with each other as well as have more choices in how they do their work. To solve this, American Express has successfully piloted a new initiative designed to more closely align employee work styles with workspace options and workplace technology.

BlueWork—as it’s called—addresses how work is changing at American Express by opening up the boundaries around where and how work is being done. The combination of pioneering flexible policies with modern workspaces creates great engagement and innovation. At AmEx, work is done through global teams, in different locations and working at different times. The four workstyles of BlueWork, Hub–Club–Home–Roam are representative of how work actually happens and remind us that work is no longer a place, but rather, it’s what we do whether at home, in the office, on the road, or wherever you connect. BlueWork promotes flexibility by enabling employees to work in the way that they are most successful and productive.

In short, a role that has been designated Home gives employees the opportunity to work from a home office. A role categorized as Roam assumes that an employee—for instance, in a sales role—will spend much of his or her time on the road and with clients and will only need to come into a hub location on occasion. Hub and Club roles typically require more face-to-face interaction, and those people spend all or most of their time in a hub location. For Club roles, trade-offs in personal space are compensated by amenities such as personal lockers, huddle rooms, and other flexible options which enhance the work experience.

Importantly, the program has generated cost savings for the company. Pilot programs in Singapore, Sydney and London have been well received, and plans are already underway to implement BlueWork in locations across the United States. The development and implementation of the program has required the expertise of global teams across American Express including real estate, technology, and human resources.

For American Express, this innovative approach enhances the employee value proposition, increases employee engagement, and supports their position as a global employer of choice.

Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Greater Returns

Greater Returns, a suite of programs at the Columbia Business School sponsored by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, offers high-potential female executives an exciting new opportunity to gain the critical tools necessary to reignite their careers. The Greater Returns program provides participants with unusual access to professional development and networking opportunities.

The first component of the two-part program, “Restarting Your Career,” took place in the fall of 2008 and was geared toward helping women who have been out of the workforce for a period of time on-ramp and return to the workforce. A second, up-ramping component, Accelerating Your Career, will take place in spring 2010, this time with a focus on helping on-track women advance their careers. Hidden Brain Drain Task Force research has shown that over 90% of highly qualified women who take time out for childcare or eldercare want to reenter the workforce, but many find it difficult to do so. Greater Returns: “Restarting Your Career” sought to ease this transition by providing reskilling and retraining, coaching and mentoring, and re-networking and leadership development opportunities. Participants in the program had three-ten years of experience in business or financial services. Program expenses were underwritten by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to reduce participant costs.

Further research conducted by the Task Force has shown that large numbers of high-performing female managers find it difficult to move upward—their careers become stuck or stalled. Greater Returns: “Accelerating Your Career,” aims to break this logjam by providing women with tools that will allow them to increase their bandwidth, acquire sponsors, and move up in their industries.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett serves as program director of Greater Returns. Ann P. Bartel, the Merrill Lynch professor of workplace transformation and director of the Columbia Business School’s Workforce Transformation research initiative, is the faculty director. Taught by highly regarded Columbia Business School faculty and a distinguished group of female corporate leaders, the Greater Returns programs provide substantive rigor and unusual access to hands-on help and advice.

“Accelerating Your Career” is scheduled for May 2010, with a focus on helping on-track women at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch advance their careers. A number of Hidden Brain Drain Task Force members will present information and lead workshops. Carolyn Buck Luce, EY’s global life sciences sector leader, will present “Building Your Personal Brand.” Rosalind Hudnell, corporate director of diversity at Intel, will lead a session on “High Impact Leadership.” Representatives from Bank of America will describe changes in the financial sector. Ann Bartel will advise participants on developing their negotiation skills. Other sessions, taught by Columbia Business School professors Bob Bontempo and Murray Low, will focus on leading across cultural and generational boundaries and on how to bolster internal and external networks. Sylvia Ann Hewlett will share Task Force research on Extreme Jobs. Kerrie Peraino, chief diversity officer of American Express, will lead a session on the role of sponsorship.

Both programs include a substantial networking component. Additionally, peer mentoring is the cornerstone of the Greater Returns programs. Participants develop a personal roadmap over the course of the two-and-a-half day program. Working with a peer buddy, they connect during and after the program to share their plans of action.

Boehringer Ingelheim: Workplace of the Future

Value through innovation is the “business of the business” at Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. From advances in HIV/AIDS treatment to rethinking animal health, the firm has long been a trailblazer in its industry. Innovation at Boehringer Ingelheim does not end with its approach to R&D, however. To continue to be a game changer in the field, the firm knows it also needs to be an innovator around talent management. In pursuit of this goal, the company recently piloted a program called Workplace of the Future.

The germ of the idea for Workplace of the Future came from Boehringer Ingelheim employees themselves at a Senior Leadership Development Conference. In 2008, a Workplace of the Future team was formed to better understand employees’ workplace and work-life needs. The Workplace of the Future survey revealed that 75% of the firm’s employees were looking for more efficient ways to work collaboratively. Prodded by this finding, the firm spent two weeks closely observing the work patterns and habits of employees at its U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The results surprised everybody. Most employees, it turned out, spent as much as two-thirds of each day working away from their primary workstations. The company decided to adapt its office environment accordingly.

In April 2009, Boehringer Ingelheim piloted a redesign of its office environment at its Ridgefield headquarters. The new space configuration features three primary types of workstations—“I,” “You plus me,” and “We”—each crafted to embrace a variety of work styles. “I” spaces—for individual work—include laptop docking stations on elevated counters for highly mobile workers as well as more traditional desks for people who need touchdown spaces at which to work for longer stretches. “You plus me” and “We,” designed to promote collaborative interactions, offer semi-enclosed spaces equipped with white noise technology to mask ambient sounds. Other stations feature smart board technology, dry erase cabinets, and monitors that can link to employees convening in other offices. The new office models also include relax stations and scenery screens.

Michael Carneglia, the architect of the project, explains the motivation behind its design. “Some of the most collaborative and most productive interaction in an office takes place in the hallway. The idea behind Workplace of the Future is to embrace and internalize that.”

The firm anticipates that the interactive, adaptable nature of its new office design will promote informal idea sharing, collaboration, inspired partnering, and tangible bottom line benefits. Among its other advantages, by saving space Workplace of the Future will reduce the company’s property costs and carbon emissions—and may also earn Boehringer Ingelheim a corporate tax break from the State of Connecticut. The firm also expects the new space design to serve as a valuable recruitment tool, especially for Gen Ys who are seeking collaborative—and green—work environments.

General Mills: Flexible User Shared Environment

With its new program, Flexible User Shared Environment (FUSE), General Mills is tackling the fight or flight moment by providing stigma free flexible work arrangements. The program is meant to explore ways of providing employees flexibility to increase employee engagement, promote a collaborative work environment, and use office space efficiently. FUSE began as collaboration between the human resources facilities and information divisions at General Mills.

The pilot program focused on a small and predominantly female group of nutrition scientists. Thirty-eight out of the 40 employees were women. Eleven of them had taken a leave of absence within the last few years, often to deal with childcare issues. Nine of them already had some sort of a flexible work arrangement, typically involving part-time and/or remote work. “Their needs were different from the general population, and it was obvious to us that we needed to come up with some sort of a creative solution,” says Sandy Haddad, general manager of flexibility and inclusion.

FUSE has the advantage of being extremely adaptable to employee needs, work styles, and occupational roles. After being interviewed about their needs and desires in the workplace, workers who participated in the pilot worked in a variety of ways according to their own jobs and needs. For example, researchers who did not require significant interactions with other employees were able to work from home or in a designated quiet area of the office where they would have access to the equipment needed to do their jobs but wouldn’t be disturbed. Team members based outside of company headquarters who are often required to travel to General Mills’ main office have been given the technology and space to work from either office. The reduction in commuting time has lead to significant efficiency gains and cost savings for this group of employees.

The pilot program was extraordinarily successful. Self-reported productivity gains for workers who participated in the pilot program were substantial. On average, workers reported a 35% increase in their abilities to plan their days in a productive way, as well as a 5% increase in the feeling that they were making good use of their time while working. Surveys also point to FUSE’s success in fostering a collaborative work environment: participants reported a 33% increase in feeling that the environment promoted team collaboration and information sharing. Further, because FUSE was offered predominantly to women, many of whom were experiencing a ratcheting up of work and familial responsibilities, the program has also proven to be an outstanding retention tool for female employees.

Despite being given the option of returning to their prior traditional work arrangements, all of the initial participants chose to remain FUSEd. The program is now expanding beyond the pilot to include 150 employees in a wider variety of divisions and roles.

Creating Flex Over the Arc of a Career

Cisco: Extended Flex Program

Cisco, with 65,000 employees worldwide, was one of the first large corporations to appreciate the value of workplace flexibility; Cisco bought a laptop for every employee as soon as laptops became common. The company supports a wide range of informal flex arrangements, such as telecommuting and personally tailored flexible schedules, and over time instituted more formal flex programs, including part-time work and full-time work-from-home options, and short leaves also were made available.

Building on the insight that people have different needs at different points in their lives, Cisco created its Off/On Ramp Program, which allows workers to take unpaid breaks of between 12 and 24 months. Although the program will undoubtedly appeal most to women who want to stop working temporarily after their children are born, the company plans to make the program available across all populations—allowing employees to take time off to resolve eldercare issues, pursue a graduate degree, or refocus their careers as they see fit.

“The gender variable is important,” explains Marilyn Nagel, Cisco’s chief diversity officer, “but the program comes out of our overall inclusion and diversity goals.” In addition to women, Nagel hopes the program will appeal to Gen Ys who want to enhance their skill set, recharge their batteries, or devote time to nonprofit or service projects (a priority for many 20-somethings).

Women now earn the majority of college and professional degrees, and 46 million Gen Ys will have entered the workforce by 2020. “This is the employee base today,” Nagel points out. “This is the employee base of the future. We asked ourselves, ‘How can we continue to be leading edge and attract the best from these groups?’”

Any employee in good standing with a minimum of two years at the company (or at a company Cisco has acquired) is eligible to apply for the leave program. Each leave is decided on a case-by-case basis, with the timing and terms negotiated between the employee and his or her management team. Cisco will cover the employee’s full benefits package for the first year, with the employee transitioning back to regular employment upon return. Other benefits resume as if the employee never left. Participants can take more than one extended leave but must work for at least two years between leaves.

Cisco implemented the program in the U.S. and Europe in October 2009 and plans to expand to other locations in the near future. About a dozen people applied for and were approved for extended leave in the first round, but, with no upper limit on the number or percentage of employees who can take advantage of the program at same time, Cisco expects that number to scale up over time.

The Off/On Ramp program will be promoted to employees along with Cisco’s other flexibility programs. Human Resources personnel will create videos in which users describe their experiences and encourage those who have used the program to give advice to others who are interested.

Employees love the versatility of the program. Ines Deschamps off-ramped in January 2010 to take time to reintegrate into U.S. life after working in Paraguay for three years and reassess her career path at Cisco. She plans to become certified as an investment adviser, increase her foreign language skills, “and do some fun things, too.”

Kerri DeLair is using the program to care for her six- and three-year-old children and her ill father, while also taking the opportunity to soul-search about her long-term career options. When she found out about the program, she says, “I felt like it was the answer to my prayers.”

Deloitte: Personal Pursuits

Deloitte launched Personal Pursuits in 2006 as a way of allowing employees to off-ramp and leave the workforce without cutting ties from the firm entirely or letting their skills become dated. Under the program, men and women who have been with Deloitte for a minimum of two years and have a strong performance record may leave the firm for up to five years for any reason. They are not required to give an explanation for their off-ramp; however, they are prohibited from going to work somewhere else.

Deloitte pays for training and professional association memberships and occasionally offers short-term assignments to participants while they are out. Additionally, each participant is assigned a mentor within the company to keep him or her informed about the goings-on at the firm. Most participants keep in touch with their former colleagues more informally as well. They also have continued access to the firm’s intranet.

Personal Pursuits is woven into Deloitte’s Mass Career Customization program (MCC) as yet another way for employees to dial up or dial down at any given point in their careers. Personal Pursuits participants who return to Deloitte return at the same level they were when they left the company, but they are not guaranteed the same role or team. As part of MCC, Personal Pursuits participants can return to Deloitte on flexible and reduced-hour schedules and dial back up later on if they choose to. “Today’s workforce is increasingly diverse in their attitudes about careers and what it means to be successful. We’re responding to this reality by letting people collaborate with their managers to tailor career paths that meet their needs as well as the needs of our business. Through this approach, we’ve been able to hold on to—and win back—talent.” Barbara Adachi, national managing principal, Deloitte’s Women’s Initiative, says.

Indeed, Personal Pursuits has served Deloitte well as a tool to help build loyalty. Because of its flexibility, the program appeals to all types of employees—men and women, young and old, those with childcare or eldercare responsibilities and those who want to pursue a hobby outside of work.

David Joe, an audit senior at Deloitte, had been with the firm for three years when he found out about the program. He and his wife wanted to do an extended volunteering program overseas. They spent a year teaching English in China. Joe is now back at Deloitte full-time and in the same position he was when he left in summer 2008. “The one thing that increased my loyalty more than anything was the support that I had while I was gone,” he says. “The leadership was really excited for me doing this and they wanted me to come back. That meant a lot to me.”

Meredith Lincoln, an audit senior manager, enrolled in Personal Pursuits after learning about the program from some of her superiors within Deloitte. At the time, she was expecting her third child. She stayed out for four years taking care of her children. When she left the firm, Lincoln was on an 85% schedule; she now works three days a week, one of which she telecommutes. She knew that she wanted to work a part-time schedule when she returned, and the partners at Deloitte worked together to find a position for her that met her wishes. Now Lincoln considers herself a poster-child for Deloitte. She says, “When I wanted to come back to work, I knew that Deloitte was where I wanted to be and where I wanted to come back to. I don’t know that there are other places that would have been as flexible with my wishes in returning. Deloitte has shown me great flexibility.”

Goldman Sachs: ReturnshipSM Program

Launched in the U.S. in the fall of 2008, the Returnship Program at Goldman Sachs is a novel way of recruiting candidates who, after an extended, voluntary absence from the workforce, are seeking to restart their careers. A returnship serves as a preparatory program that leverages the skills of on-rampers who are in the process of transitioning back into the workforce. In the same way that an internship offers a guided period of exploration during which interns learn the skills that will serve them in their future careers, a returnship provides returnees with an opportunity to sharpen the skills essential for success in a work environment that may have changed significantly since their most recent work experience.

Applicants to the Returnship Program include individuals who have taken a voluntary career break of two or more years and who potentially are seeking to reenter the workforce. While many candidates have experience in financial services, other candidates are looking to transition to Wall Street from other industries.

Born out of Goldman Sachs’ New DirectionsSM program, the Returnship Program aims to address the concerns of many on-rampers, including a fear that hiring managers may question their ability to transition into a new area of expertise or that employers may interpret an extended absence from the workforce as a loss of momentum or reduced ability. In providing on-rampers with an opportunity to strengthen their skills set and demonstrate their capabilities, this program works to address the concerns of both on-rampers and hiring managers, while offering on-rampers a realistic peek into the responsibilities and demands that may come with their new roles.

Returnees join teams across the firm for intense training and work experience. As integral members of their teams, returnees have their own responsibilities and a real opportunity to add value to their business from day one. To assist returnees in adjusting to the workplace, Goldman taps into the affinity networks, including the Goldman Sachs Women’s Network, to pair program participants with mentors. Returnees in the 2009 class were also mentored by former returnees from the pilot program. In addition to formal training, returnees participate in weekly professional development training and brown bag lunches to address networking and career development strategies as well as to orient them with new and emerging market trends.

The 2008 U.S. pilot program lasted eight weeks and was limited to 11 returnees, who were selected from more than 250 applicants. The 2009 program remained competitive, including 16 returnees chosen from more than 350 applicants. Following the completion of the program, some returnees received offers to join Goldman Sachs as full-time employees. Still others received extensions on their returnships in order to complete their projects.

Based on the program’s success in the U.S., it was expanded to Asia in the fall of 2009.

Accenture: Future Leave

Accenture conducted work-life surveys among its employees between 2004 and 2006 and learned that many of them—Baby Boomers and Generation Y professionals in particular—wanted to take a break from work. The reasons varied. For Boomers, family obligations often were the trigger: the need to settle an aging parent into an assisted living facility or the wish to spend more time with teenagers before they left for college. Members of Gen Y reported different motivations: a desire to travel or pursue altruistic interests such as teaching English in a developing country or working for a local nonprofit. Few in either cohort wanted to leave Accenture permanently; they just wanted a break.

In response to these findings, Accenture created Future Leave, a program that permits employees to plan short sabbaticals—up to three months long—with the guarantee of continued benefits during the sabbatical and a job awaiting them upon their return. The sabbatical is self-funded, with employees financing their paid time off by arranging paycheck deductions in advance. To be eligible for Future Leave, employees must have worked at least three consecutive years at Accenture, maintained a consistently high level of performance, and obtained approval from their direct supervisors.

Sharon Klun, manager of U.S. Work/Life Initiatives, noted that the program is a great success, in large part because of the lack of restrictions imposed by Accenture. Said Klun, “Participants need not give a reason for their sabbatical request; they only need to give management sufficient time to make arrangements to manage during an employee’s absence.”

Jeremy Began described his reasons for signing on to Future Leave: “I had a difficult decision to make—either support the family business, which was in the midst of a difficult time and impacting the health of my father, or continue my commitment to Accenture and our clients.” Continued Began: “I took advantage of the Future Leave opportunity because it allowed me to help with the family business and make a seamless return back to Accenture.” “Future Leave,” he says, “allowed me to create the right balance between meeting family responsibilities and keeping a job I continue to enjoy, ultimately creating a win-win for the family business, myself, and Accenture.”

Accenture continues to receive positive feedback from employees who have taken advantage of the program and from managers who have helped employees plan their leave. Employees feel refreshed, relieved of worry and distraction, and energized by their outside activities. Managers find that, when these employees return, they are newly committed to Accenture and to their work, thankful for Future Leave, and enthusiastic and glad to be back delivering high performance.

Reimagining Work-Life

Citi: Maternity Matters

Between 2005 and 2008, the number of women taking maternity leave from Citi’s U.K. offices quadrupled. While the majority of women took nine months of leave, one-quarter of them were out for a full year, making it more likely that the women could feel disconnected from the company. On returning to work, many women felt less confident yet keen to prove themselves and reengage with managers and colleagues. “The mothers felt that their relationship with the organization changed the moment they announced their pregnancies,” says Carolanne Minashi, head of diversity, Europe, Middle East, Africa. With national legislation around maternity leaves evolving rapidly, managers can feel under-skilled to help their employees. Leaders at Citi realized that it was crucial for retention that they provide support for both the women on leave and their managers. This logic led to the creation of Maternity Matters in 2006.

Central to Maternity Matters are workshops for expectant and post-maternity leave employees and their managers, which are led by representatives from two external vendors. Expectant mothers participate in a pre-leave workshop, a mid-leave workshop that allows them to return to Citi and reconnect with colleagues (where childcare is provided), and a final workshop usually around one month after their return, which includes one-on-one coaching over the phone.

In researching the needs of women taking maternity leave, it was found that women had varying experiences of maternity briefings. To mitigate this, Citi centralized the maternity briefing sessions for managers to ensure delivery of a consistent message. All managers with pregnant employees are invited to attend a pre-leave workshop, where they examine current legislation and business issues as well as their own underlying assumptions about women’s experiences. Later, they participate in a post-leave session on how to reintegrate their returning employees.

In addition to providing support for mothers and their managers, Maternity Matters also provides support for new dads. Citi runs a regular two-hour workshop which encourages new and expectant dads to be successful in both their roles at work and their new roles of being dads—how to set boundaries and communicate them effectively. “We talk to them about their values and how this stacks up with competing priorities and how they might find a way to be at home to read a bedtime story to their kids a few nights a week,” Minashi says.

The workshops for managers, mothers, and fathers run quarterly. In addition, participants receive communication from HR in the form of regular newsletters and handouts.

Maternity Matters earned Citi a 2009 Innovation Award, and the program has translated into direct cost savings for Citi. The company experienced a 15% improved maternity leave retention rate from 2005 to 2008, up to 97%. Returnees also have expressed greater traction on returning to work, improved confidence, and a smoother transition both in and out of the workplace since the program was instituted.

On the heels of the success of the U.K. program, Maternity Matters was adapted for the United States, where it was piloted in July 2009 with employees in the NYC metropolitan area. The U.S. program is currently in the midst of a broader rollout to make it available to all employees and is experimenting with webinars. Minashi is also spearheading efforts to export the program to 53 EMEA countries.

Citi Hungary: Maternity Leave Coordinator

In Hungary, mothers can stay at home until their children are three-years-old. (If they give birth again within three years, they can stay at home until the youngest child is three-years-old.) As long as they have been employed for at least 180 days, they are entitled to maternity allowances from Hungarian Social Security. Employers cannot terminate their employment during this time, and they must rehire mothers in their original position, if possible, whenever they wish to return. Fathers and even grandmothers can also take advantage of these policies.

But these generous policies, while excellent for parents, create challenges for the corporations that employ them. In the fall of 2009 alone, 13% of Citi Hungary’s active employees were on maternity leave.

In 2001, Citi Hungary introduced a maternity leave program to ensure that mothers can return to fulfilling work. Central to this program is the belief that, as Citi Hungary HR generalist Guyri Pásztor says, “Being a mother should have minimal, if any, effects on women’s careers at Citi.”

At the center of the program is a Maternity Coordinator, a member of the HR department whose job it is to keep in touch with all of the women on leave (called maternees). After reporting their pregnancies to HR, women at Citi are sent an email with detailed information about Hungary’s maternity system and allowances. The maternity coordinator maintains a database with information including expected delivery dates, contact information, current salaries and grades, and current department and functional heads. Later, the actual delivery date and the end date of the maternity allowance are put into the database as well. The coordinator regularly emails maternees information about the business, networking opportunities, and open positions. Employees who are out on leave also receive a semi-annual family newsletter with information geared toward their concerns.

When a maternee is ready to return to work, she contacts the coordinator, who then liaises with an HR generalist in order to find her a new position and coordinate the returning process. The coordinator works closely with HR and Citi leadership, submitting regular reports on the numbers of pregnant staff, maternees, and returnees.

The recession has created unique challenges to the program. Citi Hungary had to scale back their staff and ask several eligible maternees to remain at home. Still, the program has had a significant effect on maternee retention. Twenty-one employees at Citi Hungary returned from leave in 2009—almost half of those eligible to return—and the program has numerous success stories. One high-potential employee at Citi had four children and stayed home for 12 years, but returned as high-potential at the end of her leave. Since her return, she has been promoted twice. “It’s really become a part of the culture here,” Pásztor says of the program.

In 2008, Citi Hungary won the Best Workplace for Women award for their maternity program. Today Citi is fostering several initiatives focusing on maternity/adoption leave in several other geographies, including the U.S. and the U.K., and they are investigating the possibility of adapting Citi Hungary’s program more broadly.

Deutsche Bank: Familienservice

As a company which takes great pride in providing its employees with a balanced career and family life, Deutsche Bank recognizes that a new generation of men and women expects greater flexibility and help in integrating life challenges with work obligations.

“We are a company that is committed to providing our employees with family-friendly measures,” says Aletta von Hardenberg, diversity manager at Deutsche Bank in Germany. Recognizing that a significant percentage of its German workforce must juggle childcare and eldercare, she adds, “To the extent possible, we try to develop policies which reflect that commitment to our more than 30,000 employees in Germany alone.”

One best practice out of the toolbox: childcare facilities vary immensely around the country depending on various conditions such as local public services and employees’ demands and needs. In Frankfurt, for example, demand is high and employees have access to a number of Deutsche Bank-sponsored crèche and kindergarten which provide bilingual or multilingual childcare and long opening hours. In addition to regular childcare there is frequent demand for further services such as emergency childcare, nannies, babysitters, and care during school holidays, forcing the company to think creatively about strategies for its stressed-out employees. Eldercare is equally complicated.

Therefore Deutsche Bank has contracted with a private company to provide its employees with desperately needed childcare, crèche, and emergency childcare services and eldercare options. Familienservice, or Family Service, is a comprehensive, nationwide resource for parents and those with elderly relatives in need of care. In addition to providing on-site care, the service is also a vital referral resource that gives employees guidance on making their own arrangements, to help streamline a task which can be both stressful and time-consuming.

Von Hardenberg has a personal reason to be grateful to Familienservice. Her elderly mother doesn’t live in the same city, and von Hardenberg worries that she isn’t able to cook for herself. Thanks to Familienservice, von Hardenberg obtained the services of a “dinner on wheels” service which delivers daily meals to her mother’s home.

Deutsche Bank absorbs all costs associated with the referral service making it a free benefit to their employees: employees can access the service as often as needed, free of charge, and manage only those costs associated with caregiver arrangements which they ultimately choose.

The security von Hardenberg feels in having provided some level of care for her mother is widely echoed in employee feedback. Employees have recorded success in finding highly reputable nursing homes and paid care resources for their elders. The overwhelmingly positive response to the referral program also underscores increasing demand for eldercare service as the German population ages.

By recognizing and anticipating this demand, Deutsche Bank sends an unmistakable signal to its employees and competitors that familial concerns need not be compromised for productivity and vice versa. Recognizing the value in providing employees with work-life balance, the services help erode much of the stigma associated with bringing family concerns into work and strengthens Deutsche Bank’s determination to prove that successful career-family balance can be a model for a productive, fulfilling experience with the bank.

Goldman Sachs: U.K. “Great Expectations”

Maternity Strategy

Across the investment banking industry, women occupy a significant proportion of the talent pool at entry level but their career progression slows as they move to senior leadership roles. One key risk point is maternity leave: too many highly talented women scale back their ambitions or drop out of the workforce entirely due to lack of support from their employer during pregnancy, on maternity leave and on their return.

In recent years Goldman Sachs has seen a steady rise in the number of senior women taking maternity leave in Europe, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of headcount. Over 50% of these women are at vice president level and above; the majority of women who return go on to a formal flexible work arrangement (FWA) within two years of return or return to an existing FWA.

Goldman has long provided extensive maternity leave benefits, ranging from a competitive enhanced maternity pay policy to maternity mentors (women who have successfully returned to work after childbirth) to on-site back-up childcare facilities. Every pregnant woman has one-to-one support from Human Capital Management to help manage her maternity cycle.

However, focus groups revealed that a lack of clarity about coverage arrangements while a woman is on maternity leave can be a major source of anxiety and that support is required in equal measure from her manager, cover, and team. The key takeaway: strong manager engagement and sensitivity is the single biggest factor for a successful return to work and instrumental in a successful career going forward.

The firm’s Senior Diversity Council recognized an opportunity to increase the support provided to women and their managers throughout the maternity cycle. Responding to these findings, in 2009, Goldman strengthened its comprehensive maternity leave benefits with additional programs to further support pregnant employees, the maternity population, and their managers.

All managers with a pregnant employee now receive one-on-one and group interactive training. Regular communications throughout the maternity cycle identify key actions for managers to initiate, including a pre- and post-maternity leave performance review for new mothers.

Returning mothers, in turn, can access structured “Keeping in Touch” days to help them reintegrate into the workplace. Expanded back-up childcare facilities will include permanent childcare places to support returning parents with children up to the age of two years. And a revised parenting handbook for employees describes and clarifies the program changes.

In 2009, a Maternity Committee consisting of managing director champions was piloted in several divisions. Its role is to provide support to managers and women throughout the maternity cycle, including regular touch points during the first year of return. The committee continues to meet monthly during which members discuss their learning and feedback.

“The continuity of manager support at every stage—before, during, and after the maternity leave—helps the transition be successful,” says Donna Burns, head of human capital management, Federation, EMEA. “With better communication and transparency between managers and employees, we hope to see a reduction in the number of women resigning in the two years after returning from maternity leave.”

Intel: New Parent Reintegration Program

Many new mothers struggle to return to work full throttle after their maternity leaves have come to an end. So in order to smooth the transition back into full-time work, Intel launched the “New Parent Reintegration” (NPR) program in 2007 as part of their broader flexibility initiative. The program allows employees to temporarily modify their work schedule for a defined period of time after exhausting time available through Intel’s Bonding Leave and/or Pregnancy Leave guidelines. Under the NPR program, employees can either work a temporary part-time schedule or modify their work schedule to continue working full-time. NPR participants have worked phased or temporary part-time hours, staggered hours, and telecommuted. In addition, employees may also work jointly with managers to develop an alternate strategy that meets both the need of the employee and the business. This may include variations to on-call expectations, break schedules, and other alterations to normal working hours.

Although most employees who take advantage of the program are women, new fathers are eligible to use it as well as a compliment to Intel’s paternity leave program.

Intel encourages employees to work out a preliminary arrangement with their managers before going on parental leave. The NPR program is not intended to provide a permanent change to part-time status, but allows managers and employees to develop a customized reintegration plan. There is no formal time limit for how long employees can stay on a part-time track after they return from parental leave; the choice is left up to the employee and her manager.

Intel’s employees appreciate the flexibility and balance that the NPR program provides. Christy Brundage, HR strategic program manager, used the NPR program for the births of both of her daughters, who are now two years old and four months old. She combined several of the program’s options, telecommuting and working a reduced work schedule. “For the birth of my second child, I returned part time for one month doing project work. This helped me to gradually ramp back to the pace and schedule for my role as well as providing my family much-valued transition time,” Brundage says. “While I was on my most recent maternity leave, my management team contacted me about a great career opportunity. The role had the scope of work that aligned directly to my strengths and career interests. Although I was out for an extended amount of time, I had the opportunity to continue to grow my career at the pace that aligns with my personal career goals.”

Moody’s: Backup Childcare and Eldercare

In late 2008 after hearing from the newly formed Women’s Network on the challenges employees were having finding the right child or eldercare solution in an emergency situation when regular care arrangements fall through, Moody’s researched best practices in the industry and decided to launch a backup childcare and eldercare program.

Working with Bright Horizons, a national provider of work life services, employees can take advantage of up to 20 days of care, per dependent per calendar year, at rates that are far below the average market pricing. Care is available both in an on-site facility with others and one-on-one in the home. Employees are even able to utilize the eldercare program from other states; for example, a New York City-based employee with a sick mother in Florida can request a caregiver to go into to her mother’s home. Additionally, employees can request a caregiver they’ve used previously.

Moody’s took significant steps to make its employees feel comfortable about using the program and parents are encouraged to call and visit the day care center during the work day, and they often do.

The program has been appreciated by employees who would have otherwise had to stay home from work to take care of a sick child or parent. Daisy Auger-Domínguez, Moody’s vice president of diversity & inclusion, says, “The impact on productivity speaks millions.”

Lisa Douglass-Doe, vice president HRIS at Moody’s, used the backup childcare program more than ten times in 2009 to care for her three-year-old twins. Douglass-Doe, who has a one-hour commute from home to work, generally chooses at-home care. “I loved having a caregiver come to my home where the children are comfortable, instead of having to dress them up and take them out to a facility. You can come to work with peace of mind knowing there’s someone there to watch your kids,” she says. One time, when one of her children was in the hospital, a caregiver from Bright Horizons came to the hospital to sit with the child. “The flexibility of being able to have them anywhere is great,” Douglass-Doe says.

Encouraged by the positive feedback from program participants, in late 2009 Moody’s expanded the backup care program into Germany and Canada.

Claiming and Sustaining Ambition

Boehringer Ingelheim: Inclusive Leadership Conference

“Senior leaders need an open door and an open ear,” explained one high-potential woman in describing the challenges of managing diverse teams. Boehringer Ingelheim USA’s internal celebration of leadership, “Developing Inclusive Leadership at Boehringer Ingelheim: A Spotlight on Women,” which took place on January 11, 2010, aimed to encourage that openness, explore the issues confronting high-performance women, and propose workable solutions. The conference was “three years in the making” for Nancy Di Dia, executive director, Office of Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement.

With the endorsement of President and CEO J. Martin Carroll, who kicked off the event, the conference brought together not only talented female employees from all divisions of the company, but their managers as well, to make sure that both groups were getting the support they need. Commenting on the goal of the conference, Carroll encouraged participants to use the conference to network and deepen their leadership skills. “You often hear me talk about how we are a company that cares deeply for patients and their families. We also care deeply about our employees. You are among our company’s brightest talent and this conference is a wonderful opportunity for you to share experiences, exchange ideas, and learn from each other. I hope that you will take advantage of all that today has to offer.”

Participants received candid advice on everything from personal branding to dealing with bias, from finding mentors to getting honest feedback from managers, from presenting an image of success to successful off- and on-ramping. Panelist B.J. Jones, vice president, sales, typified the attitude of the panelists by saying, “I’m on this panel not because I’ve figured it out, but because I’m figuring it out.” NextGenWomen President Selena Rezvani presented a skill development workshop around her book The Next Generation of Women Leaders.

Meanwhile, the managers gathered in breakout sessions to discuss how best to manage both men and women and share insights around managing diverse teams. Afterward, everyone convened for a World Café, in which small groups hosted by leaders of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Employee Resource Groups discussed company culture, work-life balance, and how the company could improve. The Café was moderated by Di Dia. Senior Vice President of Human Resources David Nurnberger was also present for the event with pen and paper in hand to address places where employees need help. The day ended with a networking reception in which participants continued to share what they had learned during the day.

Thanks to extremely positive feedback from participants, the day will become an annual event. The feedback has also sparked real change—among other shifts within the company, Boehringer Ingelheim has decided to look into enhancing their leave policies as a result of the research and feedback gathered throughout the day.

Deutsche Bank: ATLAS Program

In July 2009, Deutsche Bank launched a new leadership development program called “Accomplished Top Leaders Advancement Strategies,” or ATLAS. The program is cross-divisional and focuses on getting highly talented female managers to the next level of leadership within the company. ATLAS seeks to help create more senior leaders in the firm by focusing on female talent internally, with the ultimate goal of getting women on Deutsche Bank’s Executive Committee (GEC).

The program is sponsored by Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann. The GEC nominated and selected 21 extraordinarily talented female managing directors to participate in the pilot program.

Each of the 21 women is assigned a formal sponsor from the GEC. The sponsor’s task is to develop a one-on-one working relationship and provide her with exposure to senior leaders, training, and guidance in her career path. Although the participants are all managing directors, they are drawn from all divisions and all offices within the company. In order to increase their exposure to other parts of the company, the CEO is asking participants to work on a cross-divisional project. Yet another component of ATLAS is an in-depth assessment

of each woman with the goal of helping her crystallize her career plan.

The sponsor/participant pairs are expected to meet at least four times a year. In September 2009 they held a group meeting for the women and Executive Committee members to get to know one another. The meeting resulted in a wide ranging and open discussion on opportunities for women within the firm and how

to remove biases. The women were also invited to attend a senior management conference where they were given an exclusive opportunity to network with a wider group of Deutsche Bank leaders. Almost immediately the attendance of these women at the senior management conference dramatically changed

the dynamics in terms of female representation.

ATLAS is a central part of a larger effort by Deutsche Bank to get more women into top management positions. The hope is that the women who benefit from ATLAS will go on to serve as mentors, role models, and sponsors for other women in the organization. Already they have witnessed increased levels of visibility and engagement among the ATLAS women. They’ve reached out to female summer

interns and will participate in a new targeted female recruitment program. Deutsche Bank is considering how often to refresh the participants in ATLAS—annually or biannually—but will use it to continue to boost the success of women within the organization.

EY: Board of Directors

EY, a pioneer in developing diversity and inclusion programs, encourages innovation from within its ranks—not just from the top down but from within and up. Inspired by this model, the firm’s Northeast region crafted an initiative that drives its leadership to better promote the career progress of high-potential women and ethnically diverse minority employees.

Called Board of Directors (BOD), the program helps top executives develop future talent from these underrepresented groups. For each promising individual, the BOD brings together a high-touch team of key partners responsible for that individual’s development and success. One member of the team is chosen as primary owner of the relationship and facilitator of the team’s activities. Working closely with senior leadership at the individual’s office location, the owner and team develop and implement an action plan to make sure the targeted employee qualifies for the partnership pool by his or her targeted promotion year—or earlier, if appropriate.

The team agrees on the appropriate timing for the individual’s promotions, determines specific actions to be taken to keep the candidate on track, and identifies team members to own and act on each of the action plan items. These include monitoring necessary assignment changes that will round out the future leader’s skill set and experience portfolio, reviewing and approving account responsibility and roles, making sure the individual has access to critical relationships, as well as the right kinds of exposure both within and outside the practice and within and outside his or her geographical region. Is the candidate in a position to have real impact on fellow team members and the larger office population? What else needs to be done to position this person for partnership?

BOD members commit to a range of follow-up roles as well. These can include facilitating assignment changes, introducing candidates to partners outside their practice areas, taking them to audit committee meetings, and involving them in proposals. BOD members also help these employees develop strong mentoring relationships, give them ongoing feedback, and make sure they get high-profile stretch development opportunities.

“Board of Directors has been a productive line management tool in raising the awareness and support of our most qualified candidates for promotion,” notes Karyn Twaronite, partner and People Leader for the Northeast. “It works to provide consistent messaging and development support if needed, and to rally unwavering support from all stakeholders for promotion and their career support beyond that promotion.”