Family-Friendly Policies

Activity Description:

Purpose

To identify the emphasis that different companies place on family-friendly policies

Steps:

  • Have students attend a job fair and collect brochures from several companies representing different sectors (e.g. manufacturing, communications, insurance, medical).
  • Examine the brochures and identify each company that touts some form of family-friendly policy (flex-time, telecommuting, child care, sick family leave).
  • Identify the percent of companies that tout family-friendly values and benefits.
  • Identify company attributes which appear to be related to the advertisement of family-friendly benefits (e.g. size, sector, gender of CEO).
  • Have students discuss whether family-friendly policies are important to them when they search for a job and, if so, which are most important.

Activity Source:

Content contributed by Patricia V. Roehling and Phyllis Moen as a Suggested Work and Family Class Activity