Over the past 15 years, organizations have invested a great deal of time, money, and other resources to address the needs of the changing workforce. A work/life field has emerged to support employers in their effort to integrate their work and personal lives. This field has at its core the fundamental belief that through careful planning and innovative career and work options, employers and employees can successfully accomplish business and life goals.
There is little doubt that these efforts have yielded changes in the policies, practices, and approaches that many leading organizations now use to manage their workforce. Through an in-depth look at the evolution of this movement, this research will survey the variety of ways organizations have embraced the challenges of more effectively integrating work and life responsibilities.
The purpose of The Work/Life Evolution Study is to assess the patterns of change in workforce management strategies over time and to create a living record of the events (business, social, and economic) that drove organizational responses. The study will recommend future approaches to managing people through their career lifecycle that will yield highly positive outcomes for organizations, their employees and society.
Future Search Conference
The objective of the conference was to re-set participants’ views on workforce management, and begin to build a framework that will re-invent the systems by which we manage, lead and engage tomorrow’s workforce. Participants worked to answer the following question: “In this new work environment, is there a formula that will enable company success and worker satisfaction?”
A future search conference is a participative planning method that enables people to create a plan for the future of their community or organization – a plan they can carry out themselves. During the conference participants examined important past events in the work/life field; assessed the current trends that will have the biggest future impact; created a vision of the most desirable future; and planned some action steps to advance toward the desired future state. Most of the people attending the conference had never before participated in an event quite like this, and they were quite pleased with the results.
The Future Search Conference represents a significant step in the Center’s Work/Life Evolution Study. The study will recommend future approaches to managing people through their career lifecycle. The Corporate Sponsors of the Evolution Study are: AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Chevron Corporation, Dell Inc., Digitas, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Marriott International and Viacom Inc.