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Working Mother magazine released its annual list of the top 100 places to work, with its chief executive touting an improvement in mother-friendly benefits in corporate America.
Working Mother CEO Carol Evans, who authored the book "This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto," said that in order to retain female employees, a growing number of companies are offering customized schedules.
"There are some very, very creative ideas, and this is all related to what we saw in the past, with women dropping off the edge of a cliff, when they said it's either working full time or not at all," Evans said.
18 new names
This year's list includes 18 new names. The magazine cites growing concern among companies that they will lose qualified female employees if they do not upgrade their benefits."Our country needs women to have babies; our companies need women's brainpower and time," she said. "Those two things going together really demand that companies wake up to this new culture."
In compiling the list, the magazine solicited applications consisting of 550 questions.
The magazine used five main criteria as the basis for its judgments: flexibility, leave time for new parents, child care, elder care and the number of women occupying top jobs.
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IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the only companies that have been on the list every year since it was initiated 21 years ago. IBM offers new mothers the option to take up to 144 weeks of leave, Evans said.
Long maternity leave a plus
The Boston Consulting Group is one of 18 companies new to the list. Among the consulting group's benefits are three months of paid maternity leave and emergency child care.Julie Gish, a 31-year-old project leader in the Chicago office of the consulting company, credits the maternity leave and flexible work policies for easing her work life after the birth of her son Charlie, who turned 1 on Saturday.
Gish took the three-month paid leave and an additional six weeks of unpaid leave before she returned to work on a 60 percent basis. Since then, she has increased her working time to 80 percent, and said she is grateful for how accommodating the company has been.
"They do that because they recognize that while women may need to take time out in their careers, it is certainly in their interest in the long run to offer flexible working arrangements," Gish said.
Gish said she plans to have at least one more child, and that after her children start school, she plans to go back to work full time.
| Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill. | Inova Health System, Falls Church, Va. |
|---|---|
Accenture Ltd., New York, N.Y. | JFK Medical Center, Atlantis, Fla. |
Aflac Inc., Columbus, Ga. | Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J. |
Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill. | JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, N.Y. |
American Express Co., New York, N.Y. | Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich. |
Arnold & Porter LLP, Washington, D.C. | KPMG LLP, New York, N.Y. |
AstraZeneca PLC, Wilmington, Del. | Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill. |
Avon Products Inc., New York, N.Y. | Lego Systems Inc., Enfield, Conn. |
Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C. | Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., New York, N.Y. |
Baptist Health South Florida, Coral Gables, Fla. | Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass. |
Bayer AG, Pittsburgh, Pa. | Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Springfield, Mass. |
Bon Secours Richmond Health System, Richmond, Va. | McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, N.Y. |
Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va. | Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, N.J. |
The Boston Consulting Group, Boston, Mass. | Mercy Health System, Jamesville, Wis. |
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., New York, N.Y. | MetLife Inc., Long Island City, N.Y. |
Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo, Mich. | Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash. |
Capital One Financial Corp., McLean, Va. | Morgan Stanley, New York, N.Y. |
Carlson Cos., Minnetonka, Minn. | Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill. |
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga. | Northern Trust Corp., Chicago, Ill. |
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill. | Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Chicago, Ill. |
Citigroup Inc., New York, N.Y. | Novartis AG, East Hanover, N.J. |
CJW Medical Center, Richmond, Va. | Patagonia Inc., Ventura, Calif. |
Colgate-Palmolive Co., New York, N.Y. | Pearson PLC, Upper Saddle River, N.J. |
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. | Pfizer Inc., New York, N.Y. |
Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C. | Phoenix Cos., Hartford, Conn. |
Credit Suisse Group, New York, N.Y. | Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, New York, N.Y. |
DaimlerChrysler AG, Auburn Hills, Mich. | PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa. |
Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, New York, N.Y. | PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, New York, N.Y. |
Deutsche Bank AG, New York, N.Y. | Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa |
Discovery Communications Inc., Silver Spring, Md. | Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio |
Dow Corning, Midland, Mich. | Providence Alaska Medical Center, Anchorage, Ala. |
DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del. | Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J. |
Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. | Republic Bancorp., Owosso, Mich. |
Ernst & Young LLP, New York, N.Y. | Rodale Inc., Emmaus, Pa. |
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C. | RSM McGladrey Inc., Bloomington, Minn. |
First Horizon National Corp., Memphis, Tenn. | S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., Racine, Wis. |
First National Bank of Omaha, Omaha, Neb. | Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, N.J. |
Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mivh. | Scripps Health, San Diego, Calif. |
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, Calif. | Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas |
General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn. | Timberland Co., Stratham, N.H. |
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. | Trihealth, Cincinnati, Ohio |
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Philadelphia, PA | Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Atlanta, Ga. |
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., New York, N.Y. | UBS, New York, N.Y. |
Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago, Ill. | Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Neb. |
Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center, Commack, N.Y. | Verizon Communications Inc., Bedminster, N.J. |
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. | Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C. |
Hewlett Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif. | Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, Calif. |
HSBC USA Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill. | West Virginia University Hospitals, Morgantown, W.Va. |
IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y. | Wyeth, Madison, N.J. |
Ikea, Plymouth Meeting, Pa. | Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn. |
Source: Working Mother magazine
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