Home » Work:Life BenefitsOhio's promise of perfect balance improves P&L performance.
Learn how King Hill, president of DigiKnow, achieves his professional and personal aspirations in Ohio.
Welcome to Ohio, the State of Perfect Balance, where world class companies and those who aspire to be don't have to compromise professional or personal satisfaction in pursuit of their ambitions. The same goes for their families and the employees whom they lead. The Great State of Ohio offers business and industry many unique qualities that contribute to better balance and, ultimately, optimal business performance. It's a correlation that is becoming increasingly clear. Learn more through the DiscoverOhio Web site about the exceptional family and personal activities Ohio has to offer.
The research studies, articles and testimonials and other resources available here will provide business leaders with compelling evidence for why they should consider the pursuit of better balance for themselves and their employees to be a key element of their business growth strategy. Visit often as we'll be refreshing this site to showcase thought leaders on work life balance, the benefits of balance to business owners and how they're finding it in Ohio.
Review the research studies, articles and testimonials and other resources:
Work:Life Videos
In memory of Randy Pausch, a man who understood the value of work:life balance.
Randy Pausch's famous "Last Lecture" - Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don't achieve theirs, and I think that's a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I've actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually "achieve" their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how "you" can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.
Online Articles
BusinessWeek Special Report
Work-Life Balance: How to Get a Life and Do Your Job
There is a species of knowledge worker that seems transcendentally competent when it comes to finessing work-life balance. These are the people of the tidy desks and ... Learn more»
BusinessWeek Special Report
Work-Life Balance: It's Never Too Late
Step back, think, and reflect. You can gain renewed focus and a fresh perspective on your children, your marriage, and your job. Learn more»
BusinessWeek
Balancing Work and Life
That goal topped the list of six workplace challenges cited by our readers in a groundbreaking collaboration with BW editors. Learn more»
Insight from Kevin Roberts - CEO Worldwide of Saatchi & Saatchi
Thoughts on integrating the work-life balance
A recent survey of CEOs claim the #1 issue on their worry list for 2008 wasn't the environment, or keeping their job. Nor was it fretting about the consumer or the customer. The big issue for 2008 is creating a sustainable work-life balance for them and their people.
CNN.com Special Report
Having It All: Work:Life Balance
Americans are working longer hours than ever before, taking a big bite out of their personal lives. Add economic pressures and technology that ensures a 24/7 connection to work and you have the line between job and personal life blurring.
Fortune Special Report
Life-Work Balance
While some folks obsessively check their BlackBerrys in bed and haul their laptops to their kids' soccer games, there are lots of other people looking for a better way to balance the demands of a high-powered career against a fulfilling family life. Their companies are helping. Whether it's educating a father-to-be on what to expect when his wife is expecting or a CEO who encourages his staff to take lunchtime surfing breaks, the age of widespread life-work balance seems to be finally dawning.
WebMD Health and Balance
5 Tips for Better Work-Life Balance
WebMD guides you through 5 practical steps toward better work-life balance.
HR Magazine
Work/life balance: challenges and solutions
In organizations and on the home front, the challenge of work/life balance is rising to the top of many employers' and employees' consciousness. In today's fast-paced society, human resource professionals seek options to positively impact the bottom line of their companies, improve employee morale, retain employees with valuable company knowledge, and keep pace with workplace trends.
Fortune Special Section:
Work Life Effectiveness
Members of the Best Companies to Work club are realizing a meaningful ROI from programs designed to help people better balance their professional and personal goals.
Business Week:
Smash the Clock
The clock has been "smashed" at Best Buy where people are free to work wherever they want, whenever they want as long as they get their work done, and it's working.
Computer World:
Work/Life Balance: What's It Worth?
Improvements in morale, productivity, retention and historical knowledge show cost effectiveness of providing flexible work arrangements.
CNN.com Living
Workplace flexibility revives employees, in and out of the office
Juggling work, family, friends and community may seem sometimes like an impossible task. A flexible work schedule may be one solution to a better work-life balance.
Reuters
Firms say work-life balance boosts productivity
Far from jeopardizing productivity, flexible working arrangements and other measures to improve work-life balance motivate staff and boost efficiency.
Marketing Innovators International, Inc.
The effects of Employee Satisfaction on Company Financial Performance
While most organizations typically emphasize generating new business and cutting costs, a rapidly growing body of evidence points to an indirect yet undeniable correlation between employee satisfaction and financial performance -
a correlation that has significant ramifications on building
profits most effectively.
Online Resources
Boston College Center for Work & Family
Founded in 1990, the Boston College Center for Work & Family (CWF) is a national leader in helping organizations create effective workplaces. CWF is committed to enhancing the quality of life of today's workforce by providing leadership for the integration of work and life, an essential for individual, organizational, and community success.
Families and Work Institute
The Families and Work Institute was co-founded in 1989 by Ellen Galinsky as a nonprofit center dedicated to providing research for living in today's changing workplace, changing family and changing community. The Institute provides research and publications focusing on four major areas: the workforce and workplace; education, care and community; parenting; and youth development.
The Work Foundation, London
The Work Foundation is a nonprofit organization that brings all aspects of business together to find the best ways of improving both economic performance and quality of working life. The Foundation provides evidence-based research and publications, as well as workshops, roundtable events and seminars focused on improving work-life balance.
HR Executive Online
Human Resource Executive Online® is an interactive resource designed specifically for directors and vice presidents of HR. HR Executive Online offers a wide variety of interactive technologies, database capabilities, extensive reference materials and breaking news. The full-time editorial staff works with exclusive partners such as Cornell University to ensure the editorial product is insightful, strategic and timely.
Nat'l. Framework Committee for WLB, Ireland
The National Framework Committee for Work Life Balance, Ireland implements policies for employers and employees in order to provide a more committed and productive workforce. The website, hosted by the National Framework Committee for Work Life Balance Policies, provides online tools, support and research applicable to the 15 European Union countries, including Ireland.
Great Places to Work Institute
The Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. is a research and management consultancy based in the U.S. with International Affiliate offices throughout the world. The Institute is dedicated to building a better society by helping companies build trusting employee-employer relationships and create a more effective organization. Its work is based on the major findings of more than 20 years of research. Each year, the Great Place to Work® Institute produces various Best Companies to Work for lists in the U.S. including Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For® in America.
Ohio State University Office of Human Resources
Rated in 2006 by The Scientist magazine as one of the "best places to work in academia," OSU conducts extensive research on work life balance and flexibility in the work place. The university's work life effort provides programs, policies, and services to help employees better integrate their professional and personal lives and feel more productive, engaged, and satisfied in their work environment.
Georgetown Law and the Alfred Sloan Foundation
Workplace Flexibility 2010 is a campaign to support the development of a comprehensive national policy on workplace flexibility at the federal, state and local levels. Located at Georgetown University Law Center, Workplace Flexibility 2010 initiate research, outreach and consensus-building efforts designed to support the development of a comprehensive national policy on workplace flexibility.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a philanthropic, nonprofit institution focused on the quality of American life. Its national initiative, the Workplace, Workforce and Working Families program, aims to enhance scholarly, business and public understanding of the interaction of family and workplace. Efforts include ways in which the workplace can be restructured to provide more choice in work hours to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce, particularly working parents and older workers. Over the last ten years, the Program has supported over $60 million in research on issues faced by today's working families.
Institute for a Competitive Workforce
The Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW) is a nonprofit affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and works to ensure that businesses have access—today and tomorrow—to an educated and skilled workforce. Through policy initiatives, business outreach, and a strong grassroots network, ICW finds solutions that will preserve the American workforce as this country's greatest business asset and its strongest resource.
Rainmaker Thinking Inc.
Founded in 1993, Rainmaker Thinking, Inc. conducts ongoing research on the changing workforce. On the basis of that research, it has published sixteen books, numerous research reports and hundreds of articles, as well as several best-selling management training programs.
WFC Resources
Since 1984, WFC Resources (formerly Work & Family Connection) has been working to help employers create a workplace that's both supportive and effective. WFC offers a host of resources, including onsite and e-training, needs assessment, consulting and the world's only complete source of work-life news and information.
The Labor Project
Since 1992, the Labor Project for Working Families has been partnering with unions, union members, community based organizations and other activists to promote better work and family policies and programs, including paid family leave, child care, elder care and flexible work schedules. The Labor Project for Working Families has resources for union members, negotiating teams, organizers, policy makers as well as community based organizations and activists on advocating for family friendly workplaces.
Human Resources & Social Development Canada
Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC) is a department of the Government of Canada. HRSDC's mission is to build a stronger and more competitive Canada, to support Canadians in making choices that help them live productive and rewarding lives, and to improve Canadians' quality of life. Differences among Canadian provinces relative to WLB are the focus of Job Quality Canada. Additional Canadian links re WLB can be found at http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/work_life_balance.htm.
Society for Human Resource Executives
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world's largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 210,000 individual members, the Society's mission is to serve the needs of HR professionals by providing the most essential and comprehensive resources available.
