A history of the National Work and Family Awards Since 1992
Hall of Fame - 1992 to 2005 Work and Family Award Winners
Hall of Fame - 1992 to 2005 Work and Family Award Winners
The early stages
The Awards today
Work and family champions: a chronology of past winners and finalists
1992: The inaugural event
1993: Unique approaches to addressing workplace needs
1994: The International Year of the Family
1995: Effective Change
1996/1997: A New Path
1998: The Life Cycle Challenge
1999: Quality Reaps Rewards
2000: Overcoming the Barriers
2001: Overall Outstanding Achievement
2002: IBM Leads the Way
Why Present Awards?
Conclusion
The National Work and Family Awards were initiated as a means of stimulating greater management interest in the benefits of helping employees combine their working and home lives and also to give public recognition to significant achievement by business in the development and implementation of work and family policies and practices.
From their inception, the Awards have played an important role in identifying corporate pathfinders in the practical implementation of International Labour Organisation Convention 156 - Workers with Family Responsibilities which Australia ratified in 1991. The increased interest in achieving a better balance between the work and family lives of employees in the early 1990s reflected the fact that family life had changed and organisations needed to adapt to the changing demographics of their workforces.
The highly successful inaugural Awards were held in 1992 to recognise Australia 's top family friendly companies. They were known as the Corporate Work and Family Awards and were jointly sponsored by the Australian Financial Review (AFR), the Business Council of Australia (BCA), the Council for Equal Opportunity in Employment Limited (CEOE Limited) and the Work and Family Unit in the then Department of Industrial Relations. The consultancy firm, Managing Work/Life Balance was also a sponsor for the first year of the Awards. It was the beginning of an industry-government partnership that, with some changes of players, has continued over the years.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) took over from the BCA in 1998. From 2000 to 2002, the Awards were known as the ACCI National Work and Family Awards with sponsorship from AMP Limited and support and management from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) and CEOE Limited.
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For the 2003/04 Awards, IBM Ltd has come on board as the major corporate sponsor. IBM was a previous winner in 2002, successfully winning the Gold Award and Large Business Award (joint winner with the Department of Family and Community Services). The continued support of previous winners such as IBM is a testament to the increasing importance of the Awards as a means of recognising employers of choice across Australia .
The Awards continue to be supported by ACCI, in conjunction with the Business Council of Australia and the Workplace Authority, as well as CEOE Ltd and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Other sponsors in 2003/04 include Business Review Weekly, the Office of Small Business (Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources), the Tasmanian Department of Premier and Cabinet (Women Tasmania), the Northern Territory Government Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment and the Western Australian Department of Consumer and Employment Protection .
The inclusion of new Award categories for the 2003/04 event has also heralded an expansion of the 2003/04 Awards. The most outstanding applicant in a rural or regional community will be recognised. As well as this, various States and Territories are sponsoring Awards to distinguish the achievements of employers within their jurisdiction.
Overall, the ACCI/BCA National Work and Family Awards for 2003/04 look set to be the biggest yet.
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To apply for the Work and Family Awards, organisations are asked to provide written details of their key work and family initiatives and their impact on employees and the organisation as a whole. The independent judging panel, made up of representatives from business and government organisations, select finalists who are subjected to further scrutiny. Site visits provide the opportunity to clarify any outstanding issues, confirm claims and establish the applicants' commitment to improving employees' work and family balance.
Esso was named Australia 's most family friendly company in the inaugural 1992 Awards for the way the company integrated a broad spectrum of work and family policies policies into its corporate culture and business goals. Other award winners in the first year included the Sydney Water Board for excelling in the area of child care, including the establishment of two work-based care centres, a vacation care program and a child care telephone referral service, while IBM was highly commended for its approach to the career development of women as well as initiatives covering maternity leave, career breaks and child care.
The consultancy firm, Michael Johnson and Associates, with a staff of 15, demonstrated that it is not only possible but desirable, for small business to achieve excellence in the area of work and family through its highly commended child and elder care initiatives and flexible approach to work practices. The Australian Taxation Office was another of the top five organisations in the first year, winning for the way it translated corporate philosophy that people are the Tax Office's most valuable asset, into practical ways of helping people improve the balance between work and family.
Employers were realising that a family-friendly workplace which is cooperative and responsive - for both management and workers - is also productive and efficient. Increasingly organisations saw a strong business case for better work and family balance. Organisations were costing the direct and indirect costs of work and family conflicts and realising the benefits to be gained from introducing family friendly practices that met the needs of employers in the organisation.
When Esso won their Gold Award, their Equal Opportunity Manager at the time, Fiona Krautil, noted the importance of this link, 'At Esso we consider balancing work and family an employee effectiveness issue; if managed effectively the company will benefit through reduced absenteeism, reduced turnover, more motivated employees etc., whereas ineffective management costs big dollars. For example, losing one accountant with six years experience at Esso has been conservatively calculated to cost $80 000.'
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In 1993 the Gold Award was presented to the organisation judged to have the best overall performance and silver awards were presented to the best performers in each of the corporate, small business and public sectors. Other categories included work practices, career development for women, child and elder care initiatives and special work and family initiatives.
In accepting their Gold Award that year, Mr Dick Simpson, Managing Director of Unisys Australia Limited noted, 'I don't have any doubt that the investment in work and family programs produces results. I think it's fair to say that some of our senior managers, at first, were not activists for change in this area. But once we started to get our retention rates up [after maternity leave] they began to see the benefits.'
While there is a common thread in the types of policies implemented across winning organisations, what is unique is the way each organisation has gone about addressing the specific needs of its workforce. Examples include putting out a newsletter on family issues, providing a nappy service to employees who have become new parents, providing work-based child care and including employees' families in social club events.
As a silver award winner, Kemcor, a major producer of plastics, synthetic rubbers and propylene with 860 employees in five locations, outlined their approach. 'Kemcor is now broadening the work and family agenda at the workplace... There is a need to provide a range of initiatives which recognise the diversity of the family and the different stages our employees enter in their lives – from single individuals with personal family crises, to partners who care for each other when sick or in need, parents with young families, and families with elderly members in need of care.'
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The 1994 International Year of the Family provided a significant opportunity to stimulate community debate about family-supportive workplace practices. The challenges of supporting the employment and family care combinations which families were seeking to achieve provided a strong focus for employees and employers to work together.
In accepting the 1994 Gold Award on behalf of Telecom (now Telstra), the chief executive, Mr Frank Blount, said that Telecom implemented a wide range of measures to assist and develop its workers not just for social reasons, but because 'it was better for business'. The company's award winning work and family strategy aimed to encourage attitudinal changes by raising awareness of the influence of work/family issues on Telecom business; and to promote a more innovative approach to management of employees who are balancing work and family.
Reflecting the increased interest by organisations in the Awards and the high standard of entries, more family friendly companies were recognised in 1995 than previously. One of the most important features observed in the applications and site visits that year was the shift from introducing family-friendly policies to creating cultural and attitudinal change and ensuring the existence of real flexibility in the workplace.
This commitment to change meant that the positive effects of providing work and family programs could benefit all employees in the organisation in ways that were appropriate to them. This was an important development in the approach to work and family policies and emphasised that they are not just an issue for women or only for non-career oriented employees.
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The commitment to cater for all employees was demonstrated by Esso in 1995 in winning its second Gold Award. Since 1992 the company's Work and Family program had focused on creating a workplace culture that would support the diverse needs of its workforce. Esso's aim was now to identify the needs of its workforce and to target strategies to address them, either through formal policies or on a case-by-case approach as appropriate. The assessment team's site visit confirmed Esso's genuine desire to accommodate each person's individual circumstances.
This approach delivered clear cost-benefits for Esso with an increase in the return rate of female employees from parental leave from 60 per cent in the mid-1980s to over 90 per cent in 1995.
Another 1995 winner was Effective Change Pty Ltd which received a High Commendation for the Small Business category. Unlike many small businesses whose family-friendly policies are usually applied on an ad hoc basis, Effective Change chose to formalise a wide range of employment conditions through the enterprise bargaining process. The company's enterprise agreement features eight weeks paid maternity leave, two weeks paid paternity leave, six weeks paid adoption leave and five days special leave for the purposes of caring for sick family members.
Addressing work and family issues is necessarily a dynamic process. The ongoing challenge for Australian businesses is to stay well informed about the changing nature and expectations of the workforce and to make sure that practices respond to these changes. Well-oriented policies, an enabling style of management and effective communication of work expectations are all necessary elements in balancing work and family needs.
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In 1996 the Australian Financial Review/Business Council of Australia Corporate Work and Family Awards were substantially refocused to encourage a wider range of organisations to apply. The 1996-97 Awards emphasised outcomes, not just policies, and they were based on industry groups. They also aimed to recognise both small and medium to large organisations that had introduced one or two key initiatives or innovative programs, and/or had demonstrated continuous improvement in implementing policies.
Some of the key advances that emerged from the applications and judging process in 1996-97 included the provision of well-equipped carer's rooms/breastfeeding facilities in offices, more wide-ranging parental leave including paid maternity leave provisions ranging from six to 12 weeks, and increased paid paternity leave provisions. The Curtin University of Technology provided 12 weeks paid leave for the primary care-giver, irrespective of gender. Many organisations introduced initiatives to help employees stay in touch while on leave and assist reintegration, for example, with flexible return-to-work provisions.
NRMA, Silver Award winner in 1994 and the Gold Award winner in 1996-97, based its Work and Family Program on the findings of a Work and Family Survey that investigated the needs of employees. The organisation's program focused on flexible work practices and assisting staff with dependant care. A family sick leave entitlement allowed employees to use some of their sick leave to care for sick family members and provided an additional five days unpaid leave.
Employees were also able to access extended parental leave for up to two years after the birth of their child. The incidence of staff returning from parental leave at NRMA increased from 34 per cent in 1991-92 to 89 per cent in 1995-96; while the percentage staying on for at least six months increased from 32 per cent to 86 per cent. This was an impressive outcome and demonstrated the benefits experienced by the best practice organisations.
Award entrants also adopted an increasingly diverse range of flexible working arrangements, from part-time work and job-sharing to flexibility in the standard hours of work, such as lengthening the bandwidth hours. Silver award winner Queensland Rail, offered compressed time such as working five days in seven or 10 days in 14 in some locations. Home-based work was also often available to meet emergencies or short-term needs and sometimes as a longer-term arrangement.
Communication mechanisms were also critical as organisations sought to achieve cultural change rather than just put a range of policies in place. Information kits, newsletter articles, seminars and training were common ways of informing and educating staff about work and family policies as well as supporting employees dealing with these issues.
At Hewlett-Packard, Silver Award winners in 1993 and 1996-97, managers lead the way in work, life and diversity training. Following their attendance at training sessions, senior managers conducted training for all managers, who then led sessions for all employees. The involvement of managers both as participants and leaders proved to be an important method of demonstrating the organisation's commitment to improving awareness of these issues and recognising the values and benefits of diversity.
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The theme that developed during the latter half of the 1990s, was the different challenges facing employees as they progress across the life cycle. The issues confronting parents of young children are very different from those of older workers facing retirement. Many organisations started to broaden their work and family policies into work-life policies that concentrated on balancing the demands of work with a broader range of personal issues and responsibilities across the life cycle. Importantly, these policies recognised that the need to balance work and personal life is an issue for all employees, whether or not they are caring for dependents. Examples of work-life policies that were introduced by organisations included referral services, health and wellness programs, employee assistance programs, pre-paid legal plans, child care subsidies or services, elder care services, assistance in dealing with major illness in the family and career breaks.
AMP was recognised for its comprehensive work and family programs by being judged the 1998 Gold Award winner. As a large organisation with around 5 600 employees the company offered a wide range of flexible working arrangements, flexible leave arrangements such as six weeks paid parental leave for a primary care giver and personal emergency leave, Dependent Care Information Referral Service, family-oriented events such as picnics and a children's Christmas party as well as many other initiatives. Positive outcomes for AMP and its employees from these initiatives include an increase in the rate of return from maternity leave from 52 per cent in 1992 to 90 per cent in 1997; an increase in the number of men accessing family leave and flexible work practices; and an increase in the number of part-time positions from 4.5 per cent in 1996 to 6 per cent in 1998, including 16 senior part-time employees, three of whom are men.
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The continuing high quality of the award winners is evident in the 1999 Gold Award winner, Mobil. Mobil not only put in place an impressive range of policies and practices, but established a broad range of indicators that allow it to measure real improvements in performance as a result of its work and family program.
1999 also saw the introduction of a special award for small businesses which was won by Cole Dental, a private dental practice with 20 employees, 19 females and one male. The impressive field of small businesses which applied for the new award was marked by a culture of accommodating employees' needs in an informal and flexible way.
Anne Maree Cole, Cole Dental's CEO believes their successful teamwork is due to 'respecting staff as individuals and the differences that go to make us unique. To get the best contribution from our employees our workplace policies must be flexible enough to accommodate each employee's very important family and lifestyle issues. .... We put a lot of effort into training our staff and we wanted to keep them with us. We want staff to enjoy their time at work and see it as a long-term (in fact life-long) career if that is what they want.' Staff retention is a valuable point of differentiation for Cole Dental from other surgeries, given that the average industry turnover is 22 months. Eight of Cole Dental's staff have been employed with them for more than seven years and the longest employed for 16 years.
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Work and family initiatives are a key business strategy at Hollywood Private Hospital in Perth, winner of the 2000 Gold Award. It isn't easy to introduce flexible working arrangements in an industry that works around the clock and has rostered shifts. Hollywood Private Hospital extends flexibility of working hours to employees usually excluded from family friendly measures. Hospital managers and nursing staff can take advantage of a range of initiatives, including work from home and part-time employment. One particular innovative initiative is allowing some managers employed on a full-time basis to work in the office during school hours and from home before or after school hours.
In 2000, a new award category, Single Innovative Initiative, attracted a strong field highlighting approaches to work and family that are targeted to particular organisational needs. The award for this category went to AT Kearney, a management consultancy and executive search company that is supporting part-time consultants and managers in an industry that is generally characterised as having very long hours.
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Alcoa World Alumina won the Gold Award in 2001 for overall outstanding achievement in addressing the work/life needs of employees. Accepting the award, President of Alcoa Mike Baltzell, said that the company regarded family friendly working arrangements as key to its success, stimulating employee commitment and enhancing safety and performance.
Many organisations report that the process of applying for the Work and Family Awards provides the impetus to review current work and family provisions and staff needs and benchmark their work and family programs against other leading organisations.
The team at Aged and Disability Support Services in Victoria put in a large effort leading up to the Awards and while they didn't win an award, their effort was a positive experience for the organisation. As Tess Tsindos, Manager of the Aged and Disability Support Services Unit wrote in the December 2001 Work and Family Newsletter, as well as providing an opportunity to show case its family friendly policies and to benchmark these policies in a ‘best practice arena', entering the Awards also enabled them to consolidate their thinking about where they wanted to head in the future with their work/life policies and practices. An unexpected bonus for the organisation from the application process was that it became a team building exercise with enduring benefits.
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In 2002, a number of organisations that had previously been recognised for their achievements reapplied for the Awards. The judges decided to recognise those organisations that continued to show a commitment to providing an environment that supports their employees in balancing work and family. These winners were recognised as Stunning Stayers, and included SC Johnson, Sisters Inside Inc, Yarra Valley Water and Somerville Community Services Inc.
IBM won the Gold Award for 2002, as well as the Large Business Award, which it shared with the Federal Department of Family and Community Services. Work/life balance is one of the three key diversity challenges for IBM , and senior managers are kept informed of developments in a ‘top down' approach. The extensive range of family friendly initiatives implemented include a school holiday program, breastfeeding policy, paid maternity leave, flexible working arrangements and a Quality Life Program.
Paul Shelley Electrical, a family company operating in rural Victoria , won the Small Business Category. It provided an outstanding example of an effective work/life balance program in a traditionally male dominated long hours industry. Managing Director Paul Shelley summed up the benefits to business performance: ‘Employees are the face of our company, therefore it is important for us to provide an environment where employees feel that they are respected and valued and that they in turn value our company. The flexibility of balancing work and family time is critical to achieving this outcome'.
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Award programs are a common feature of international approaches to recognise best practice in work and family initiatives. They are held in one form or another in the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, the United States of America and New Zealand. In 2001 an awards program, which is closely modelled on the national awards, was introduced in Queensland and there has been interest from a number of other State Governments to either hold their own awards or use the national awards as an opportunity to recognise their state's achievements. This year, for example, the Tasmanian, Northern Territory and Western Australian Governments are sponsoring Awards to recognise the most outstanding family friendly applicant from their State or Territory.
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Whilst there is criticism from time to time that Award-winning organisations are not ‘typical', the stories of these Australian organisations provide an insight into the practicalities of adopting family friendly policies and work practices. There is no standard work/life policy that will suit every business, but organisations can learn from each others experience and from observing the positive impact that flexible and responsive working arrangements can have on business outcomes.
The involvement of winners in sharing their experiences in progressing work and family issues and developing best practice is an important purpose of the ACCI/BCA National Work and Family Awards and a reason for its success over the last twelve years.
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