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Working Moms

Aired September 24, 2002 - 10:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Balancing work and family can be difficult for many moms, so it helps to have a job that offers some degree of flexibility and support. "Working Mother" magazine has compiled a list of a hundred companies that it says treats working moms the best.
The CEO of "Working Mother" magazine is Carol Evans, and she joins us now to talk more about the survey.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

CAROL EVANS, "WORKING MOTHER": Hi, Daryn.

KAGAN: I would imagine in these tough economic times, it is not easy for many companies to keep some of these benefits going toward working parents.

EVANS: Well, we actually found kind of the opposite, which we were surprised at. In this economic downturn and post 9/11, we found companies deepening their resources available to working families.

KAGAN: Really? That's encouraging.

EVANS: Very.

KAGAN: Let's look at the list.

I thought it was interesting. As we look at the top 10 list, the two at top, Abbot Labs and American Express, these or two that never made the top 10 before. Yet there they are, number one and two. What did they do to change their situation for working moms there?

EVANS: Well, actually all of the top 10 are ranked equally as number 10. But Abbott Labs is a great example. They made the list for the first time last year, first time on the top 10. They have a wonderful child care center that I visited out in Illinois, and they have 450 kids in that child care center. They encourage parents to visit in the day, and they just added full-time kindergarten. So that means parents can have their kids close by one more year.

KAGAN: In the interest of fairness, this isn't just about working moms, even though that's the title of the magazine. Dads out there beginning to demand some of these benefits.

EVANS: Well, we found Gen X dads is a major trend. They are using family-friendly benefits a lot more than they used to. Companies used to offer programs and the dads wouldn't use it, afraid of the stigma.

But Gen X dads are quite the opposite. We have dads with maternity leave. Some of the companies on this list provide four weeks paid paternity leave for new dads.

KAGAN: I thought it was interesting, one dad that you single out, Steve Sanger, CEO of General Mills, a dad who gets it, but had a kind of difficult experience with his 2-year-old at the time to realize, God, this work, family, parenting thing, it's not an easy balance.

EVANS: Yes, he had a funny story. He was about to deliver his first investor relations speech and his daughter was locked in the bathroom of the hotel, and he had to go up and help his wife get her out.

Steve Sanger is a great CEO. What he said about this issue is that its turnover is expensive, not work-family programs, and General Mills offer very wide array of programs, including, my favorite, on- site health care. You can get your annual mammogram on-site where you work. Isn't that interesting?

KAGAN: Good for them. So folks can look in your magazine or go online for the whole list.

EVANS: Yes, workingmother.com, see the whole list and the top 10 and the best in class.

KAGAN: What if you're not lucky enough to work at one of these companies, but you'd like to get an idea, or you go with the list and get idea of what some people are offering out there. How can you -- can you tell people how they can encourage their own company and maybe bring some of these perks on.

EVANS: Yes, first of all, it's a great idea to ask your company to apply for the list, because companies have to apply in order to win. There are rigorous application. We measure 700 points that a company can earn both for having programs and for usage.

Also, I think today what you should do is tell your CEO that there is a new study out, Daniel Simon, an economist with Cornell University, has shown a billion-dollar market share value increase for major companies that make this list, and what he did was he studied customer satisfaction and satisfied employees, and drew a connection between the two and came up with a billion dollars of market value, and I think everybody should tell their CEOs that story.

KAGAN: Just quickly, how does your own company rank?

EVANS: We don't rank ourselves. But we are very, very flexible. We even have people who work one or two days a week.

KAGAN: Good for you, encouraging that. Carol Evans of "Working Mother" magazine. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the list.

EVANS: Thanks so much. KAGAN: Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 24, 2002 - 10:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Balancing work and family can be difficult for many moms, so it helps to have a job that offers some degree of flexibility and support. "Working Mother" magazine has compiled a list of a hundred companies that it says treats working moms the best.
The CEO of "Working Mother" magazine is Carol Evans, and she joins us now to talk more about the survey.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us.

CAROL EVANS, "WORKING MOTHER": Hi, Daryn.

KAGAN: I would imagine in these tough economic times, it is not easy for many companies to keep some of these benefits going toward working parents.

EVANS: Well, we actually found kind of the opposite, which we were surprised at. In this economic downturn and post 9/11, we found companies deepening their resources available to working families.

KAGAN: Really? That's encouraging.

EVANS: Very.

KAGAN: Let's look at the list.

I thought it was interesting. As we look at the top 10 list, the two at top, Abbot Labs and American Express, these or two that never made the top 10 before. Yet there they are, number one and two. What did they do to change their situation for working moms there?

EVANS: Well, actually all of the top 10 are ranked equally as number 10. But Abbott Labs is a great example. They made the list for the first time last year, first time on the top 10. They have a wonderful child care center that I visited out in Illinois, and they have 450 kids in that child care center. They encourage parents to visit in the day, and they just added full-time kindergarten. So that means parents can have their kids close by one more year.

KAGAN: In the interest of fairness, this isn't just about working moms, even though that's the title of the magazine. Dads out there beginning to demand some of these benefits.

EVANS: Well, we found Gen X dads is a major trend. They are using family-friendly benefits a lot more than they used to. Companies used to offer programs and the dads wouldn't use it, afraid of the stigma.

But Gen X dads are quite the opposite. We have dads with maternity leave. Some of the companies on this list provide four weeks paid paternity leave for new dads.

KAGAN: I thought it was interesting, one dad that you single out, Steve Sanger, CEO of General Mills, a dad who gets it, but had a kind of difficult experience with his 2-year-old at the time to realize, God, this work, family, parenting thing, it's not an easy balance.

EVANS: Yes, he had a funny story. He was about to deliver his first investor relations speech and his daughter was locked in the bathroom of the hotel, and he had to go up and help his wife get her out.

Steve Sanger is a great CEO. What he said about this issue is that its turnover is expensive, not work-family programs, and General Mills offer very wide array of programs, including, my favorite, on- site health care. You can get your annual mammogram on-site where you work. Isn't that interesting?

KAGAN: Good for them. So folks can look in your magazine or go online for the whole list.

EVANS: Yes, workingmother.com, see the whole list and the top 10 and the best in class.

KAGAN: What if you're not lucky enough to work at one of these companies, but you'd like to get an idea, or you go with the list and get idea of what some people are offering out there. How can you -- can you tell people how they can encourage their own company and maybe bring some of these perks on.

EVANS: Yes, first of all, it's a great idea to ask your company to apply for the list, because companies have to apply in order to win. There are rigorous application. We measure 700 points that a company can earn both for having programs and for usage.

Also, I think today what you should do is tell your CEO that there is a new study out, Daniel Simon, an economist with Cornell University, has shown a billion-dollar market share value increase for major companies that make this list, and what he did was he studied customer satisfaction and satisfied employees, and drew a connection between the two and came up with a billion dollars of market value, and I think everybody should tell their CEOs that story.

KAGAN: Just quickly, how does your own company rank?

EVANS: We don't rank ourselves. But we are very, very flexible. We even have people who work one or two days a week.

KAGAN: Good for you, encouraging that. Carol Evans of "Working Mother" magazine. Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the list.

EVANS: Thanks so much. KAGAN: Appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com