Managers thwart family-friendly programs, OPM says

It's been more than five years since the Clinton administration tried to sow the seeds for a family-friendly federal workplace, but few of the initiatives available to federal agencies have taken root and grown, according to a new Office of Personnel Management study.

Part of the reason, the study found, is that many federal managers have shown only lukewarm support for family-friendly programs, and managers have wide discretion to decide what programs are offered to employees.

"Often varying levels of support for the programs exist within different offices at the same agency," the study found. "These differences were generally attributed to differences in supervisors' and managers' attitudes toward family-friendly programs."

The study, which involved a survey of employees and managers at 19 different agencies, was conducted after members of Congress expressed concern that not all agencies offer the 13 family-friendly arrangements available to them: family and medical leave, sick leave for family care, employee assistance programs, leave transfer, part-time employment, flexible work schedules, referral services for child and elder care, compressed work schedules, telecommuting, fare subsidies, job sharing, child care centers and leave banks.

The initiatives were undertaken in response to July 1994 and June 1996 memoranda from President Clinton urging agencies to establish programs to make it easier for federal workers to balance their home and work lives. In 1999, OPM opened a new center in Washington dedicated solely to providing information about family-friendly workplace programs in an effort to encourage use of the programs.

The most popular option is alternative work schedules, the study found. Part-time employment and referrals for child care and elder care are available in about two-thirds of the agencies surveyed, with child care centers available in 43 percent of the locations. Only one-third of the agencies polled offers job-sharing, and telecommuting policies are in place, but rarely used because supervisors feel allowing employees to work at home hinders management capabilities.

Though there is concern among employees that managers don't support family-friendly initiatives, for the most part employees say they appreciate having access to the programs, and cite an increase in morale from having extra time to handle personal matters.

OPM recommended that agencies try to increase use of the programs by using training sessions to show managers and supervisors how the initiatives can benefit their agencies; developing measurement tools for assessing the effectiveness of programs; and increasing manager and supervisor participation in the programs.