Chicago, IL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/07/2012 -- workforce strategy consultant Life Meets Work has released its annual list of the top workplace trends to watch in the coming year:

Real Estate Isn't Waiting Around

Traditional office space has a utilization rate of just 50% due to sick days, vacation, and travel—and that's not counting wasted storage space for old papers and whatnot. So while HR sits around and talks about whether they should introduce mobile work, Real Estate is moving forward with open floor plans and collaborative work environments.

Implication: HR can't be stymied by perceived resistance to mobile work when Real Estate is taking action. Talent leaders would be wise to reach out to Real Estate and IT and figure out how they can move their initiatives forward together.

BYOD

The Bring Your Own Device era is upon us, with IT increasingly allowing employees to use their own mobile devices. A Cisco study showed a staggering 95% of organizations permit employee-owned devices in the workplace, and the average number of connected devices per knowledge worker is expected to reach 3.3 by 2014.

Implication: HR can rethink some of its traditional constraints on workplace flexibility and the access employees have when working remotely. If IT is moving toward employee-owned devices, the technology hurdle is off the table.

Overworked America

Americans are working longer hours than at any time since statistics have been kept, and now they are also working longer than anyone else in the industrialized world.

According to a new report from the Families and Work Institute, one in three American employees feels chronically overworked. In the national study, 89% of employees agreed they never seem to have enough time to get everything done. And 36% did not plan to take their full vacation days.

Implication: Organizations are concerned about overwork and burnout, yet the temptation is always to do more with less. We're seeing companies focus on resiliency strategies such as reducing low value work, corporate wellness initiatives, and flexible and tele-work options.

Employees who feel they have control over their own schedules are able to work harder and longer before they experience work life stress.

Anticipating Parenthood

A leader at one large consulting firm reports that she used to lose parents when they had their second or third child. Now, she says, she's losing employees 10 years before they have their first kids. Young professionals are opting out of the partner track because they're not interested in the kind of lifestyle that requires.
And in another company we're working with, we have employees asking to be in the working parent focus groups even though they haven't had kids yet! They want to be on the forefront of the conversations and influence the organization's direction before they have kids of their own.

Implication: Leading organizations are investing in new parent support programs. Your leaders might say young people just don't want to work hard and pay their dues anymore. Fine, they can say that…or they can deal with reality. If your talent pipeline doesn't want to work 60-hour weeks, the organization needs to adjust. It's a suck it up and deal with it situation.

The Never Unemployed

Unemployment is certainly a big issue in the United States, but so is the talent shortage with an estimated 3 million jobs going unfilled. Nearly half of U.S. employers report difficulty filling mission-critical positions, including nurses, welders, IT, and engineers.

Implication: The challenges are manifold. Work will become increasingly dispersed as U.S. employers look overseas for talent—meaning managers and employees will need skills to collaborate within a remote team. Companies will have to reshape their notion of who needs to be onsite (and how often) in order to widen their talent pool. And companies focused on "upskilling" or developing talent from within will need to re-engineer work schedules to accommodate training time.

Bye Bye Boomers

Every organization we talk to has open positions and not enough recruiters to find talent for them. They attribute it partly to the economic recovery, but also to boomer retirement. One major grocery chain we spoke with said 70% of its workforce will be 55 or older in the next five years.

Implication: If organizations are going to be challenged to find good talent, they'll have to be willing to tap into new talent pools, like people looking for part-time work, job shares, and remote work. They'd do well to develop phased retirement programs that incorporate knowledge transfer and reduced schedules.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Park Ridge, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/06/2012 -- Stress a Key Driver Shaping Work-Life Trends for 2012

Life Meets Work releases 2012 flexible work outlook for U.S. workforceCHICAGO, IL, Jan 5, 2012 – Life Meets Work, a leader in the flexible work consulting sector, released its 2012 Flexible Work Outlook today, outlining five key predictions that will shape work-life for U.S. workers in 2012.

"We saw a considerable resurgence in organizational interest in flexible work in 2011," says Kyra Cavanaugh, president of Life Meets Work, a flexible work consulting firm.

Cavanaugh said she was surprised by how many new business inquiries came from companies that had already made a commitment to flex but wanted to extend their flex initiatives beyond policy to more systemic culture change.

"Coming off the recession, many companies became keenly aware they had some critical catch up work to do in terms of employee engagement," Cavanaugh said. "But more exciting are the number of organizations committing to flex for reasons beyond talent management."

Life Meets Work's top five trend predictions for flexible work in 2012:

- 1 Boundaries and Workloads. Resiliency is a big word in work-life circles these days. Companies are focused on issues of work redesign and helping employees cope with workplace stress. Organizations will need to tackle this at the team level and find ways to cut unnecessary meetings, projects, and administrative tasks.

The 2011 Mercer What's Working survey showed that the number of employees who reported their workload was "manageable" has dropped by five percentage points since 2006. The lingering effects of the recession means employees are still struggling to do more with less.

A study of 600 U.S. workers conducted by Workforce Management showed that 55 percent of respondents said their job responsibilities had increased during the recession, and of those, 51 percent said the added workload affected their well-being.

- 2 It's About Wellness. With healthcare costs top of mind, organizations will continue to be focused on employee wellness—something that lost ground during the recession. As companies look for bigger, more systematic ways to impact employee health, leaders will look toward improving work-life balance and reducing stress.

"Companies are buzzing about wellness initiatives at work-life conferences," says Cavanaugh. "Flex is the natural next step in employee wellness."

Research shows that flexible workers can work longer with lower incidence of reported stress. Research also shows flexible workers engage in better health habits such as getting more sleep, exercising more, and eating better, Cavanaugh says.

- 3 Employee Movement. While job growth will be relatively stagnant, we can expect to see more job hopping. Employees who may have been scared to make a move the past couple of years are getting fed up and feeling more confident in their ability to find a new job. They're looking for a company that promises a more satisfying experience for both work and life. As always, it's the high-performing employees that will be the most mobile.

The 2011/2012 Talent Management and Rewards report from Towers Watson & Co. revealed that "work-related stress" was the number one reason high performing employees said they'd leave their organizations. The same report shows that more U.S. companies are struggling to retain key employees, jumping from 16 percent in 2009 to 31 percent in 2010, and 36 percent in 2011.

- 4 Flex Moving Beyond Work-Life. Heads of work-life in large organizations have seen their jobs eliminated—not because the company isn't still committed to flex but because the role is being reimagined as a function within the broader context of the organization. HR, real estate, IT, organizational development, learning and development, and wellness, are all in the mix now. The big challenge will be for everyone to work together to change the culture.

- 5 Connection. Employees will struggle with connection on two fronts. On one hand, concerns are mounting about our 24/7 connection to technology. Employees will struggle with setting boundaries and finding time to unplug (see trend #1). On the opposite end of the spectrum, teams will struggle with maintaining connection as workgroups become more dispersed.

A 2011 study from Brandman University showed that among 40 percent of the nation's largest employers, nearly half their employees work on virtual teams. And another study from Right Management showed that 41 percent of companies reported using more independent contractors over the last two years.

Companies that want to maximize productivity for their global/flexible/ dispersed team will invest greater resources for improving in teamwork and transparency.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Park Ridge, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/14/2011 -- In honor of National Work and Family Month, Life Meets Work will be offering a series of free e-lessons on work-life issues in October. These short (five to 10 minutes) training videos will be available on-demand from the Life Meets Work website. Companies are encouraged to promote the e-lessons by sharing the appropriate web links with their employees.

Look for these work life topics:Monkey in the Middle: Managing Elder and Child Care

Monkey in the Middle: Managing Elder and Child Care

Caring for an elderly person and a child often means conflicting obligations and unexpected time away from work. This e-lesson will help sandwiched caregivers learn how to better communicate with coworkers and respond to unexpected work interruptions.Maintaining Boundaries When You Work at Home

Maintaining Boundaries When You Work at Home

This e-lesson will help people who work at home learn to set boundaries and establish expectations in order to minimize family disruptions.Outsourcing & Delegating: Keys to Balance

Outsourcing & Delegating: Keys to Balance

Learning to share the workload is a critical component of work life effectiveness. This e-lesson will help busy professionals improve their delegation skills at work and at home.What Matters Most: Values-Based Decision Making

What Matters Most: Values-Based Decision Making

This e-lesson puts people in control of their time by showing them how to make purposeful decisions based on their own identified values.

E-lessons will be available free of charge through October and November 2011.

Organizations are invited to share these links with employees. Groups that would like to post these e-lessons or other Life Meets Work content directly to their company intranet or newsletter, can inquire about content licensing at info@lifemeetswork.com.

For information, contact Kyra Cavanaugh, president of Life Meets Work (http://www.lifemeetswork.com) at kcavanaugh@lifemeetswork.com or 847-825-5691.

Life Meets Work is a flexible work consulting firm that helps organizations create preferred workplaces, building successful flex cultures that attract the best talent and maximize productivity. Services include consulting, training and an online membership community.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) --05/20/2011 -- Life Meets Work, a leading provider of flexible work consulting services, today announced that Teresa Hopke will be joining the firm as principal, senior vice president of client relations. Hopke will contribute to the company's overall strategic direction and will play a lead role in business development and consulting efforts.

Hopke has been employed at RSM McGladrey since 2001, most recently as senior director of talent management. She leaves that position on May 31, 2011 to join Life Meets Work.

Kyra Cavanaugh, founder and president of Life Meets Work, said, "Teresa is a key addition to our leadership team. She led RSM McGladrey's flexible work efforts and is a well-recognized, well-respected voice in the industry. She's extremely talented and we are fortunate that she's chosen us for the next step in her career."

For Hopke, the new position means greater opportunity to further work-life practices across the broader business community. She said, "I am proud of the time I spent at RSM McGladrey and pleased with the work we accomplished there. My choice to join LMW was an easy one because I've been a huge fan of the innovative work they do and the way they enable HR people to approach work-life from a business perspective – just like we did at McGladrey. I'm thrilled to be joining this talented organization and look forward to applying the skills and experience I've gained as a practitioner to help many more organizations build supportive and successful flexible work cultures."

Hopke's role at RSM McGladrey involved developing programs that support both the personal and professional success of its employees. As a result, her company was a multi-year recipient of Working Mother Media's "100 Best Companies," The Conference Board's "Moving Into the Future" award, and the Alfred P. Sloan award, among others. Prior to McGladrey, she worked as a consultant for Mercer, helping clients develop work-life strategies and researching employee and employer views on work-life issues.

She is a frequent guest speaker and contributor, and her work has been featured in the books Battling to Be The Best, Innovative Excellence, Workplace Flexibility Innovation in Action, and The Working Gal's Guide to Babyville and media outlets such as the CBS Morning Show, NBC Nightly News, NPR, WSJ, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Money Magazine, HR Magazine and more.

Hopke was awarded the WorkLife Rising Star award by the National Alliance for Work Life Progress (AWLP). She is also a faculty member for World at Work and a board member for AWLP.

For information, contact Kyra Cavanaugh, president of Life Meets Work at kyra.cavanaugh@lifemeetswork.com or 888-462-5691.

Life Meets Work is a flexible work consulting firm that helps organizations create preferred workplaces, building successful flex cultures that attract the best talent and maximize productivity. Services include consulting, training, coaching and an online membership community.

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm