Purdue News
Purdue News
"Organizations, Employees & Families: Partners in Productivity" will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 8, in Room 302, Stewart Center. The conference is free and open by reservation to employer representatives from throughout the Midwest.
"We are rethinking the relationship between work and family," said Shelley MacDermid, director of the Center for Families. "Employers who provide a supportive environment in which people can balance work and family responsibilities have a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining top-quality employees."
The event will mark the inauguration of a new membership organization for companies that is modeled after the New England Work-Family Association. The organization, coordinated by the Center for Families, will provide networking opportunities and resources for companies. Representatives of five Midwestern employers who are leaders in work-family issues have helped plan the group. They are Eli Lilly and Co., Cinergy, Cummins Engine, Lincoln Life and USA Group.
Conference speakers include Deborah Kolb, professor of negotiation and dispute resolution at Simmons College and director of the Simmons Institute on Leadership and Change; Susan Lambert, associate professor of social service administration at the University of Chicago who conducted a landmark study on family-responsive workplace policies; Linda Haas, professor of sociology at Indiana University-Indianapolis whose current research focuses on the impact of corporate culture on men's participation in child care and family-leave benefits in Sweden; and Arlene Johnson, vice president of the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit research organization.
The event also will include announcement of the Purdue Worklife program, a comprehensive effort to utilize resources from across the university and the community to help Purdue employees better take care of dependents and maintain productivity.
Employers who have not received an invitation and would like to attend the conference may contact MacDermid at (765) 494-6026 to reserve seating at the conference. There will be no on-site registration.
Sponsors for the conference are the Center for Families, the offices of the vice president for human relations and vice president for business services at Purdue, and the USA Group.
Source: Shelley MacDermid; (765) 494-6026; e-mail, shelley@vm.cc.purdue.edu
Writer: Beth Forbes, (765) 494-9723; e-mail, beth_forbes@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
