BusinessReport.com

In 1995, CPA Shannon Kirkpatrick earned her first promotion with accounting firm KPMG, becoming a manager in the Baton Rouge office’s tax division. A year later, she and her husband had their first child. By 2000, Kirkpatrick had been promoted again, this time to senior manager. That same year the couple welcomed twin boys.

Kirkpatrick was experiencing big demands personally and professionally, but she decided the two worlds could coexist. Despite the rigors of a corporate, client-based position with exhausting seasonal hours, she didn’t opt out, but continued to excel. In 2007, she was promoted to tax managing director, the No. 2 position in the division.

Her home life flourished, too. Earlier this year, Kirkpatrick was named one of Working Mother Magazine’s 2009 Working Mothers of the Year, a group of 30 that also included First Lady Michelle Obama.

According to those around her, Kirkpatrick is as a whirlwind of organization with a sixth sense for planning ahead.

“She’s definitely a superwoman,” says friend and KPMG colleague Amy McCalip, who says Kirkpatrick has been a role model and mentor.

But along with Kirkpatrick’s ability to make every minute count, she’s been aided by an expanding culture of workplace flexibility. KPMG is one of a growing number of companies that have responded to the demands of working families with flextime, longer maternity leave, back-up child care and more. With 60% of women in the workforce and with both women and men juggling children and aging parents, employers have found they must adapt in order to recruit and retain talented, educated staff, suggests the Families and Work Institute, a national nonprofit based in New York.

In its 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, FWI found 79% of employees surveyed said they wanted greater flexibility, a demand employers have taken seriously.

From 1998-2005, the rate of employers who allowed flextime increased from 24% to 31%, according to FWI’s 2005 National Study of Employers. The study found the option of working a compressed workweek jumped from 37% to 44% in the same period.

One of the most substantive trends, FWI Founder/President Ellen Galinsky says, is the number of choices many employers now offer.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,” she says. “We’re finding all kinds of options, depending on the company. In order for it to be successful, it has to work for both the employee and the employer.”

International companies KPMG and Dow Chemical, each with a presence in the Capital Region, have won national awards for their pro-family policies.

“Flexible work hours, working ‘four-tens’ and working virtually are some of the ways we’ve been able to do this,” says Sharon Cole, the site director of Dow’s Plaquemine-based facility. “It’s been very popular among employees.”

KPMG has blazed a trail among firms that demand much during inflexible seasonal spikes. Working parents like Kirkpatrick might have to pull long hours during tax season, but they can scale back and work part time in the summer or fall.

“Day-to-day, it might not be family-friendly, but it evens out over the course of the year. It’s an average,” says Kirkpatrick.

FWI reports that flexible work options don’t appear to fade during an economic downturn, [its National Study of Employers spanned the post Sept. 11, 2001, period] suggesting the purpose goes beyond corporate altruism.

KPMG’s Barbara Wankoff, national director of workplace solutions, agrees. “We have been committed to being an employer of choice for several years now,” she says. “It’s an important tool for recruiting and retention, but it’s also a way to support employees in their personal lives so that they can be more productive at work.”

Kirkpatrick has taken advantage of KPMG’s reduced-hours option intermittently over the course of her career. After a busy spring, she’s planning to work part time this summer, a decision she expects clients will not notice.

“I’ve always been able to meet their needs, and one of the ways I’ve done it is by asking when they absolutely have to have something by,” she says. “Sometimes we assume they need it faster than they actually do.”

Galinsky says men will become frequent participants in family-friendly policies in the future.

In 2002, KPMG began offering fathers two weeks of paid paternity leave to be taken within one year of the birth of a child. The firm also provides back-up child care and elder care to staff members who find themselves in last-minute crises. It’s given employees peace of mind and ensured client services aren’t interrupted.

“It’s been a problem-solver for our employees,” Wankoff says.

At Woman’s Hospital, a 92% female workforce has encouraged the facility to find ways to support family balance, a strategy that’s helped it remain competitive and ensure staff show up ready to work. The hospital offers a walk-in clinic for employees and their families, a freestanding day-care facility, flextime, job sharing and reduced workweeks.

“In the future, I think we’ll see even more family-friendly policies at all companies,” says Donna Bodin, the hospital’s vice president of employee services. “Employers are realizing that employees need more work-life balance to be the most productive.”

Galinsky says new territory, particularly among accounting and law firms, has been to help women remain on the partnership track while accommodating family needs.

In the past, female lawyers have faced confining arrangements in which they must decide to become a full partner or a staff attorney. Like accounting, the field of law is experiencing a substantial influx of women, and more firms are beginning to offer hybrid programs that allow for more choice.

“When you think about what you have invested in these employees, you want to do what you can to keep them around,” Galinksy says.

Baton Rouge law firm Kean Miller, with a staff that’s almost 50% female, is starting to see the trend emerge. Managing Partner Gary Bezet says while most women with families still either slug it out and become partners, or settle for staff positions, the firm recently accommodated a request from a woman who had opted off, but wanted to be back on the partnership track now that her children were older. Similarly, they’ve allowed another female partner to work reduced hours in exchange for a lower billable rate.

“None of this is written down,” Bezet says. “We try to be reasonable and keep it human.”

The willingness to accommodate the demands of employees’ personal lives has been less present among hourly workers, although pockets of change are emerging, says Tulane University Professor Beth Willinger, the former director of the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women and a recent gubernatorial appointment to the Louisiana Women’s Policy and Research Commission.

“Traditionally, Louisiana has been behind. There hasn’t been a big push in sectors like the service industry, which is where so many women are employed,” she says. Willinger adds that her own research revealed companies like Harrah’s offering more flexibility, along with tuition reimbursement and home-ownership programs.

“Hopefully, we’ll see more of this,” Willinger says. “With so many female heads of household in the state, we need it.”