DuPont employee survey sees greater need for elder care
The study of some 15,000 employees across all of DuPont's business units in the United States, is the fourth in 15 years and was conducted by WFD Inc, a Watertown, MA-based consulting firm.
"This latest survey reveals that as our U.S. work force ages, their child care difficulties are diminishing, but they see elder care needs emerging on the horizon, said Charles O. Holliday Jr., chairman and CEO of Wilmington, DE-based DuPont. "Our job now is to determine how we can expand our work/life offerings to support this emerging need."
The survey was sent randomly to a cross-section of DuPont's 54,000 U.S. employees. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents identified themselves as baby boomers. About 50 percent of respondents say they have-or expect to have-elder care responsibilities within the next three to four years, up from 40 percent in 1995.
"This information on elder care needs should be a clarion call to all companies to look closely at their work force demographics, consider the financial and emotional challenges their employees will face, and devise internal supports that will help address this emerging need," said Fran Rodgers, CEO of WFD.
Other findings of the survey indicate that:
- DuPont's work/life programs are highly valued, even by those who don't personally use them;
- Flexibility, in particular, is highly valued and appears to work quite well (e.g.: almost half have used flexible work hours);
- Other highly valued aspects of work/life are tuition reimbursement, dependent care spending accounts and the company's "Lifeworks" resource and referral service.
DuPont introduced work/life programs in 1985. Based on survey input, offerings have been expanded year after year. In 2000, DuPont introduced the "Work/Life Site Fund" which offers the company's U.S. sites corporate matching funds to help address unique work/life issues, either on-site or in local communities.
In prior surveys, employees observed that many of DuPont's sites are located far from towns or cities that could otherwise provide resources and infrastructure to help address work/life needs.
Managing Editor, HRHub.com
Starnoff@vertical.net
Source: DuPont