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White House Highlights Corporate Voices' Engagement and Challenge to Expand Employer Support for Workplace Flexibility
As part of Wednesday's historic White House Forum on
Workplace Flexibility, Valerie Jarrett,
Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and
Public Engagement and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls,
announced that Corporate Voices will initiate a challenge for the business
community in which companies will encourage their peers to adopt smart
practices that provide workplace flexibility.
The fact that the White House staff has encouraged Corporate
Voices to take on this leadership role in engaging the business community is
gratifying and points to the recognition that our partner companies are models
for the best-practice programs and solutions that were discussed throughout
yesterday's Forum.
Corporate Voices was very much involved in planning and
organizing the White House Forum. And it was a privilege for Donna Klein to be among the small number of
leaders who were invited to participate. Without question, this Forum, bringing
together CEOs, small-business owners, policy experts and others, stands as a
major accomplishment for those of us who have been involved in workplace
flexibility issues for many years. It was truly an exciting and significant
event - one that places the national spotlight on workplace flexibility and the
workplace of the 21st century.
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Corporate Voices Relaunches Alternative Pathways Working Group
On
Thursday, April 1, we were pleased to relaunch the important efforts of Corporate Voices' Alternative Pathways
Working Group. Joined on a lively
conference call by a number of our key corporate partners including AOL, CVS,
First Advantage, HEB, Marriott, TJX, and WorkSource Partners, we reviewed
recent highlights of our work in this area, and received helpful guidance from
employers about their policy priorities for the rest of 2010. Members of the working group share a common
interest in finding proven pathways to train, mentor, and support
"disconnected" young adults eager to join the valuable entry-level talent pool.
Our
discussion touched on the status of the Disconnected Youth Employment Tax
Credit included in last year's stimulus funding package, and on consensus that
the credit (which sunsets in 2010) should be extended after implementation
delays made it very difficult for employers to administer in 2009. We also heard updates on the CVS/WorkSource
Partners model program to train low-skilled young adults for careers in the
retail industry. And we explored our partners' first-hand experiences with the
public workforce investment system and the lessons implied as Congress
reauthorizes the Workforce Investment Act later this year or next. Members were particularly interested in
finding ways to ensure that prospective new federal funding under a workforce
"innovations" fund (including in President Obama's 2011 budget) is directed to programs
that produce top-notch results for lower skilled young adults, among others.
Our
Alternative Pathways initiative remains a core strand of the work we pursue at
Corporate Voices, and we would welcome the engagement of any additional
employers in this effort. If you'd like more information, please feel free to
contact Elyse Rosenblum (erosenblum@corporatevoices.org)
or Dorian Friedman (dfriedman@corporatevoices.org).
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Corporate Voices Participates in the Postsecondary Success Business Convening
Corporate Voices for
Working Families participated in the Postsecondary Success Business Convening
held by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on March 23 in Washington, DC. The meeting was organized to facilitate a
discussion among business leaders that will:
Identify ways in which the business community might be engaged to support the post-secondary completion
agenda;
Share promising practices that support the completion of postsecondary credentials with labor market value;
Identify private sector leverage points for foundation consideration; and
Foster the development of relationships and partnerships among business leaders committed to supporting
the postsecondary completion agenda.
Invited to attend were
Corporate Voices partner companies Accenture, Marriott, Bright Horizons, KPMG LLP,
Deloitte, and Corporate Voices Earn and Learn working group members Verizon Wireless and
UPS. Corporate Voices staff helped facilitate the meeting that also included
representatives from Wal-Mart, Kindred Healthcare, and Inigral, Inc. Reports
were presented by McKinsey & Co. and The Conference Board. The meeting
promoted extensive peer-to-peer discussion of promising practices that support
postsecondary completion and culminated in a brainstorming session around
"actionable items."
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Growing New
Jobs/Growing the Workforce-- What Will It
Take? Corporate Voices Annual Partners'
Meeting-- May 5-6, 2010
 Corporate
Voices' Annual Partners Meeting is quickly approaching! This year's theme will
be: Growing New Jobs/Growing the
Workforce-- What Will It Take? and will feature discussion among
leaders from the private sector and high-level speakers from the Obama
Administration. Speakers will discuss the urgent issues of economic recovery and
workforce investment.
The annual meeting will be held at
the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. If you have not yet registered, please click here
We would also like
to recognize our corporate partners that will sponsor this year's meeting. They
are:
Allstate Insurance
Company
Abbott
Laboratories
Baxter International
Inc.
CVS
Caremark
H.E. Butt Grocery Company
MassMutual Financial Group
Philip Morris USA, an Altria Company
We depend on
sponsors to make this year's meeting a success. If you are interested in
becoming a sponsor, please contact Jennifer Weber at: jweber@corporatevoices.org. |
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