Frequently Asked Questions 
1. Why should I invest in these programs for my employees? Aren’t these personal issues?
You should invest in a Balancing Father Stress and Professional Success Workshop because it makes good business sense. While work-life conflict certainly affects your employees, it affects your company as well. A study by the Families and Work Institute found that over one-third of employees said that personal issues drained them of the energy needed to do their job, or kept them from concentrating on their job. But when employees are better able to manage their work-life roles, they’re more satisfied in their jobs, more loyal to the company, less likely to call in sick, less likely to quit, and more productive. Happier employees make for happier customers, and that leads to lower costs, increased revenues, and higher profits.
2. I pay my employees well, why do I need to worry about this?
There’s no question that money is important. But there’s a good chance that it’s less important than you think. Here are just a few examples:
• In a survey done by American Demographics in January 2002, 80 percent of men ages 20-39 would choose a work schedule that enables them to spend more time with their family, over more challenging work or higher salary.
• In the same report, 70% said they would be willing to give up some pay to spend more time with their families.
• A 2003 study by The New York Times of hiring managers found that nearly ¾ of job seekers said that work/life balance was at the top of the list of factors that are important to them – higher than salary.
3. What is the real ROI on this type of investment? Your investment in a Balancing Father Stress and Professional Success Workshop will begin paying for itself immediately. Consider this:
• A survey of companies that support flexible work arrangements and also have more than 1000 employees found that these companies had a 3.5% higher market value than companies without flexibility, as reported by the Watson Wyatt 2001 Capital Index.
• Employees with high levels of work-life conflict miss more than twice as many workdays as those with low conflict. Companies spend 15 percent of payroll on absenteeism, according to a study done by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. If you have 100 employees and an average base pay of $50,000, you’re losing $750,000 every year.
• A large percentage of workdays lost each year can be attributed to work-life conflict, as are an even larger percentage of visits to healthcare providers. That raises the cost of the healthcare you provide your employees.
• “Presentee-ism”—impaired capacity on the job due to his mental state—costs U.S. Employers about $250 billion a year, according to a study done by Advance PCS Inc., a health care consultant.
• Companies with the most employee-friendly practices had an average five-year return of 103%, compared to 53% for those with the fewest employee-friendly practices, according to a study conducted by global consulting firm, Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
• First Tennessee Bank, which has been listed as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America by Fortune magazine, linked improved employee satisfaction to a 7% increase in customer retention and additional profits of $106 million over a two-year period.
• Recruiting, hiring, and training a new employee costs approximately 150% of his base salary. It costs a lot less to retain your current employees.
4. Sure, people feel great after a workshop, but then it fades. How will I know this work will stick?
Our Balancing Father Stress and Professional Success Workshops provide participants with practical tools that they can use right away. Our fee also includes a limited number of follow-up coaching sessions, which are designed to keep the learning and growing alive while supporting the participants in keeping their new commitments and changes alive. As with any life change, follow-up support increases the effectiveness.
5. Do you have similar programs for women?
Please contact us if you are interested in similar programs for women.
6. Do participants need to be parents in order to get value from these workshops?
Not necessarily. Even men who are not yet fathers will get tremendous value from these workshops. These future fathers have the opportunity to begin early to discover for themselves the best ways to balance their career with their family responsibilities – often saving much difficulty down the road.
Additionally, as the U.S. population ages, a growing number of people are caring for an elderly or sick parent. About 20 percent of those caregivers are men. A recent study by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. found that more than 80 percent of workers caring for an elderly relative have had to make adjustments to their work schedules, such arriving late, leaving early, taking time off in the middle of the day, or even quitting their jobs altogether. Other research indicates that one in four employees who care for an elderly relative has changed jobs due to those additional responsibilities.
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