The Working Mother magazine has published "The 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" this year. The magazine used seven main criteria as the basis for its judgments: workforce profile, compensation, child care, flexibility, time off and leaves, family-friendly programs and company culture.

The top 10 companies that best satisfied the seven criteria were: Abbott Laboratories; Bon Secours Richmond Health System; Ernst & Young LLP; HSBC USA Inc.; IBM Corp.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Patagonia Inc.; PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP; Principal Financial Group, and S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.

IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the only companies that have been on the list every year since it was initiated 21 years ago.

Working Mother CEO Carol Evans, who authored the book "This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto," said that in order to retain female employees, a growing number of companies are offering customized schedules and improved benefits. For example, IBM offers new mothers the option to take up to 144 weeks of leave. Some companies also offer emergency child care.

"Our country needs women to have babies, our companies need women's brainpower and time," she said. "Those two things going together really demand that companies wake up to this new culture."

According to the magazine's survey, there is growing concern among companies that they will lose qualified female employees if they do not upgrade their benefits. Compared to the "old days" when companies demanded that you either work full-time or not-at-all, this is certainly a welcoming trend for all working mothers & their families.

Labels: work life balance