Issued by: Beth Stafford
414-229-4800
bstaff@uwm.edu
Date: Oct. 13, 2003
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Issued by: Beth Stafford Date: Oct. 13, 2003 |
MILWAUKEE -- In
a survey of Southeastern Wisconsin companies by Milwaukee Magazine and MRA–The
Management Association, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee was included
in the "Large Companies" group in the "Best Places to Work
for Women" category.
"Over the past three years, UWM has committed resources and efforts to making this a great place for women to work," says Sona Andrews, vice provost of academic affairs. "This work started with our self-examination via the Task Force on the Climate for Women (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Acad_Aff/climate/) and has continued with implementing the recommendations from that report. We have restructured administrative office and services; focused on the recruitment and retention of women; put in place events and opportunities targeted to the success of woman employees; and most importantly, we have made an impact on the institutional culture where women are concerned."
This is the third annual study of workplace practices, and results will be published in the November issue of Milwaukee Magazine, released this week. Eligible companies are located in the six-county Milwaukee area.
To be named to this exclusive list, firms were required to fill out an extensive online application that asked detailed questions in 10 different categories, such as salary, training, promotional practices, range of benefits and perks, work-life balance, diversity, employee voice in the workplace and community involvement.
The women's survey looked at how well companies enabled employees to balance work and family responsibilities -- for instance, by providing generous maternity and family leave, easy-to-use flexible schedules, job sharing and work-at-home opportunities, and part-time employee policies -- and how well they were doing at promoting women to top management and executive positions.
A total of 419 companies visited the Web site and explored the survey, and 105 companies completed it.
"The participants themselves performed the first cut and the second cut that the judges would normally make," says Bonni Yordi, MRA's director of business research. "The final selection involved choosing the best of the best."
Randomly selected employees from companies that made the semi-finalist list were asked to fill out an anonymous and confidential survey. Those surveys were scored and combined with the in-depth surveys to derive the final list.
"As with any organization, UWM still has work to do, but our willingness as an organization to critically examine our workplace climate for women, to shine a spotlight on improving the climate, and to continue to make improvements makes us a place where women employees know they have a bright and promising future. It also has led to our distinction as a good place for women to work," says Andrews.
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