A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

A Business Guide to Support Employee and Family Involvement in Education - 1997

Establish a Framework for the Initiative

Once a company has assessed employer and employee needs concerning support of family and employee involvement in education, the next step is to establish a framework for its initiative. Key components of this effort are engaging and committing top management to address these needs, recruiting key internal and external stakeholders to participate in project development and implementation, and determining program goals and objectives.

Engage and Commit Top Management to Effect Policy and Program Decisions

Without the commitment and advocacy of top management to a more family-friendly workplace, no change can occur. Senior management needs to see that family-friendly efforts are not only good for profitability (bottom-line results, retention, recruitment, productivity), but are also the right thing to do.30 The boxes below provide corporate examples of securing management commitment.

Kodak's Framework to Secure Top Management's Support

To have Kodak's top management buy in to the need to be involved in education required bringing education in front of senior management repeatedly to secure their attention. Once there was a commitment, it cascaded down to other levels. Following are the steps taken at Kodak.

First: The business case was built around the issues facing the company: the changing workplace, the growing need for different workforce capabilities, company expectations regarding workforce skills, productivity, continuous learning, and costs of not having a prepared workforce (i.e., turnover and remediation costs).

Second: A presentation was made to Kodak's CEO and then to other top leaders about these issues, including current and future concerns and implications.

Third: Once the CEO had bought in to the importance of supporting education, staff went to Kodak's internal education advisory board (comprising top-level managers from all business units and chaired by the COO). The board is responsible for setting policy and company strategies and initiatives around internal and external education; all education initiatives go to the board for approval. A corporate senior-level manager, who is the corporate sponsor and "champion" for education initiatives, sets the strategy and direction for Kodak's external education initiatives and is responsible for helping to establish and facilitate the development of that strategy throughout the company (along with the corporate sponsor).

GTE's Framework to Obtain Management Support

At GTE, securing support means helping top management to understand how an initiative is going to improve the bottom line. The following method is generally followed to achieve GTE's objectives of attracting excellent talent, being socially responsible, and supporting education.

First: Careful attention is given to the speeches made by the CEO. His messages (wanting the company to be the employer of choice, to be the easiest company to do business with, to work closely together, to be an inclusive corporation) are used to demonstrate how involvement in education supports these company priorities.

Second: Benchmarked data, collected from many Best-in-Class companies as well as research materials, are reviewed.

Third: Focus groups are run to verify data findings.

Fourth:Collected data are organized and then a business case is put together to "sell" the idea to senior management for approval and implementation.

In smaller companies, top management often translates into line managers, or "breakthrough managers," who are willing to concentrate on results rather than traditional rules and procedures, to be more flexible to meet employees' needs and, at the same time, to demand high employee performance levels.

Recruit Key Internal and External Stakeholders to Actively Participate in Project Development and Implementation

Once top management is committed, the next task is to recruit key stakeholders to participate in project development and implementation. The most desirable stakeholders are business and/or community leaders who have the capacity and skills to guide and support the development of initiatives to support employee and family involvement in education.

The box below provides guidelines for recruiting stakeholders within a company or from the community.

Recruiting Guidelines

First: Target potential members depending on their availability, geographic proximity, experience, expertise, interest, and function across the community or company.

Second: Invite leaders to meetings who have:

  • indicated an interest; and/or

  • participated previously in similar efforts; and/or

  • been targeted as a result of the assessment process.

For an internal initiative, all levels and appropriate departments/divisions should be involved. For example, Eastman Kodak has a variety of internal teams that form when needed, depending upon the initiative. These teams generally cross all business units and manufacturing operations.

If the effort is a partnership between a company and a community, recruits should be taken from both. For example, Hemmings Motor News continues to seek new and expanded opportunities to support and involve its own employees and their families and the community-at-large in education. Working at the local level in Bennington, Vermont, Hemmings acts as a catalyst and facilitator to mobilize the entire community, bringing together leaders from schools; other businesses; religious, civic, and community organizations; and government agencies to foster communication and coordination between existing efforts. Hemmings organized a First Day of School holiday that helps to "kick off"each school year: Working parents are given time off to go to school with their children, meet teachers, get acquainted with curricula, and access coaching and tips on how to help their children achieve academic success.

Third: Share data from the needs assessment and the company's policies and practices related to employee and family involvement in education.

Fourth: Share commitment recruited from top management.

Fifth: Gain agreement from assembled stakeholders regarding a rationale to effect change.

Sixth: Recruit commitment and participation from assembled stakeholders through the development of this shared vision for change.

Needs assessment results, and the decision to launch an effort within a company and/or in partnership with the community, determine the number and type of key stakeholders recruited. Internal stakeholders could be recruited from one department or from across departments or divisions. Community stakeholders could include leaders from other large and small businesses, education, government, higher education, civic associations, the clergy, and parent organizations, who may later serve on advisory or steering committees. If a company plans to collaborate with other community leaders, it will need to consider if its recruiting plans include joining an existing effort or a new, developing initiative.

Determine Project Goals and Objectives

After stakeholders are recruited and committed, the next step is to prioritize needs and focus on the goals and objectives of this effort. From this activity will flow the action plan, implementation, and management steps of the initiative(s).

Goals. Goals may focus on developing, expanding, and/or improving policies and practices that provide services for employees' school-age children; information and support for employees who have responsibility for school-age children; institutional support for community programs that serve school-age children; and/or services and programs to encourage all employees (with or without school-age children) to become involved in education. See the box below for a sample of goal statements for current initiatives to support employee and family involvement in education.

Sample Goal Statements

"Our vision is that our employees will recognize and take part in our civic leadership, that United will be known in each of our cities and by our customers
and shareholders for our community service."

--United Airlines    

"To create a culture within the company that supports employee parents and encourages their involvement in their children's education. To become a leader in support of family involvement in education as a means of improving students' success in the communities we serve."

--Southern California Edison    

"We are dedicated to building bridges among employers, educators, and parents, as well as parents and their children."

--Family Education Company    

"To get more parents involved in schools and their children's education ... particularly the working parent, through our Reinventing Education program in Charlotte, North Carolina."

--IBM    

"To turn our employees into ambassadors for the quality education of children within their communities and the children within their homes. To enhance employee morale, productivity, and loyalty."

--Bristol-Myers Squibb    

"To make available, at no charge (through a five-year, $150 million commitment), some of AT&T's newest technologies and extensive support services to every public and private elementary and secondary school in America ... to help families, schools, and communities use information technology effectively to improve teaching and lifelong learning."

--AT&T    

"To create more affordable, available, and quality dependent care for employees, and connect parents and schools together in targeted communities where
employees live and work."

--American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care    

Objectives. Achievement of both short-term objectives, which relate to the products and processes implemented during the ongoing management of a company's efforts, and long-term objectives, which concern the changes expected as a result of such efforts, will lead to the achievement of the ultimate goal(s). Clear objectives will guide efforts and establish the baseline against which the results of policies and practices will be measured. The following box provides examples of corporate objective statements.

Sample Corporate Objective Statements

School Specialty

  • Join a local alliance for education affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce.

  • Implement a 24-hour paid-leave benefit for all employees to get involved in any child's learning (policy converts to 20,000 hours).

  • Recruit involvement of other community businesses and organizations.

  • Implement specific partnership activities (e.g., Junior Achievement, Bring Your Child to Work Day).

Pizza Hut, Inc.

  • Expand future employee literacy skills to improve restaurant operations and enable movement of staff into management.

  • Expand parent involvement in children's learning.

  • Involve restaurant employees with their community.

  • Combat illiteracy.

  • Develop lifelong readers.

IBM

Through our Reinventing Education grant partnership with Charlotte, North Carolina (1 of 10 in the nation):

  • Use technology as a tool to connect home, school, and community.

  • Develop Wired for Learning, an Internet application for K-12 education, which enables:

    • parents to communicate with their children's teachers at their convenience, and view their children's work;

    • students to work collaboratively on projects from different locations; and

    • teachers to access instructional materials from the Web that are tied to the district's academic standards.

  • Support technological innovations by establishing a contractual arrangement with each parent regarding their involvement in their child's education
          and volunteer support to the school.

The American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care (Bridge Project)

  • Support the involvement of parent-employees in their children's education.

  • Give schools an effective technology tool (school-based voice and mail system).

  • Train teachers to record daily messages about classroom activities, homework assignments, and how to help children learn at home.

  • Teach parents how to access these messages from any touch-tone phone (24-hour availability).

  • Offer strategies to schools on customizing the technology to meet local needs (multi-lingual needs, etc.).

  • Develop an effective technology and training model that can be replicated in communities across the country.

AT&T (Maryland)

  • Establish a partnership with the Maryland Department of Education to deploy information technology in K-12 schools.

  • Provide teacher training to integrate technology as an effective teaching and learning tool in the classroom.

  • Increase parent and community involvement with students and schools.

  • Support standards for educational excellence.

  • Sponsor a grassroots effort to wire schools across the state to the Internet (Maryland's Net Weekend).

  • Provide additional support to schools in Baltimore's Empowerment Zone.

  • Provide every school in Maryland-at no charge-with a customized Family Education Network Web site.

  • Be the lead sponsor of Maryland's Blue Ribbon Schools.

  • Partner with Maryland Department of Education in its Sister Schools program.

30 Durward M. Rushforth, "Family Programs Pay Off in Lower Absenteeism," Employment Relations Today, Summer 1991, p. 146.
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