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 Want a family-friendly job?From CareerBuilder.com Editor's Note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com. In today's business world, more professionals are juggling their family and work lives, and both men and women are making work/life balance a major determining factor when looking for a job. Professionals today are not just looking for the highest salary when it comes to selecting a company, and those companies that provide support to working parents continue to excel at employee satisfaction and retention. Each year, Working Mother magazine publishes a list of the "Best Companies for Working Mothers." Whether you're a mom or dad, if you are seeking a new job and want to make sure you find a company that is family-friendly, here are six traits that the top companies on the Working Mother list have in common: 1. A formal philosophy regarding work/life balance: When you begin searching for a new job, it is important to research every company you target. Look carefully at company materials, including brochures, annual reports and Web sites. Does the company talk about its work/life balance initiatives? Can you see signs of policies in the company that were developed to support working parents? Eli Lilly states its commitment to employees' personal lives prominently on its Web site, as do the rest of the top companies on the magazine's list. 2. Flex time and other alternative work arrangements: Companies today are learning that good work does not just happen from 9 to 5. Many businesses have begun adjusting work schedules to make life easier for working parents. Alternative work arrangements include job sharing, telecommuting, part-time options and flexible scheduling. For example, a working parent might be able to start and end his or her day earlier to better fit into a child's school schedule. 3. Child-care options: Many of the companies that make the Working Mother list have moved toward providing assistance to parents when it comes to daily child care. Some companies, like Bristol-Myers Squibb, offer on-site daycare. Other companies provide referral services to help employees find adequate child-care providers and dependent care reimbursement accounts, which enable employees to put away money from each paycheck -- pre-taxes -- to pay for child-care expenses. These benefits enable working parents to continue on their career paths with the security of knowing that their children are in good hands, often in the same building, and provide some parents the additional perk of being able to stop in and have lunch with their children. 4. Other family-friendly benefits: Many companies have begun offering employees adoption assistance and other unique benefits geared toward families. General Mills provides fathers with one week of paid paternity leave and reimbursement of adoption expenses up to $5,000. S.C. Johnson and Sons offers employees the option of taking a sabbatical to "recharge their batteries," with benefits and partial pay. Some companies offer additional benefits to help working parents get errands done during the day, such as on-site banking and dry cleaning. Eli Lilly even offers a "Nursing Mother Station." 5. Women in executive and managerial positions: You can tell a lot about a company by its numbers of women in upper management roles. Take a close look at your target companies' top executives and management staff. Is it made up entirely of men? While this is not a sure sign that the company is not family friendly, it should cause you to take a closer look at the programs implemented to support working mothers. Some companies have made it possible for women juggling a career and family to succeed through mentoring and advancement programs. For example, Fannie Mae offers a variety of development programs to train employees to take on managerial roles and a formal corporate mentoring program. 6. Work/life balance training for employees: Companies that have a true commitment to work/life balance make sure their employees share that commitment. Some companies have begun implementing this topic into their training programs. Working Mother says that Prudential Financial Inc. trains its managers on work/life and flexibility, and holds them accountable for ensuring employees are given options and support to succeed. Finding a company that has one or more of these characteristics shows that it is trying to make a commitment to working parents. If, at the least, your target companies are not talking about work/life balance, it might be a sign that you need to keep looking. © Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2005. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
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