Good for moms
AEP was the only Columbus-based company that made Working Mother's 100 Best for 2009 list. The top 10 companies, in alphabetical order:
• Abbott Laboratories*
• Bon Secours Richmond Health System
• Deloitte
• Discovery Communications
• Ernst & Young
• General Mills
• Grant Thornton
• IBM Corp.
• McGraw-Hill Cos.*
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
* Companies with a major work-force presence in central Ohio
Source: Working Mother
It's the third year in a row that AEP has made the list, which also includes several companies that have major operations in central Ohio.
AEP was the only Columbus-based company and the only utility on the top-100 list. The company, which employs about 4,300 workers in central Ohio and more than 18,000 others in 11 states, earned high marks for promoting women, offering child-care discounts and offering flextime and telecommuting options. In addition, 36 percent of its executives are female, along with 21 percent of its board members.
"We don't want to just keep people. We want to keep them engaged in what they're doing and help them perform to the best of their abilities," said Gen Tuchow, vice president of human resources for AEP.
Being family-friendly doesn't necessarily carry a big price tag, she said. Benefits such as having a partnership with a firm that can provide backup care on short notice for children or elderly parents are "relatively low-cost compared to the overall cost of running a company."
Continuing to offer a strong set of benefits even in tough times is just good business, said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outsourcing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"These companies are looking longer-term. They do not want to sacrifice the gains and the good will that they've developed by flip-flopping or letting go of the principles that they've built," he said.
Challenger said many benefits that are considered beneficial by employees are actually "very practically motivated" and also benefit the employer in the long run: "Offering programs that align with working mothers' interests is going to equal happier, less-distracted employees who are going to be more productive."
This is the sixth time since 2002 that AEP has been named to the magazine's list. Tuchow said the company also has been recognized for being adoption-friendly, accommodating to military families and for being a good employer for minorities.
Pharmaceutical firm Abbott Laboratories, publisher McGraw-Hill Cos. and financial-services firm JPMorgan Chase & Co. were among those on the list that have a large central Ohio presence. Nearly half of the 100 companies were in the financial-services and health-care industries.
The recession appears to be widening the gap between companies that offer benefits tailored to working mothers and those that don't.
The magazine's editors noted that the "national numbers are dismal." For example, all of the companies on the 100-best list offer on-site areas for breastfeeding mothers, compared with 25 percent of companies nationally. And 98 percent of companies on the list offer job sharing, compared with 16 percent nationally.
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