Winning Workplaces

Check out this video that our friend Carla Moquin of the Parenting in the Workplace Institute just posted on YouTube:

Carla's mission, which she's been at for the past three years or so, is a lot to condense into 30 seconds, but she did so to enter Google's new Project 10 to the 100, a "call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible."

I urge you to share the video above with others so her entry gets lots of views before the deadline of January 27, 2009. At that time, the top 100 ideas – out of at least 100,000 submitted so far – will be opened to public voting to narrow the pool down to 20 semi-finalists. Google's advisory board will then choose five from these to actually fund and help implement.

Why is Carla's idea a good one? For one thing, as she mentions in the video, babies-at-work programs have been successfully implemented at over 100 firms already. These companies, in 23 industries and spread across 37 states, include three small firms that we've honored for their overall progressive and innovative employee engagement best practices:

Menlo Innovations - 2007 and 2008 Top Small Workplaces Finalist
Guerra DeBerry Coody (GDC) - 2007 Top Small Workplaces Winner
New Age Transportation - 2004 Best Boss Finalist

For the naysayers who argue that such programs increase the number of benefits that already lean too heavily toward parents as opposed to non-parent employees; who say that, like dogs in the work environment, young children are just too disruptive; or who believe these programs are too costly – or all of the above – I would urge them to:

Read this post I wrote this summer on Carla's work, which considers the benefits of babies-at-work programs for parent and non-parent employees as well as businesses, and
Plunk down the meager $10 for the Institute's comprehensive guidebook on implementing a baby program in your company. (Hey, if it doesn't work out for you, you'll have a holiday stocking stuffer for a supplier or client firm.)

What are your thoughts on Carla's idea? How do you think it would impact the team building or employee engagement activities in your workplace?