Kraft Canada began to support work-life balance after feedback from a national employee survey in 1999 indicated finding balance was a major challenge for most Kraft employees. "Employees at Kraft are high achievers," says Vicki Quigg, Kraft Canadas Manager of Work-Life Harmony and Wellness. "Its hard to find that balance of working hard and at the same time making time for the other things in life that are important. But employees did tell us that they feel stretched."

Following up on this feedback, Kraft conducted a number of internal focus groups to probe into the impediments employees were facing, and what they would like to see happen at Kraft to improve their outlook. The recommendations from those sessions turned into a serious endeavour the Work-Life Harmony Initiative to address employees challenges and put effective policies and programs in place. In order to build a solid foundation and ensure that programmatic elements were backed up by a supportive culture, Kraft was careful to create a philosophy towards work-life balance based on cultural values not additions to the Human Resources manual.

The other key aspect of Krafts approach is the understanding that flexibility needs to be a joint commitment of Kraft and its employees: the proper balance can only be found when both the organization and individual work toward sustaining Krafts vision of a supportive and flexible culture. "We need to be flexible, they need to be flexible," says Quigg. Knowing that the organization values the harmonization of employees work and personal responsibilities provides the freedom for individuals to meet their professional commitments while still being able to attend to personal commitments as well.

Framework for success

Kraft uses a Framework for Success to communicate its philosophy towards work-life harmony. The framework moves from the basic concept of (1) respect, which is prerequisite to any sustained change, through (2) self-awareness, supporting individuals in the journey to understand what balance goals they have, which is key to (3) developing and nurturing a flexible culture, and supported by (4) the necessary programmatic elements at the Frameworks peak.

Without the foundation of respect or the understanding of balance, adding programs to ones HR department or policies to ones HR manual will collect dust. Kraft realizes that the most important elements of organizational change are intangible; they cant be legislated. It can be riskier to approach work-life from this perspective, understanding that the challenges wont be met using prima facie measures but it is a perspective more likely to succeed.

Key Elements

Beginning with the basics

Like any good business plan, Kraft began in 1999 with research (surveys and focus groups), followed in 2000 with a set of goals and objectives (its work-life vision and philosophy), and in 2001 began implementation (policy and program development and communication). In order to manage expectations appropriately and ensure it could deliver on its promises, Kraft refrained from large internal PR efforts on the work-life initiative before completing the development of its strategy and business plan.

Recognition that policies are different than the culture that supports them

"The most important thing is that we want to, and are working on, enhancing our supportive and flexible culture to make our programs and policies effective," says Quigg. " We need to design them so that employees can use them, and that leaders are comfortable implementing them."

Integration with the business strategy

Kraft Canadas overall business plan contains five major areas or "pillars", which the leadership team agrees is critical to business success. One of these pillars is the Winning Work Climate. "Its about valuing our employees and understanding that theyre the key to business success," says Quigg.

Workload management

Kraft has begun to look at workload management issues, a crucial piece in the work-life puzzle that many organizations are beginning to tackle. Importantly, this initiative is being supported by Kraft Foods North America, Kraft Canadas U.S. parent company. A recent memo from Betsy Holden, President and CEO of Kraft Foods North America, notes:

A real commitment to work simplification and the use of e-work tools will help us streamline our activities and spend our limited time on the right things. The [Work-Life Council in the U.S.] is looking at various options to help people manage their time and workloads more effectively, as well as helping managers create realistic expectations.

In brainstorming how best to meet this challenge at Kraft Canada, Quigg and her colleagues have begun to look into various ways that employees might better manage the overload of information they face daily. One of the possibilities under discussion is to develop protocols on appropriate (i.e. more limited) use of email and voice mail, etc. Organizations will not be successful in their goal of matching business needs with the needs of their employees until they begin to seriously examine workload issues, and take steps to manage workloads more efficiently.

On-board Leadership

The senior leadership and the executive team are extremely supportive of the Work-Life Harmony Initiative. Chief Operating Officer of Kraft Canada, Dan Butler, used the opportunity provided by a recent all-staff Connections meeting to discuss his own work-life challenges as a father of four, and how he works on juggling his own multiple responsibilities. Even these simple measures, taking the time to assure employees that the executive team understands and relates to the challenges they face, can make a big difference to levels of morale and trust.

Program Initiatives

Work-Life Council

In response to the feedback from employees interested in seeing Kraft take on work-life as a priority, Kraft created a Work-Life Council to spearhead strategy and program development on work-life. Composed of twelve members, from all levels and areas of the organization and demographically representative, the council meets twice a year for half a day to discuss what new initiatives could be undertaken to assist employees in facing their individual challenges. The council mirrors a similar council at the parent company, and two members from the Canadian council also sit on the U.S. council, to ensure interesting challenges and solutions are shared both ways across the border.

Work-Life Harmony Programs and Policies

Kraft has introduced various work-life programs and encourages their use through a supportive and flexible culture. The company introduced five new flexible policies for 2001:

• part time with benefits;
• job sharing;
• flexible hours;
• leaves of absence; and
• flexible work-life solutions.

Work-Life Harmony Awareness Workshop

Currently in the pilot phase, and piloted first on the senior leadership of the company, the Work-Life Harmony Awareness workshop is designed to raise personal and team awareness of how work-life issues might be impacting productivity, morale, and wellness. The workshops also function to communicate to employees at all levels of the organization what programs are available, and how they can take advantage of them. Ideally, the workshops help to create a level of comfort beyond a simple understanding of the policies and programs, and to open up the dialogue between leaders and co-workers on how to effectively manage challenges together. The workshop format is based on Krafts work-life philosophy and the Framework for Success:

• Respect This part of the training teaches leaders the role they play in creating a respectful environment, and demonstrates to employees the importance of relating respectfully;
  
  
• Self-Awareness This section helps individuals develop a personal understanding of ones own balance goals, draft a vision or mission statement, and create an action plan for how to achieve those goals;
  
  
• Flexibility This module communicates the flexible culture Kraft wants to continue to develop and strengthen, as a joint responsibility of Kraft and its employees, and encourages leaders to broaden the parameters regarding how, when, and where work is performed, and manage through a work-life lens;
  
  
• Programs The final stage provides an opportunity to explain the availability and appropriate uses of the existing policies at Kraft that relate to flexibility and work-life, ensuring that employees understand all the available options, as well as the best way to make use of them.

Healthy Organization and Workplace Initiative (HOW)

For the Toronto area, which includes the head office, one of the major support tools for the Work-Life Harmony Initiative is the Healthy Organization and Workplace Initiative, which encompasses all fitness and wellness, health and safety, and personal resources programming at Kraft.

• The HOW initiative includes a monthly lecture series on health and wellness, organizes extra-curricular teams and activities from baseball to belly dancing to Dragon Boat racing, and educates employees on everything from stress relief to how to better manage meetings to make the best use of their time.
  
  
• June 2001 has been named Work-Life Harmony Month at Kraft, which promoted internally the work-life resources and supports available at Kraft.
  
  
• Also included under the HOW umbrella is the on-site employer-funded fitness centre, which offers aerobics classes, kickboxing alongside weights and cardiovascular machines. One third of employees use the fitness facility.

Family Days

Kraft Canada makes a special effort to be a family-focused company. One of the ways Kraft tries to support its employees whole lives is to organize two days per year that employees can spend time and have fun with their families. In the last year, Kraft has held Family Days at the Toronto Zoo and the Ontario Science Center.

Results and Recognition

Kraft has received encouraging feedback from employees since the inauguration of its Work-Life Harmony and Healthy Organization and Workplace initiatives. Employees appreciate the efforts being made to help them deal with life and workload issues, and Kraft is confident that it has already positively affected morale and retention.

Quigg notes that, as an example, Krafts new flexible work arrangements are providing new mothers with more options to control how to most effectively transition back to work from maternity leaves. "One thing that we are seeing is that a lot of new moms are opting to come back to work on a part-time basisor very flexible hours, which is wonderful." Although many new mothers choose to return to work full-time after their leave, the increased flexibility surrounding how that transition can be made has expanded the choices for new mothers, decreasing their anxiety about returning to their jobs, and improving the long-term retention of Kraft employees.

July 2001

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