SALT LAKE CITY, May 10, 2005 — Four local business will be awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility at a May 10 event. These businesses are ARUP Laboratories, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, McKinnon-Mulherin Inc., and Radius Engineering Inc. 

To honor these organizations, the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce will hold an event on May 10, 2005, at the Little America Hotel, 500 South Main Street, Salt Lake City, from 11:00-1:30 p.m. For more information or to attend the event, please contact Zee Xiao at 801-957-2027 or zxiao@saltlakechamber.org. 

The Alfred P. Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility is part of When Work Works, an ongoing initiative from Families and Work Institute, the Center for Workforce Preparation (an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce), and Patricia Kempthorne, First Lady of Idaho and Founder of the Center for Emerging Futures, with sponsor The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. When Work Works is a nationwide initiative to highlight the importance of workforce effectiveness and flexibility as a strategy to enhance business’ competitive advantage in the global economy and yield positive business results. 

“These Salt Lake City companies show the kind of commitment to working with flexibility as an essential ingredient of effectiveness that the Sloan Award was created to recognize,” says Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute. “We hope they will serve as an example and inspiration to other organizations,” she adds. 

Research from the When Work Works initiative finds that working flexibly enhances employees’ effectiveness and satisfaction on the job — and benefits employers. Employees with flexibility are: 

  • more engaged in their jobs and committed to helping their companies succeed; 
  • more likely to plan on staying with their employer; and, 
  • more satisfied with their jobs. 

Additional study data, as well as tips on working flexibly for companies, supervisors and employees, is available at www.whenworkworks.org. 

Eight communities were chosen to participate in the When Work Works initiative: Brooklyn, NY; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Detroit, MI; Durham, NC; Long Beach, CA; Providence, RI; and Salt Lake City, UT. Awards are being announced in all eight cities this spring. 

Families and Work Institute is a nonprofit center for research that provides data to inform decision-making on the changing workforce, changing family and changing community. Founded in 1989, the Families and Work Institute is known for ahead of the curve, nonpartisan research into emerging work-life issues; for solutions-oriented studies addressing topics of vital importance to all sectors of society; and for fostering connections among workplaces, families and communities. For more information on workplace flexibility and other issues, visit our website at www.familiesandwork.org.