Your chances are better now than they were just a few years ago for snagging such perks. Family-friendly benefits have increased steadily in the past five years, according to the 2001 Society for Human Resource Management Benefits Survey. Nearly 70 percent of companies now offer dependent care flexible spending accounts, for instance - up from 58 percent in 1997. Flextime is offered at 58 percent of companies, up from 46 percent in 1997. And telecommuting has risen from 20 percent to 37 percent.
Conventional wisdom holds that the larger the company, the better the benefits.
But the survey found this not to be the case. The survey showed that organizations with 2,500 to 5,000 employees tend to offer the most benefits. One thing these cities have in common is a diverse mix of industries that makes them economically resilient, CEO John Challenger said. Tiffini Theisen welcomes your workplace questions.