Employer Profile

Top 10 ranking: No. 6 for career development Several years ago, the IT department at this Chicago-based company, which owns the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, launched an initiative to design a formal work/life balance program. IT employees were asked to volunteer to participate on one of three teams: a policy and culture team, a process team, and an infrastructure team. Each team was tasked with identifying and implementing changes that would help improve work/life balance within IT. A few examples of changes implemented include decreasing the number of weekends worked, increasing efficiency of communications, and improving work schedule flexibility. The teams also developed, piloted and implemented three IT work/life balance policies: a grant day policy, a remote access policy and a flextime policy. The grant day policy allows exempt employees to take a half or full day off after working a certain number of hours above and beyond their schedule in lieu of a stipend. The remote access policy allows employees to work from off-site (e.g., home) locations, and the flextime policy accommodates a variety of schedules, including compressed workweeks. The teams also played a key role in educating colleagues about these policies and encouraging them to take advantage of them. After the IT pilot, these policies were rolled out across the entire company. New this year: To help increase camaraderie and collaboration, the IT division hosts regular bean-bag and ping-pong tournaments. While these tournaments originally started in smaller IT departments, they have since been expanded to include IT employees across all technology areas. Not only do the tournaments give IT employees the chance to take breaks from their work, they also give them the chance to interact with colleagues from other IT groups in a social setting.