Fort Worth Report | Three Fort Worth companies received the 2023 Best Place for Working Parents Innovator Awards on Friday, Oct. 6, but only one of them credits a love of parties as part of its success.
The awards, presented at the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the City event, recognize businesses that provide innovative strategies, policies and practices to support employees who are also parents or caregivers.
This year’s award winners are:
● Balcom Agency – Best Place for Working Parents 2023 Events Innovator
● Baylor Scott & White – Best Place for Working Parents 2023 Family Resources Innovator
● Apex Capital – Best Place for Working Parents 2023 Policy Innovator
“It started with just being human,” said Ashley Freer, group director and strategist at the Balcom Agency, of its family-friendly policies. But, she said, it has turned out to be good for the business as well.
The advertising agency was started 30 years ago by Stuart Balcom, and one of the guiding principles was that agency life needed to be different, more human, said Freer, who has been at Balcom for 14 years.
Balcom is structured so that employees thrive in the modern world, not just survive, said Freer. But in the past few years, the agency has made an effort to be particularly thoughtful about employees who are parents or caregivers.
“We’ve basically said to caregivers, ‘You need to run your life how it works for you,’ and we’re going to be amenable to that and we’re going to be thoughtful about that,” she said.
Balcom and its 63 employees also have embraced bringing kids into meetings when appropriate. And the company hosts an annual event that focuses on kids. For about a decade, it has thrown a costume party at Halloween.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Freer said. “We enjoy a party.”
Sadie Funk, national director of The Best Place for Working Parents initiative, said in a statement she was proud that Fort Worth and the local business community helped build the Best Place for Working Parents movement.
“We are so proud that this initiative has continued to expand across the county and that Fort Worth continues to be at the forefront of implementing these policies proven to not
only support working parents but also business success,” she said.
The Best Place for Working Parents 2023 Innovators were nominated through an online assessment platform that allows qualifying businesses to gauge how family-friendly their workplace is compared with businesses of similar size and industry.
The business self-assessment focuses on the top 10 research-backed family-friendly policies
proven to impact working parents and businesses’ bottom line.
Best Place for Working Parents 2024 Innovator Awards
The enrollment window will be open Jan. 8 – Feb. 29, 2024. Eligible organizations may earn a Best Place for Working Parents business designation throughout the year by taking the online assessment.Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Read original article at: https://fortworthreport.org/2023/10/09/three-fort-worth-companies-honored-as-great-place-for-working-parents/
