The $3.5 billion MountainAmericaCredit Union has been honored with the 2013 Alfred P. Sloan Awardfor Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility, the Utahcredit announced last week.

The award is part of the national When Work Works projectadministered by Families and Work Institute and the Society forHuman Resource Management.

When Work Works, an ongoing initiative of FWI and SHRM, is anational project to educate the business community on the value ofworkplace flexibility by sharing research and promising practices,and conducting the annual Sloan Awards, which recognize employersacross the country for the use of flexibility and other effectivepractices as workplace strategies that increase business andemployee success.

“This is a huge honor for us and speaks volumes about ourworkplace practices and employee participation,” said Marshall Paepke,executive vice president and chief administrative officer atMountain America.

“We work hard to provide flexible schedules for as manyemployees as possible, recognizing that it's not practical forevery position,” Paepke said. “But where flexibility can beoffered, we do, believing that an engaged and happy workforce helpsdrive member satisfaction and loyalty.”

Lynn Stephens, senior vice president of human resources at the420,000-member credit union, also noted: “We've won work-lifeawards in the past, but this national recognition is a first forMountain America. We're truly honored. And the fact that the awardis based, in large part, on surveys submitted by employees,verifies that our employees feel that we value them and that weunderstand the importance of workplace flexibility throughout theorganization.”

Workplace flexibility—such as flextime, part-time work andcompressed workweeks—has been demonstrated to help businessesremain competitive while also benefiting employees, the creditunion said. Flexibility in combination with other aspects of aneffective workplace—such as learning opportunities and supervisorsupport for job success—can have a powerful impact on employeeengagement and motivation, the announcement said.

“Our research consistently finds that employees in effective andflexible workplaces have greater engagement on the job and greaterdesire to stay with their organization. In addition, they reportlower stress levels and better overall health,” said EllenGalinsky, FWI president.

“As a recipient of the 2013 Sloan Award, Mountain America ranksamong the top 20% of employers nationally in terms of its programs,policies and culture for creating an effective and flexibleworkplace,” Galinsky said. “In addition, what makes this honor sospecial is that their employees have corroborated this, affirmingthat it is indeed an effective and flexible workplace.”