Reading Jason’s blog post on paternity leave in the workplace has really made me appreciate how fast the business environment is evolving, not just in terms of technology or sustainability, but in HR management as well. Like Jason, I definitely believe that Ernst & Young is strategically promoting inter-employee-employer relationships by encouraging flexibility within the employees’ lives. Consequently, these paternity leave opportunities and the familial atmosphere fostered by company values should serve to increase overall productivity and corporate loyalty.

We fervently discussed in-class about the creation of a distinct corporate culture, using Zappos as an exemplar, but Ernst & Young has shown that by bureaucratically adapting working policies, a person-based motivational culture is undoubtedly formed. I would argue that other firms can easily emulate these morale-boosting practices through simple procedures like integrating performance-related pay (extrinsically-based) or by taking a leaf out of Handy’s Shamrock organization model and intrinsically allowing more part-time shifts.

Conversely, I thought of Facebook and Apple’s recent, radical HR-initiative of offering female employees $20,000 to “freeze their eggs”, hoping to promote workplace gender equality by limiting maternal leave. Although creative, I heavily disagree with this implementation because as Ernst & Young have shown, employee empowerment through sustainable (and ethical!) policies is the way to go. These particular firms essentially must ask themselves: what are we implicating to all stakeholders by readjusting the HR structure in this way?