Inviting you to take part in the 2006/2007 Work Life Balance Survey.

There is a growing trend in today's workforce to establish policies and practices to offer greater flexibility in working patterns so that employees can balance work with responsibilities and activities outside the workplace.

However, technological advances have changed the nature of traditional work life and introduced more diverse work patterns. The concept of being contactable at all times has resulted in a workforce able to work at all hours as well as while away from the office. The 24/7 culture has an even greater impact on the work life balance of expatriates and their families.

ORC Worldwide is conducting a survey, sponsored by Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc. (IRC), a nonprofit research organization, to provide some insight into challenges expatriates face in the global business environment and how companies are dealing with work life balance issues. 

The 2006/2007 Work Life Balance Survey is designed to collect information directly from international assignees on such topics as:

• Work Life Balance Policies
• Organization Commitment to Work Life Balance
• Workweek Hours
• Leave/Weekends
• Conference Calls
• Family Issues
• Stress
• Exercise

We ask that you send the survey invitation to your international assignees for completion. In exchange for their participation, assignees will receive only an executive summary of the results. The full analysis will not be made available to them but will be sent to you for reference.

If you would like to review the survey, please let me know and I can send you a word document of the questionnaire.

The survey should take about 30 minutes to complete, and, responses will be treated in the strictest of confidence. Individual responses will not be released under any circumstances.

We would appreciate your distributing this information to your expatriates promptly so that all survey data will reach ORC no later than January 31, 2007.  I have included a sample memo below that can be used when inviting your expatriates to participate.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at (212) 852-0308 or Samantha.Blackhurst@orcww.com