Top mom jobs

As a coda to Vault CEO Erik Sorenson's blog posting on mothers in the workplace and work/life balance issues they inevitably face, I'm pleased to announce that in the annual Working Mother ranking of the 100 best companies for working mothers, the consulting industry has made a strong showing. Most notably, Deloitte has been inducted into the Working Mother Hall of Fame, after having landed in the ranking for 15 consecutive years. This was also the first year that Bain made it onto the list, finally joining its top-three compatriots, BCG and McKinsey, who have both been on the list for the past few years.

Bain's late entry is somewhat surprising, since its own consultants have voted the firm into the top 10 in our gender diversity ranking for the past four years. In our survey, Bain consultants laud the "high degree of understanding" the company has with regard to lifecycle events. We're told that "everyone takes their full maternity/paternity leave, and some choose to take more extended leaves of absence without repercussions." It's not uncommon for the firm to "keep [new mothers] off of travel cases as much as possible, and find reduced-hour roles for them." (Read here about how Working Mother compiled its rankings.)

Making it into the top 10 companies for working mothers are Ernst & Young, IBM, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Other consulting firms that landed in the top 100 are Accenture and Booz Allen Hamilton. IBM and McKinsey were also named to the magazine's supplementary list of the best companies for paternity leave.

With all this focus on family-friendly perks, it's important to note that as companies increasingly implement cost-cutting measures (and adopt the mentality that employees should be grateful just to be employed) it's oftentimes these family-friendly, work/life balance initiatives that see cutbacks, especially in areas like paid maternity and paternity leave and back-up child care (versus lower-cost alternatives like telecommuting and part-time options). That said, Steve Howe, Americas area managing partner at Ernst & Young, offers some reassuring words on the subject, in light of a dour economic mood:

"Whether we?re in a strong or weak economy, our commitment to providing a flexible work environment and family-friendly programs and benefits does not change. As a leader in professional services, the value we provide to our clients is our people. We?ve learned that if we can help our people succeed professionally and personally, they will be able to achieve their potential and deliver superior service to our clients."

Let's hope he's not the only one who thinks so.