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Womans-Work provides a gathering place of information, resources and job listings for women seeking a balanced life and flexible job choices.

visit www.womans-work.com

Meet: Kirsten E. Ross, President and Founder of Womans-Work, LLC.  Mother of 2 year old Eric and 10 week old Daniel.  Her background is in Human Resources with a Bachelors Degree from Michigan State University with dual majors in Socio-economics and Employment Relations.  She also has a Masters Degree from Michigan State University in Labor & Industrial Relations.  
Market Her Site Serves: Women looking for flex work jobs and information.
Unique Angle: The Womans-Work.com job board is unique, because employers can post jobs indicating that they are willing to consider specific alternative work arrangements such as job sharing, part time, telecommuting, flex scheduling and work from home.  
Favorite Quote:  "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right !"

The website targets a community of professional women who are looking for increased life balance.  The number one search phrases used by the individuals who find the site through a search engine are:  flextime, work from home and job share.  Employers who utilize the job board can be certain that the individuals seeking jobs are looking for this kind of benefit.  It, thus, represents a very targeted recruitment effort.

There are many organizations on the Internet with job boards for employers to post jobs on.  As Ross says, "It is the only Internet site that I am aware of that deals specifically with the issue of alternative work arrangements and offers the full menu of services to both organizations and candidates.  We provide sample policies and information on family friendly benefits to employers and resume assistance and interview tips to candidates.  There is also a Life Balance section that provides information on the dimensions of wellness and how to achieve a balance between each".

In addition, we provide a job partner match service.  If an individual is interested in sharing a full time job with someone, he or she can utilize this search to discreetly look for another individual in his or her area who is also interested in sharing a job.  Once two individuals find each other and determine that they have similar backgrounds and goals, they can utilize the tips that we provide for discussions during an initial meeting to delve further into whether or not there is a good match.

I believe that the time is right for this website.  Individuals in all walks of life are looking for more life balance.  According to surveys, even new college graduates are seeking flexible work arrangements.  In order to stay competitive and attract and retain high quality employees, organizations will have to begin to utilize alternative work arrangements.  They will need to be creative in their efforts to help employees achieve more life balance.  As more organizations adopt a culture of balance, Womans-Work.com will be there as a vehicle for reaching those who demand this benefit. 

Ross tells us a bit about herself...

I think that I am very passionate about the things that I believe in.   To me, the work I do for Womans-Work.com is often more like fighting for a cause.  I believe that it is time for organizations to start offering alternative work arrangements.  I believe that there are rewards for both the company and the employee.  I also believe very strongly in staying home with my children while they are young.  Sometimes I feel guilty when my children and my business are competing for my time.  I give priority to my children but at times it is very difficult to put work aside when I have a huge list of things to do on the site and can't get to them.  Every day is a constant struggle to stay balanced.    

I try to stay true to my first priority, however.  The whole philosophy behind my website is helping others find life balance.  It wouldn't make much sense for me to place all of my energy into making it a success and neglecting my husband and children.  I've had to turn down some television opportunities where major travel was involved at a time that was not good for my family.  That was hard, but it was necessary to stay true to my ultimate life priorities.         

The idea for the site came from my own life experience.  I am the epitome of the kind of person who needs this website to succeed.  I worked in Human Resources for a large organization for 10 years.  After having my first son, I went back to work part time in a professional level position.  I had negotiated the arrangement with my boss ahead of time.  It worked out great !  The motto was "some Kirsten is better than no Kirsten."  I loved the balance I was able to achieve between my work and familial obligations.  I realized that there must be more women out there like myself who had a lot to offer an organization but who did not want to work a traditional full time schedule.

I started doing some research on the internet to see whether or not there were other opportunities for me and found that there was a missing component to alternative work arrangement opportunities.  While it seemed that envelope stuffing and other work from home "business opportunities" were readily available, it was very difficult to find professional opportunities.

The internet was an obvious place to set up shop.  I felt that I could provide a concentrated list of alternative work arrangements:  A one-stop shop for professionals looking for a new way to do work and a great place for organizations to post jobs.  After all, almost every large organization now has a work-life strategy component.  Either as part of a diversity initiative or under the umbrella of culture change.  I believe that women can have it all.  This site will help add to the menu of choices available to women and others.  A woman can stay home full time, she can work full time or she can blend the two for what many feel is the optimal combination.

 Running a business on the internet is very different in many ways from a traditional brick and mortar business.  There are great networking opportunities and cost-effective marketing strategies.  But, it is much harder to get your website noticed than you first anticipate.  There are so many great websites and so much information that just getting listed on the search engines is not enough.  I continue to learn every day while running this site.  It's part of what makes it challenging and fun.  I make a lot of changes to the site myself, I continue to find new creative ways to market the business and remain current in my profession while staying home with my children.  It's really a great balance!