To maintain organizational competitiveness, employee benefits programs must not only provide traditional benefits, but also provide unconventional benefits. Because the labor market has seen an increasing influx of employees with dependent care responsibilities and has become increasingly competitive for highly skilled work ers, innovative employers have used dependent care and flexibility work options to attract employees. In this research and practice synthesis, we examine the variety of options available to employers for creating family and worker friendly organiza tions. In general, we found that many options are available to employers for addressing the dependent care and family pressures that most influence the pro ductivity of their employees. By providing assistance in securing dependent care, creating flexible working conditions, and/or providing on-site care facilities, employers with or without government collaboration, can and have improved the productive capacity of their employees. A s the nation progresses into the 21st century, there is a need to move away from short-term strategies for economic growth. Instead, economic policies must focus on long-term strategies for addressing productivity growth. To maintain competitiveness, private and public sector labor policies must produce sus tained economic growth and share that growth with working families. Such growth will ensure secure pension plans, good pay, access to health care, and employee train ing opportunities. Our project identifies, describes, and analyzes important determi nants for securing sustained and shared economic growth through enhanced productivity of human resources. These essential determinants are organizational policies promoting increased worker satisfaction, retention, and performance. By per forming a research and practice synthesis, we engage in a systematic compilation, comparison, and assessment of past and present efforts by employers in private and public organizations experimenting with progressive policies for enhancing the qual ity of life in the work place 1 . Based on this collection of policy relevant information, we identify the circumstances and conditions under which public and private pro grams are most successful in achieving this quality of life for working families. We examine first, the employment context for working families. Next, we examine gov ernment responses to working families' problems. Third, we examine government and private sector collaborative responses to those problems. Finally, we examine organizational solutions found in public and private employment.