Obama addresses powerful women

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama told an audience including some of America's most powerful women Tuesday his administration is working to improve workplace flexibility.

Speaking at the 2010 Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, Obama said more needs to be done to make sure the American workplace offers enough mobility and flexibility "to give people the opportunities they need to contribute and raise a family." The president said he sees it not as a women's issue, though it "may disproportionately affect women," or even as a work-family balance issue, but as an economic competitiveness issue.

Obama said companies with flexible work arrangements "can actually have lower turnover and absenteeism and higher productivity."

"That's why so many of your companies are already leading the way, embracing things like telecommuting and flextime and on-site childcare," he said. "And my administration is committed to supporting efforts like these. Not just by investing in paid leave programs and childcare tax credits, but also by making the federal government a model for the policies that we're encouraging.

"We're creating mobile workplaces and flexible work schedules, and we're judging employees by the results they get, not the face time they log, because this doesn't just provide a better experience for our employees, it helps us attract and retain the top talent and provide better service for the American people."