Evan Vitale Consulting: U.S. labor secretary to speak at UM, Missoula consulting company

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U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez has added a second event to his Missoula itinerary Tuesday.

Perez was already scheduled to deliver a keynote address for a major education conference at the University of Montana at 9:15 a.m., and now will lead a roundtable discussion about flexible workplace policies at a business consulting company.

Perez will be at Advanced Technology Group at 10:15 a.m. to meet with business leaders, workers and policy advocates and talk about how work affects families and the importance of paid family leave, paid sick leave, and alternative or flexible work schedules.

Advanced Technology Group is a company in downtown Missoula that offers tele-work and alternative work schedules to help employees balance the demands of work and family life, as well as professional development and a well-being program.

The company also is devoted to having very few rigid policies that employees must adhere to for every situation. Instead, the company has clear guidelines and tailors arrangements based on the unique needs of each employee while striving to be fair and consistent. That is based on trusting employees to do the right thing and adjust as needed.

Tom Stergios, vice president of ATG, said he was as surprised as anybody that Perez chose to hold the roundtable at his business. In fact, he will miss the event because he was already scheduled to work out of town.

“We asked them (why they chose ATG),” he said. “They said they had heard we had innovative policies and it’s a cool place to work in Missoula. So they had Secret Service guys in the office (Monday).”

Stergios said ATG has a dog-friendly, informal atmosphere that keeps workers happy and ambitious.

“It’s very flexible,” he explained. “All of our clients are out-of-state, so sometimes it’s absolutely not flexible. You have to have a meeting with a client at 8 p.m. But there’s no time clock. It’s like the Silicon Valley tech culture. You are responsible for doing your work. If you have to work from home or you have to bring your kid in or go to a PTA meeting, we kind of handle all those things. We have snacks and food and meetings outside next to the river.”

Since opening ATG’s Missoula Solution Center in 2011 with two employees, the company has expanded to 57 workers in the local office and 61 across the state. Full-time consultants make well over $70,000 per year, far higher than the median income in the county. The office refrigerator is always well-stocked with snacks, and they have ping-pong tournaments during lunch breaks and weekly happy-hour meetings.

“It’s been kind of a rocket ship of growth,” Stergios said. “Our company hallmark at ATG is compassionate leadership.”

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Perez’s visit comes during National Work and Family Month.

“Families are finding it harder to balance the demands of work with the responsibility of caring for children, elderly parents and family members with disabilities,” Perez said. “We need more companies to understand that flexible work-family policies like paid family leave, paid sick leave or tele-work are good for employees and good for their bottom line. Conversations about workplace flexibility are happening in Montana and across the country, and I look forward to hearing from advocates, workers and businesses who are exploring solutions to challenges faced by both employees and employers.”

President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers recently reported that changes in American society have increased the need for flexibility in the workplace, including a larger number of women entering the labor force, the prevalence of families in which all adults work, increasing elder-care responsibilities and the rising importance of continuing education.

The conference at UM is called “Defining a 21st Century Education for a Vibrant Democracy,” and is being held Monday and Tuesday on the third floor of the University Center. The conference will focus on topics such as liberal education, global education, workforce development, academic innovation and educational delivery.

Perez’s keynote speech will be in the University Center Theater on Tuesday as part of a session titled “Preparing a Competitive Workforce.”

UM President Royce Engstrom said the conference is meant to be inclusive, and he encourages faculty and staff, students and administrators to attend. Members of the community also are welcome.

“Those who attend will help define the future directions of our university,” he said. “We want insightful, constructive dialogue to help enhance this great place of learning.”

Most events are free and open to the public. A full schedule and registration information are available at http://ift.tt/1MqDoDV.

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Perez has been to Missoula before, although under much different circumstances.

He was the assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in 2012 when that agency announced it was investigating how 80 rape reports over a three-year period were handled by Missoula police, UM and the Missoula County Attorney’s Office.

Perez traveled to Missoula to announce the investigation, and his news conference was notably awkward because the county attorney at that time, Fred Van Valkenburg, took to the microphone and blasted the DOJ’s efforts as Perez stood a few feet away.

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