SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CAREERS / BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY : Family-Friendly Environment Boosts Firms’ Productivity : A flexible workplace reduces turnover, which in turn cuts hiring and training costs, experts say.

Many workers feel pressured to choose between career and family, but few have faced the problem as urgently as Deborah Sawkins.

After a troubled pregnancy, the 35-year-old executive last year gave birth to daughter Katelyn, who suffered a debilitating stroke during delivery. The newborn required twice-daily doses of phenobarbital to prevent seizures, and doctors expressed doubts whether she would ever walk or talk.

With both her job and her baby at stake, Sawkins was at a crossroads. But she was able to work out a solution with her company, Alta Health Products Inc., a small Pasadena-based provider of herbal extracts that employs only five. Now Sawkins brings Katie to the office so that she can keep an eye on her--and the job.

“Her initial prognosis was so dire that I think I would have gone insane if I had to quit my job to stay home and care for her without other distractions to keep me from ruminating about her outcome,” Sawkins said.

Few employees face similar crises, and not all companies can afford to accommodate them when they do. But some firms--including a handful in Southern California--will go out of their way to help workers balance work and family, by offering premium benefits such as on-site child-care or improvising solutions to special problems.

Employers’ motives are not just humanitarian. A flexible, family-friendly workplace builds loyalty and reduces turnover, which in turn cuts hiring and training costs and boosts productivity, experts say.

Janice Stanger, a San Francisco-based associate at William M. Mercer Inc., a human resources consulting firm, said companies may also offer exceptional family benefits to stay competitive or offset a reduced benefit in some other area, such as health insurance.

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With deep pockets, some large corporations have dangled enticing benefits for harried parents.

Amgen Inc., a 2,800-worker biotechnology firm based in Thousand Oaks, offers Camp Amgen, an on-site child-care facility for 175 infants and toddlers. Such a program is, along with paid parental leave, among the most expensive benefit options for employers, Stanger said.

The local offices of Big Six accounting giant KPMG Peat Marwick offer flexible scheduling, lactation rooms for new mothers and on-site weekend child-care during the busy tax season.

“We try to relieve stress and worry so staff members can get back to work sooner,” Human Resources Director Peggy Madlin said.

Ventura-based Patagonia Inc. goes even further. The maker of active clothing offers its 300 local workers a panoply of family-oriented benefits, including two months’ paid leave for both mothers and fathers after the birth of a child. Indeed, family values are so deeply ingrained in the company, says a spokeswoman, that it is not uncommon to observe mothers breast-feeding during business meetings.

“It actually saves us money to have a child-care center on-site because we retain employees and save money on turnover and training and development,” says spokeswoman Lu Setnicka.

But even large- and medium-sized companies must set limits. KPMG recently put the brakes on a company-sponsored referral program that assisted with problems related to child- or elder care and education. Management cited concerns over high costs and lack of use, Madlin said.

What may prove most valuable to overburdened parents is a flexible and cooperative work environment. Madlin remembered one partner who called her office for help because he had arranged a last-minute appointment with a client downtown and could not find anyone to look after his small child.

“We ended up having the child stay with [the staff in human resources],” Madlin recalled with a laugh.

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Yet big firms are not alone in offering innovative family-oriented benefits.

G.T. Water Products Inc., a Moorpark, Calif.-based plumbing supply company with 27 employees, offers an on-site certified school for kindergarten through 12th grade. The company pays about $60,000 a year for the program, which provides a free education for children of employees.

The school “doesn’t [help] sell our products,” admitted controller Marsha Klipp, “but it’s good for morale.”

Klipp’s two daughters--Kaitlin, 7, and Candice, 11--are enrolled in the program, which she described as a cross between a home school and public education. “I just think [the students] have a lot more freedom” than in a public school, she said.

But superlative benefits may do more than just boost workers’ morale.

Judy Haswell, president and owner of Alta Health Products, was initially concerned that a newborn baby--not to mention one with special needs--might disrupt the office. But she valued Sawkins’ experience and job skills enough to try the special arrangement.

Now, more than a year later, Sawkins pays for a nanny to visit the office and provide most of the care for Katie, who suffers from delayed speech development but is improving steadily. And Haswell--who said she views exceptional benefits as a good means to offset caps on salary increases--was able to retain a trusted employee.

“If you don’t treat employees with respect and perks, you’re going to have higher costs in employee turnaround and training new people,” Haswell said. “Every time you start all over with an employee, you lose a year in productivity.”

With her current staff, Haswell said, the company has an implicit deal: “I’ve treated them right and they treat me right.”