The Chamber leads a number of activities to make sure the Chicago region is recognized as having great places of employment, including two key initiatives: one encouraging excellence in the workplace and the other keeping workplaces drug-free.

• Member and non-member companies applied for the 2007 Right Workplace Award, an initiative sponsored, in part, by Chamber member Right Management that recognizes the development and implementation of people practices that positively impact culture and work environment, maximize the engagement and performance of employees and lead to successful business results.
  
  The three organizations chosen to receive the 2007 Award include the Shedd Aquarium, Alcan Packaging and Deloitte and Touche. The winners were recognized by the Chamber’s Board of Directors and in the media.
  
  The Chamber also hosted a 2007 Award Recognition Dinner on November 8 so that businesses could congratulate the winners and hear their stories about how their people practices are helping them gain a competitive edge. Mara Swan, Senior Vice President of Global Human Resources, Manpower, was the keynote speaker.
• Several forums were produced to encourage workplace excellence including: a Workforce Flexibility Forum held on October 4 which highlighted the benefits of adopting flexible work practices and recognized the 2007 winners of the Sloan Award for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility: Ernst & Young, Perspectives, Ltd. and KPMG, LLP. First Midwest Bank earned an Honorable Mention. Representatives from the winning companies sat on a panel moderated by Greg Roth from the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
• A Workplace Excellence section will be added to the Chamber’s website to provide information about all things related to workplace excellence and best people practices.
• More than 180 companies, representing over 30,000 employees, took advantage of the Chamber’s Drug-Free Workplace (DFW) services during the past year. They received training and technical assistance on how to implement a DFW program and, in the process, maintain the safety and quality of the work environment and create a better quality of life for their employees. Literature on the Chamber’s DFW services, a quarterly newsletter and booklets to help employers communicate with employees and their children about the risks of substance, were distributed to organizations.
  
  The Chamber’s electronic Illinois Drug-Free Workplace Act Compliance Package was shared with numerous Chicagoland companies to help them prepare a drug-free workplace program in order to meet the minimal compliance requirements of the Federal and Illinois Drug-Free Workplace Acts. Templates in the package make it quick and simple to prepare a DFW program, often in as little as two hours.
  The Drug-Free Workplace Committee also conducted several activities throughout the year to promote DFW participation, including presentations and/or exhibits at industry meetings and articles in the Chamber’s Business@Work newsletter.
• The Chamber continues to educate employers about tax benefits for low-income, working families that can help offset the cost of living and make work more attractive than welfare. These benefits include the Earned Income Tax Credit program (EITC), under which qualified workers who file a Federal and State tax return can get back some or all of the income tax that was taken out of their pay during the year.
• As members of the Money Smart Advisory Council, the Chamber and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago promoted Chicago’s seventh-annual Money Smart Week, April 20 – 26, which included educational activities throughout the region aimed at helping consumers make informed choices about how to manage their personal finances.
• A new Healthcare and Wellness (H&W) initiative was formed to better focus the Chamber’s initiatives and resources and, thereby, better impact and influence the healthcare issues affecting the region’s businesses, their employees and their families. The Chamber’s Drug-Free Workplace Program will be a partner in this initiative – taking into account the effects of substance abuse on health and wellness.
  
  Since its inception, the H&W initiative has had considerable success in collaborating with other organizations in the healthcare arena – allowing it to disseminate best practices and trends, as well as have a voice on local, state and federal government proposals for healthcare reform.