LIVE: Obama at working families summit

President Obama on Monday will order federal departments and agencies to launch a comprehensive review of their workplace practices with an eye toward improving flexibility for parents.

{mosads}In a presidential memorandum, Obama will order agencies “to expand flexible workplace policies to the maximum extent possible,” according to Betsey Stevenson, a member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.

That effort will include directing agencies to establish standard procedures for evaluating requests for flexible work schedules and training supervisors on how to best respond to such requests. The government will also create a new “Workplace Flexibility Index” intended to measure agencies’ success in accommodating requests from workers grappling with childcare, ailing family members or medical conditions.