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Employee benefits Maternity leave


THE TOP TOOL FOR RETAINING YOUR WORKING PARENT POPULATION

By  Amanda Schiavo
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December 22, 2020, 12:00 p.m. EST 4 Min Read
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Tomohiro Ohsumi
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When Allison Whalen returned to her job following her first maternity leave in
2017, she felt “completely overwhelmed” by the lack of supportive resources
available to guide her through the leave and return-to-work process.

“I ended up getting through that first three months back at work and I realized
there were about 50 things that I wish someone had told me before I'd even been
on leave,” says Whalen.

Whalen says she felt lost in understanding how much child care she would need
before and after returning to the office, and felt left behind on her
professional development.



After returning to work for a previous employer, Whalen knew something needed to
change for working parents going out and coming back from leave. She started
Parentaly a parental leave benefits company, in order to help employers
streamline the process of getting new parents back to work.

Parentaly provides companies and workers with tools, coaching and resources that
help working parents navigate the before and after of parental leave, without
sacrificing their career and helping the organization retain its talent.

These benefits became even more critical during the pandemic. Whalen herself
experienced her second maternity leave this summer, and having a plan for how
she would navigate this time helped her stay productive. Remote work due to
COVID was an added bonus for both her and her spouse, she says.

“My second maternity leave was a way better experience because I had made a plan
that around six weeks postpartum, I wanted to start spending about two to four
hours a week doing work,” Whalen says. “That was possible because [my husband]
wasn’t commuting and he had breaks in between meetings where he could take a
walk [with the baby]. We could plan because he was there.”



While the pandemic has been a huge challenge for working parents, more flexible
work arrangements have actually been beneficial to their overall productivity.
Thirty percent of the working parents reported an increase in productivity
during the pandemic, according to research from Rutgers University. Overall, 94%
of employers say that even with employees working remotely, productivity was the
same as or higher than it was before the pandemic, according to Mercer, an HR
and workplace benefits consulting firm.

But flexible scheduling is just one part of the puzzle for employers wanting to
support working parents. Companies that invest in employees and their families
with benefits prioritizing their unique challenges see 5.5 times more revenue
growth thanks to greater innovation, higher talent retention and increased
productivity, according to research by Great Places to Work and Maven Clinic, a
health services provider that supports women and families with their fertility,
maternity, and pediatrics needs.

Read More: WFH loneliness is the latest virtual challenge for employers

“So much of this comes down to productivity,” Whalen says. “[It’s about] how
parents teach themselves to improve their productivity and then how the culture
of the organization supports that productivity.”

To keep employees engaged and committed to work while juggling their home
responsibilities, paid parental leave is a key place to start when employers
look to boost their benefits for working parents. Microsoft offered employee
parents 12 weeks of paid time off in order to help them deal with COVID-related
school closures. PwC also updated its child care benefits to help parents deal
with working from home and virtual school.

While workplaces often focus on maternity leave benefits, it’s critical they
provide holistic support for parents at every stage of life, says Kate Ryder,
founder and CEO of Maven Clinic.

“The best companies really look at parenthood as a journey. It’s not just about
the nine months of pregnancy,” she says. “It’s not just maternity, but it’s
fertility, return to work coaching [and] finding backup child care.”

Read More: Your fertility benefits may be excluding LGBTQ+ employees from
treatments

As employers look ahead toward 2021, it’s critical they continue leading with
empathy and understanding for working parents.

“The experience of being a working parent during COVID has been intensely
difficult and stressful,” Whalen says. “I am hopeful that this experience will
result in some major improvements in the longer term for me, namely a reduction
in volume and duration of work travel, increased flexibility to work from home,
and improved child care benefits.”

Whalen plans to encourage every employer she works with to provide more paid
leave and greater flexibility and support when it comes to re-onboarding working
parents coming back from leave. These actions now will benefit companies in the
long-run.

“COVID has highlighted the importance of focusing on productivity over activity
and so we are doing a lot of work focusing on how to work smarter, not harder,”
Whalen says. “The companies that will come out on top over the next one to two
years are the ones that will continue to invest in developing and retaining top
talent during and through this pandemic.”

Amanda Schiavo
Associate Editor, Employee Benefit News
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Employee benefits Maternity leave Paternity leave Employee retention
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