A few years ago, though I won’t admit how many, I was a working mother of three young children in my mid-thirties. With my partner and I both working full time, we struggled to balance our careers and family, and at the time, most employers weren’t thinking about family-friendly benefit packages. I constantly felt like I was choosing one over the other: investing in my family or advancing in my career.
I’m certainly not the first or last working parent to hold the same tension between career and family prosperity. But the difference between my situation those years ago and the talent shortage we find ourselves in today is the power the talent pool holds – particularly working parents. Parents with children under 18 currently represent about 40% of the workforce but are leaving at alarming rates due to an inability to accommodate the duties of parenthood while succeeding at work, and employers cannot fill their vacancies quick enough. The flight of working mothers alone is costing the US economy a near $650 billion each year.1
As the Great Resignation leads us into the Great Reorganization, many Michigan employers are taking a fresh look at their benefits packages through the lens of a working parent. Asking themselves, how do our benefit offerings appeal to a talented mother or father?
If employee retention and hiring the best talent is important to your organization, below are three creative ways to enhance your benefit package for working parents without breaking the bank.
- Revisiting the parental leave policy
Although the state of Michigan does not require companies to offer any form of paid parental leave by law, the vast majority of Americans across political lines believe mothers (82%) and fathers (69%) should be able to take a paid leave from work following birth or adoption.2
Many employers rely on their short-term disability (STD) benefit for their parental leave option. However, STD only covers the medical leave of a mother who gave birth, excluding fathers, partners, and scenarios of child placement into adoption or foster care. STD also comes with a 33% reduction in pay that many families cannot afford. Similarly, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires certain employers to allow 12 weeks of parental leave but does not require it be paid.
For a relatively minimal cost, in that it avoids purchasing an additional benefit, Michigan employers are beginning to increase their parental leave policies to include 100% paid leave for all partners, including adoption and fostering placements.
- Offering fertility benefits
As infertility rates are on the rise, more and more couples are seeking assistance. Basic benefit plans offer coverage up to the diagnosis of infertility, but they do not cover infertility treatments. Many Michigan employers in the last three years have been adding infertility riders to their medical plan at a relatively low cost.
Case Study: A Lighthouse self-funded client with approximately 165 employees can add expanded infertility coverage with a $25,000 lifetime maximum per person for a projected claim increase of around $9,000 per year*. This coverage includes:
- sperm count
- egg/sperm freezing, thawing, and storage
- In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
- Artificial insemination (AI)
- Services associated with the treatment such as ultrasounds and imaging
*These numbers are based off the client’s previous medical claim history with one of Lighthouse’s carrier partners.
- Exploring Flex Time options – Get creative and still get the job done!
For industries who are able, the pandemic has shown organizational productivity levels can be maintained, if not improved, when employees are not in the office 40 hours a week. 84% of working parents consider work flexibility the most important factor in a job.3 This includes hybrid or remote work models, job sharing, or stacking schedules to allow different teams certain days off. Employees are still getting their 40 hours in, but they can do so within the boundaries of a schedule that works best for them and their families.
From a bottom-line perspective, by investing in family-friendly benefits, your ROI comes in the form of improved retention, recruiting, and absenteeism. It’s also an investment in your workplace culture, sending a message to your employees that you care about their humanity beyond their work product.
It’s likely easy to stack hands on the business advantages of family-friendly benefits. But where to begin? I work with clients across the state of Michigan to help employers answer this question. No one can do it all and every workplace is different, so Lighthouse works strategically to help incorporate family-friendly benefits that make sense for your population, industry, and market competition. We’ll help you benchmark, survey, and communicate your benefits program to ensure current and potential talent recognizes the value of your investment.
START A CONVERSATION:
Stacey O’Keefe
Vice President
SOkeefe@lighthousegroup.com
616.455.9243
Sources:
2 – https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/03/23/support-for-paid-leave-policies/
