Maven Clinic and Great Place to Work on benefits for parents

5 benefits that make your workplace stand out to parents

January 24, 2022 3:02 PM

For the millions of working parents holding jobs in every industry imaginable, many have found themselves at the end of their rope. What’s driving them away, and what do employers need to do to get them to stay?

According to McKinsey, over 40% of mothers and fathers are planning to leave their job in 2022. But whether these employees have children now or plan to expand their families in the future, the stress of balancing family needs with work is causing nearly one in four working parents to experience burnout, according to a new report by Maven Clinic and Great Place to Work, a data and research company focused on workplace cultures. This burnout more than doubles the likelihood of an employee looking for a new job.

“Burnout is when people have reached the end of being able to cope,” says Karsten Vagner, senior vice president of people at Maven. “As a parent and HR leader, I think this happens when the emotional labor, the physical labor of things at home and your day-to-day labor of work just gets to be too much and completely out of order.”

To support working parents, the best companies are offering innovative family planning benefits that help employees manage the financial and emotional stressors that come with growing and raising a family. Investing in these benefits today can help prevent burnout down the line: Maven and GPTW found that employers with these benefits reported a 45% decline in burnout.

So what’s the secret to a parent-friendly workplace? Maven and GPTW shared the benefits that are making the biggest difference:

Fertility support programs

Around 38% of organizations offer fertility support, and of the companies ranked by Great Place to Work, 75% include it in their benefits offerings. For example, Liberty Mutual, which was recognized as one of the best workplaces for parents by GPTW, gave its employees $45,000 towards fertility coverage for health plan members.

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Easing the financial burden of having children is a highly coveted benefit among employees, especially when they factor in the healthcare costs associated with family planning. Since many fertility treatments are not considered medically necessary by insurance companies, coverage varies from state to state and company to company. Yet it could cost $200 to $400 to even visit a reproductive endocrine fertility specialist, and down the line, thousands more for artificial insemination and injectable fertility drugs. In vitro fertilization can cost nearly $20,000, since most parents-to-be will have to do more than one round.

“Working parents want to be acknowledged and recognized by their employers and not just through words, but also through investment and deeds,” says Vagner. “So having benefits that can be special and unique to parents’ needs is a real place to start.”

Adoption support

Adoption support is an even less prevalent benefit for the average organization, with only 20% offering it. However, 58% of best workplaces for parents do provide financial support as well as leave for parents who choose adoption. For example, Horizon Therapeutics, another company named as a best workplace for parents, offers $25,000 in adoption support and 10 weeks of parental leave.

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Depending on how and where a parent adopts a child, it can cost anywhere between $5,000 and $40,000, according to Child Welfare Information Gateway. If a parent is trying to adopt privately, there are attorney fees involved, and adopting through a private agency comes with its own costs — either way, it can take nine months to two years to bring the child home. Employers have to account for the time and money workers need to successfully adopt.

Egg-freezing coverage

Even for employees who don’t yet have children, support is critical to a company’s retention efforts. Especially as more women become parents later in life, it’s become increasingly crucial to have this benefit. While 27% of organizations include egg-freezing coverage in their benefits, 66% of best workplaces for parents include it.

According to the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, on average, patients will spend $7,500 to freeze their eggs. This does not include fertility treatment costs that will come once the patient is ready to have a child. Cisco reimburses its employees up to $20,000 to harvest or store eggs or embryos.

“It’s really important for employers to find ways to show their employees that they invest in and support them no matter what stage of parenting they’re in,” says Vagner. “Everyone has special needs and fits.”

Surrogacy coverage

As little as 11% of companies provide surrogacy coverage, and 43% of best workplaces for parents cover it. With a six-figure price tag, surrogacy can cost between $100,000 to $150,000, including the cost of hiring a surrogate, the medical fees and legal fees. But that number can grow if the initial attempts at fertilization prove unsuccessful.

Deloitte, another company on the list of best workplaces for parents, offers to reimburse employees up to $50,000 for surrogacy-related expenses, which could potentially cut an employee’s financial loss in half.

Subsidized child care expenses

Only 14% of companies carry this benefit, while 44% of best workplaces for parents offer it — but these numbers may need to change if more employers want to retain their working parents.

A survey conducted by market research company YouGov found that the average American parent spends over $8,000 in child care for each dependent. And while many parents have worked remotely over the last two years, that does not mean their child care needs have lessened.

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“As a working parent, I had to be their school teacher, their gym teacher and parent all while being everything I needed to be at work,” says Vagner, who has a five-year-old. “We are playing all these roles and are still expected to be high-performing employees.”

Child care has even moved to the forefront of national conversations and laws. For instance, President Biden’s American Family Plan would ensure parents who make less than 1.5 times their state median income will not have to pay for child care. But there’s no guarantee this law will come to fruition. Employers are in a unique position because they have the ability to act now, says Vagner

“Why support working parents? It’s simply the right thing to do,” he says. “We need to make sure that we are being kind, helpful and caring for people who are all living through this pandemic.”