- Key insight: Discover how a comprehensive "family arc" benefits model reduces caregiver attrition and productivity loss.
- Expert quote: Oxrider: Employers must support employees' diverse caregiving journeys to retain talent.
- Forward look: Expect multi-generational benefits to become standard competitive differentiators for attracting skilled workers.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
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"[This falls under] the umbrella of our responsibility [as an employer]," says Anne Oxrider, SVP and benefits executive at Bank of America (BofA). "The arc is, let me help you start your family. Let me provide you some financial support. Let me navigate with you [and] support you in the caregiving journey that you have with both permanent and backup care."
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Family-building and back-to-work support
For employees in the stage of starting or expanding their family, BofA offers up to $20,000 over an employee's time with the company to put toward eligible adoption, surrogacy and fertility care. It also provides 16 weeks of paid parental leave, which parents can choose to use at once or break apart during the first 12 months they have their new baby or adopted child.
During this first year, parents also have free access to family support through fertility and family care platform Maven, where they can receive 24/7 guidance on postpartum, infant care and back-to-work questions.
When they're ready to return to work, parents can contact a third-party partner that helps them find local child care options. BofA provides a reimbursement of up to $275 per month for employees making less than $100,000 cash compensation to help cover formal and informal child care as well as 50 days of backup child care at a reduced rate through Bright Horizons.
BofA also offers 50 days of backup care to employees in need of help with older loved ones, such as aging parents or partners who need daily assistance. For parents who take advantage of placing a child in a center-based location, the cost comes out to less than $20 a day, Oxrider says.
"It was really important for us to have formal and informal, because of the way in which caregiving is happening in the United States," she says. "[Beyond] center-based locations, we've got opportunities where there are other caregivers that are providing a really important service and closing that gap. And coming out of 2020, we decided it was worth having 50 days of care available on an annual basis for children. We want to make sure that [a child care issue] doesn't add to your inability to do what you need to do at work, or for you to feel the pressure of having to use a vacation day or a personal day."
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Beyond the baby years
Part of what makes BofA stand out as a family-friendly employer is that support does not end when employees' children go to school. Parents can get advice on revising tax forms, access free online financial wellness tracking and seek out professional advice on college savings plans and, when the time comes, application processes.
"We partner with Bright Horizons to provide college advice," Oxrider explains. "Having gone through [the college admissions process] with three children, I have to tell you, the first two didn't use it, the third one did, and it was magical. It's a huge job to help a child think through [this] process. We love giving our parents the chance to have a third party get involved in those discussions. We like to promote better money habits, but from a true benefit perspective, we really see [these things as part of] our core offerings."
The company also offers benefits that provide guidance on elder law and how to care for aging loved ones, help with setting up needed assistance like food delivery, and six hours with a senior care expert who will visit a home or facility to advise on a safe setup to reduce the risk of issues or accidents.
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Creating internal community
Communication through emails, articles on the company's intranet, and employee stories help spread awareness and appreciation for BofA's family benefits, and support exists within the company's 11 employee resource group (ERG) networks as well. Nationwide, the company has 360 network chapters and 320,000 employee ERG memberships, with many workers being part of more than one.
"We have a dedicated parent and caregiver network," Oxrider says. "Our teammates have a chance [to share] their stories and learn. We bring programming in externally — I partner with them regularly to educate on benefits and bring in experts who can talk about [caregiving] journeys, from parenting to caring for adults. We integrate a lot of that conversation in all of the ERGs we have."
Bank of America's holistic approach to family support earned it the honor of being named Large Business National Innovator last year by The Best Place for Working Parents. For BofA, offering benefits and a culture that prioritize employee's families means retaining long-term talent, Oxrider says.
"As an employer, we have to understand that if someone's going to be in [a caregiving] role at some point, we have to be in a position to support them along that journey," she says. "I want to keep you here, and I can't do that if I don't have benefit programs and policies and time away that allows you to achieve the balance you need to achieve in your professional and personal life."
