Next-gen parental benefits: How today’s HR leaders attract and retain millennial parents
Maybe that's why 96% of millennials say great healthcare benefits are important in choosing a job — even more important than frequent raises (94%) and promotions (82%), according to Bentley University’s ‘Millennial Mind Goes to Work’ survey (2014). Leading companies like Netflix, Vodafone and more are going above and beyond to beef up parental benefits in order to attract and retain millennial talent.
Expanded paid parental Leave
Netflix created quite the buzz when they announced their unlimited parental leave policy allowing employees to take off as much time as they felt necessary during the first year after their child’s birth or adoption.
Unlimited parental leave removes several of the biggest headaches for working parents, such as securing infant child care or having to declare long-term absences as disability leaves. Netflix addressed the struggle of new parenthood head-on with a game-changing policy that applies to both mothers and fathers. It was a major step in the movement for better parental benefits, and one that inspired other companies to follow suit.
Full pay and flexible scheduling
We’ve all heard of paid maternity leaves, but the amount of time covered varies greatly from company to company, and country to country. In the US, two months is a standard for paid maternity leave, prompting many mothers to exit the workforce.
Vodafone responded by offering a minimum of 16 weeks of fully paid leave, and even took it up a notch by also paying new mothers in full for 30-hour weeks for the first 6 months after returning.
Vodafone CEO, Vitto Colao says, "Too many talented women leave working life because they face a difficult choice between either caring for a newborn baby or maintaining their careers.” Supporting working mothers through flexible work weeks at full pay is a great way to retain millennial talent for companies who can't follow in the footsteps of Netflix's unlimited parental leave.
Access to child care
Companies like Google, Starbucks, Genentech, and AOL offer onsite daycare facilities to make life way easier for their working parents. But you don't need to build a brand new daycare centre to win with millennial parents.
Companies like Facebook, Hubspot and Workday provide their employees with digital platforms like Care@Work to help working parents find, manage and pay for family care anytime.
Another creative approach is to offer a ‘Parents Night Out’. Mortgage lender, Veterans United treats their working parents to a free night out every three months, and even provides a list of recommended babysitters. It's probably no coincidence that the company has a 4.4 rating on Glassdoor.
Why millennial parents love digital healthcare
Dealing with an ill child is one of the biggest fears for new parents. For first-time parents especially, every new noise, rash or hiccup can induce major anxiety. And for parents with children who have chronic conditions, the stress of balancing work, home and regular paediatric appoints can lead to exhaustion or even physical or mental illness in the parent as well as the child. Not to mention the increasing number of mothers, and even fathers, who struggle with postpartum depression.
Digital healthcare helps working parents win back their time and achieve peace of mind by providing fast access to doctors, paediatricians, and mental health professionals, at work or at home. When the key to better healthcare choices is in the palm of their hands, parents won’t have to choose between their careers or their kids.
Dr Umang Patel is clinical director at Babylon Health.
This article was provided by Babylon Health.
In partnership with babylon
babylon is the UK's leading digital healthcare company.
