Making the business case for parental leave programs
by
Jenna Vassallo
Apr 17, 2024
In most organizations, HR professionals are responsible for the employee experience of parental leave. And while the length of the paid leave policy is important, there are other factors to account for.
Today, more and more companies are focusing on how to support parental leave transitions to ensure their employees - and the business - don’t face career and business disruption as a result of their paid leave policy.
We interviewed Jessica Winder, an HR leader and author of The Hidden Gem Within, who successfully made the business case for investing in parental leave transition support.
She saw the value in offering expecting employees career coaching to help them prepare for this life transition as it relates to their careers, while providing managers with training to teach them the role they play in their direct report’s experience.
Here’s how she did it.
Episode 17
The False Tradeoff
How to improve your parental leave policy & program
Step 1: Define the problem, then look for a solution
After 13+ years as an HR leader, Jessica knew the number one problem with parental leave was that after employees take their leave, they have a really difficult time coming back to work.
Once her company increased the paid parental leave policy, she knew she also needed to invest in career support to make it easier for employees to return - while also ensuring the business would run smoothly in their absence.
This is where she discovered Parentaly as a viable solution:
“I instantly knew when I heard about [Parentaly], I thought, oh, this is amazing. I knew it was important because we wanted people that were leaving to come back…you're coaching people, you’re giving people resources - and not just them, but their managers.”
Step 2: Present data when pitching leadership
Cost is a primary driver of whether a business will decide to implement a paid parental leave program. Although she faced resistance, Jessica pushed back on the “we can’t afford it” mentality:
“We cannot afford notto do it because how much does it cost you to replace these said people?,” she recalls debating with her leadership team. “I very strongly leaned in on, ‘If we don't do this, these people will leave.’”
But she knew that wasn’t enough.
So she researched what her competitors were offering and used that as a baseline to offer longer paid parental leave. She also built a business case to show how Parentaly programming would reduce business disruption and post-leave attrition.
Her approach was similar to what we outlined in our free template, which many HR leaders and working parent advocates have used to make the business case for policy change.
Step 3: Use employee feedback to show the ROI of the program
While not every HR leader will personally use every benefit they invest in, understanding how to measure positive ROI is an important part of the buying process.
In Jessica’s case, we got lucky because she utilized the program herself when she got pregnant with twins.
As both an HR leader and expecting parent, she saw how valuable it was to support the parental leave experience - for herself, but also her direct report, manager and entire leadership team.
In addition to the 1:1 career coaching she received to guide her through parental leave planning, she found the Parentaly Toolkit incredibly helpful.
It included resources and templates for parts of the parental leave experience that she hadn’t considered, which resulted in her team being fully prepared for her leave:
“With my coach, we documented all the templates. I absolutely utilized them. We wrote everything down. Everything was in writing. The timeframes were ready. When I texted my team and said, ‘Hey, I'm on the way to the hospital.’ they were like, ‘Got it. Good. We have all the documents. Like we have folders. We had everything that we needed.’”
Beyond her personal experience, we worked closely with Jessica to share how our career coaching and manager training were bringing positive ROI to the rest of her employees by presenting data on productivity, engagement and retention collected at each stage of the program.
These are a few of the reasons why Jessica says implementing Parentaly was a great decision:
“I'd do it again,” she said. “I plan to do it again, any company I go to.”
To celebrate all we’ve accomplished, our team shared what they’re most proud of since joining the team:
I'm most proud of how much we have done to improve the single hardest moment for women's careers (going on parental leave) ... one that is often shrouded in insecurity and fear. We've been able to help advocate for so many women (and men!) in a way that is empowering and truly life-changing.
Allison Whalen, CEO & Founder
What am I most proud of? Growth! Growing a category of support that didn't exist before Parentaly. Growing from a one-woman bootstrapped operation to a global team of 25+ employees and coaches. Growing our overall impact for working parents, with companies investing in our parental leave programming to support employees all over the world. And growing as humans: new babies, new friends, new life experiences... all while tackling new and exciting work challenges together.
Rich Burke, Head of Growth
When I reflect on what I am personally most proud of during my time here, it's working alongside a team where we constantly evolve and optimize everything that we do in order to deliver the best possible experience for the folks going through our programs. It sounds cheesy, but there are processes that my team and I used to do 100% manually that are now completely automated and systems in place that have become second nature to how we operate. Working with such thoughtful, smart, and creative people is incredible.
Sara Ophoff, Senior Program Manager
I’m most proud about doing work that makes parents feel confident and empowered about their careers during a time that can be overwhelming and challenging – not only for our clients and users who go through Parentaly’s programs, but also with our advocacy work on LinkedIn, through our podcast and other big campaigns that make a difference. It’s been pretty rewarding to build a brand people know and love because what we’re doing resonates with so many employees’ experiences in the workforce.
Jenna Vassallo, Head of Brand & Marketing
I am so proud of the way we've approached growth with such care and intentionality - with every adjustment we've made to our offerings, we've never lost sight of our goal to provide the most supportive and valuable experience for our users. I love looking back on the early stages of conversations and building that have led us to the experience we offer today. Personally, I am extremely proud of the work I've done to scale and automate our backend!
Rachel Andes, Program Associate
I am most proud of the work we do every single day to make a positive impact on working parents! Everyday I get to work with an amazing group of people…we work hard but we also have fun.
Sarah Gruber, Client Partner
I'm proud of scaling an employee experience that consistently delivers positive outcomes for new parents and their organizations. Our north star has always been the user, and we never sacrifice our high quality bar!
Mansi Kothari, VP of Product & Experience
I feel a sense of pride that I get to work behind the scenes supporting everyone. I’m proud to see all of the collaboration between the team and how Parentaly positively impacts employees.
Leo Manalo, Executive Assistant
I'm most proud of going through the Parentaly program myself! I'm so proud to work for and promote this company in a time where parental leave and supportive policies are at the forefront of a national conversation. But beyond this, I'm most proud to call myself a participant.
Emmy Carragher, Enterprise Partnerships
I’m really proud of the work I did to expand our coaching bench globally at Parentaly. It was so rewarding, not to mention insightful, to connect with talented coaches from around the globe. This expansion not only enriched our coaching offerings but also strengthened our commitment to making a meaningful impact on families all over the world.
I have tremendous pride in the knowledge that what I am doing will change the career landscape for new parents, particularly mothers. This will make it more likely that my daughter can have a career AND a family without worrying about the unintentional negative impact of taking parental leave. Nothing makes me prouder than that.
Mindy Himmel-Brown, Strategic Partnerships
In my short time at Parentaly, I'm proudest of the work we're doing with our clients' ERG groups to elevate the stories and advice of actual working parents. It's such an impactful way to spread the word about Parentaly as an essential resource for all people growing their families, and the managers who support them!
Alex Diskin, Enterprise Account Manager
I'm most proud about using LinkedIn to connect with others. I was recently able to share a helpful return to work doc with 50+ new people looking to make a difference at their company. Was pretty cool that people from Chewy, McDonald's, Honda, Cisco, AWS, Walmart and more want to integrate just a piece of what we have to offer. Also...I'm so proud of the way I feel as an employee at Parentaly. For the first time in my career my personal interests align with my professional interests and I've never felt more motivated.
Jenny Hurwitz, Strategic Partnerships
I'm really proud of being able to help the Experience team by handling the supportive functions so they can focus on the bigger picture. It feels great to know that I’m making things easier for them and contributing to the team’s success.
James Mango, Executive Assistant
Tagged
HR & policy
Podcast recap
Hear more from Jessica on her parental leave experience and how she made the business case for parental leave policy enhancements
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