Although the United States is one of eight countries around the world and the only high-income country that does not guarantee paid family leave, things are beginning to change for workers and corporations in the US. A 2018 survey showed that 40% of US companies who participated in the study offered paid leave for both parents, which was a 25% boost from 2015.
This trend is a good thing. Work is not everything for most people, and there are times in life when the health of our family members and the attention needed to our loved ones will take precedence over our work lives.
Whether your workers are caring for an ill family member or are bonding with their newborn, providing time off to an employee when they’re needed is important not just for the health and wellbeing for your employees, but also for your business.
Below is everything you need to know about paid family leave and why you should be offering paid family leave to your employees today.
How Paid Family Leave works
Paid family leave is similar to paid sick leave or paid time off, but it relates to a worker’s family as opposed to a worker’s health.
Paid family leave is offered for two reasons:
- If an employee needs to care for a seriously ill family member, such as a parent, child, spouse, sibling, grandparent, parent-in-law, or domestic partner.
- To care for and bond with a newborn, foster, or adopted child.
Paid family leave ensures that employees can spend the critical period after a newborn is born or when their families need them the most without risk of losing their jobs or being able to support themselves.
In the US, only a few states, like paid family leave NY, have their own paid family/medical leave policies with varying success of enrollment, and there’s even less success or access to paid family leave at the federal level. This means it’s up to employers to provide what many other countries around the world see as a necessary benefit to their employees.
Why Paid Family Leave is Good for Business
Similar to vacations and PTO, paid family leave can inspire, refresh, recharge, and reinvigorate your employees so they’re ready to be productive when they return to work.
But paid family leave provides so much more than the necessary time many employees need during these critical life moments. Below are several reasons why paid family leave is good for your business.
- Additional stressors of family changes can have a negative impact on employees at work as well as those around them.
- Employees will work harder. According to a Maven study, more than 90% of employees working under a company with paid family leave said they were willing to do more to get the job done.
- You can build a better company culture and sense of community that employees will be proud of. In fact, that same Maven study showed 92% of employees would strongly recommend their company to friends and family as a great place to work.
- Your employees will remember the support you provided them and repay you with higher retention rates and a greater sense of loyalty.
- Another study of 1,500 employees showed that over 80% of companies that offered paid family leave saw an increase in employee morale, and more than 70% said they saw a significant boost in employee productivity.
Especially as paid family leave is not a standard in the US, you can become an outlier against the competition by providing support to employees in their most critical times of need. Implementing a paid family program as a part of your benefits program will allow you to improve the health and wellbeing of both your employees and your company.
Grokker provides the daily self-care support your employees need
Whether your employees are at home taking care of their loved ones or are continuing to work their Monday through Friday work weeks, they could all use a little motivation and inspiration to start focusing on their day-to-day wellbeing, mental health, fitness, and more.
Grokker provides that support by connecting our virtual wellbeing team with your employees and guiding their journey every step of the way.
On top of gaining access to thousands of healthy-living videos and support from our wellbeing experts around the world, Grokker will help you create a greater sense of community through our trackable incentives and challenges.
Give your employees the support they want and need with Grokker today.
