American working parents need support from their employers now more than ever. We’ve officially fallen off the childcare cliff, and costs are rising nationally—to the point where it makes more sense financially in some families for a parent to not work because their income would just pay for childcare. Something needs to give if employers want to retain parents in the workforce, and caregiving benefits are proving to be the solution that positively impacts both parties.
The Fifth Trimester and Vivvi teamed up to publish a report called “The R.O.I. of Caregiving Benefits” that unearthed some remarkable statistics about how family-friendly practices in the workplace improve productivity and increase profits.
The data was derived from an original survey of more than 300 caregivers and 10 individual case studies that feature companies like Estée Lauder, Bobbie, PwC and Etsy, and its most compelling findings can be broken down into four categories: retention, productivity, recruiting, and profitability.
Nearly half of the respondents (42%) who considered leaving their job in the last year said they stayed because of how their employer supported their caregiving, and 59% said if they had back-up or subsidized child care they’d be likely to stay with their company for at least four years.
Back-up or subsidized child care also increases productivity, with a whopping 69% of respondents saying they’d work in-person more often than required and 57% saying they’d take on higher-level work if their employer offered such a benefit.
“[Caregiving benefits] signal an overall commitment by the employer that says: Your whole life matters here,” The Fifth Trimester CEO Lauren Smith Brody tells Motherly. “[They also] help equalize labor across teams, so that parents can show up and do high-quality work without feeling like they’re burdening their teammates…I am all for cross coverage, but it’s a recipe for resentment (or worse, attrition, proximity bias, and discrimination!) when team members without kids are constantly being asked to cover for parents. Caregiving benefits do more than just prevent those risks. They help everyone bring their best selves.”
Child care benefits prove to be more valuable to job-hunting parents than more conventional perks, with respondents ranking them above a 401k. The survey also revealed potential employees look for family-supporting benefits even if they know they won’t use them.
“We found that there were several caregiving benefits that, when job-hunting, respondents said that they valued even more highly if they knew that they might not use them themselves but that their colleagues might,” Brody notes. “Those included paid family leave, backup child care, on-ramping post leave, and fertility benefits. To me, that says they want parents (supported parents) as colleagues.”
Devoted employees result in more profits for companies, and the report’s largest finding reflects that. The case studies show that every $1 invested in caregiving benefits and culture drives $18.93, for an R.O.I. of nearly 18x.
“I am a deep and committed advocate for gender equity and public policy that would make being a working parent in America sustainable, but this is a both/and moment, and the private sector has a real opportunity to change cultural norms and rewrite our economic future,” says Brody. “For years, we’ve known that these supports are the right thing to do—now we have numbers that prove that they’re a business imperative, too.”
The bottom line? Supporting working parents is good for business.
