{"id":12679,"date":"2020-03-11T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/buzzfeeds-parental-leave-benefits-result-in-95-retention-rate\/"},"modified":"2024-01-25T09:46:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T14:46:13","slug":"buzzfeeds-parental-leave-benefits-result-in-95-retention-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellable.co\/blog\/buzzfeeds-parental-leave-benefits-result-in-95-retention-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"Buzzfeed\u2019s Parental Leave Benefits Result In 95% Retention Rate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paid parental leave is a coveted work benefit because there is no federally-mandated paid parental leave in the U.S. As a result, many employers find that this benefit is one of the most attractive ones when it comes to recruiting and retaining top talent. With a younger workforce that is most impacted by parental leave policies, Buzzfeed decided to implement changes that would vastly expand their support for working parents.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the media company decided to expand women\u2019s and family healthcare benefits<\/a>. This was in addition to Buzzfeed\u2019s generous parental leave policy, which provides 18 weeks of fully-paid leave for primary caregivers and six weeks for secondary caregivers. Following the expansion of family healthcare support, Buzzfeed reported that 95% of their employees returned to work after parental leave. By contrast, the national average is 57%.<\/p>\n

While the 18 weeks of paid leave is exceptional on its own, Buzzfeed chose to provide extra caregiver support through Maven, a digital platform focused on women and families that facilitates access to obstetricians, pediatricians, postpartum specialists, and other medical professionals. Maven also supports parents returning to work with career coaching, breastmilk shipping services, and other supportive resources. In one year, Buzzfeed employees interacted with Maven over 600 times.<\/p>\n

Buzzfeed\u2019s Global Benefits Manager, Hannah Wilkowski, explained that their employees had \u201cfelt like there weren\u2019t enough resources for them during [pregnancy and infant caregiving]\u201d and that, despite substantial time off, \u201ca lot of people would go out of leave and maybe just not come back.\u201d Adding these extra benefits made their paid leave policy even more effective for new parents\u2019 health and employee retention.<\/p>\n

Today, families are more likely to have both parents in the workforce. More women are also achieving top positions in companies, making them important assets to their employer and expanding equality in the workforce. Since women tend to return home to take care of a child more often than men, these paid leave and caregiver support benefits are crucial to facilitating female representation in many industries.<\/p>\n

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Benefits Of Paid Parental Leave<\/h2>\n

The benefits of paid parental leave go beyond increased employee retention. Paid leave supports almost every aspect of an employee\u2019s well-being, most notably:<\/p>\n