Organizations perform better when they support working mothers.
Women comprise almost 50 percent of the U.S. labor force and a third have children under the age of 18. As time marches forward, it’s clear that investing in women is key to securing long-term success. Fifth Third Bank discovered just this after assembling a team in 2016 to investigate the Bank’s female retention rate. They realized they needed to act to improve their leadership pipeline.
So Fifth Third added Best Upon Request’s Maternity Concierge program to beef up their maternity benefits. Three years into the program three benefits stand out, which any organization can reap from instituting this service.
Save in Recruiting Costs
Retain female talent after maternity leave. Women are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate after giving birth. One out of every five to be exact, according to the U.S. Census, and this comes at a considerable cost to organizations. Replacing an employee who leaves after childbirth can cost anywhere from 20 percent to 213 percent of their salary. This figure doesn’t include the price associated with lost skills, lost knowledge and a decline in productivity as new employees adapt.
Simply put: improving your organization’s maternity return-to-work rate is a multi-million-dollar opportunity. Organizations like General Mills, Aetna and Google, have saved millions in turnover by offering robust maternity benefits much like our client Fifth Third Bank has (who also implemented a parental leave benefit).
- Fifth Third increased their retention of working mothers by 25 percent!
- Google’s retention rate of women post-maternity leave increased by 50 percent.
- Aetna’s percentage of women returning to work jumped from 77 percent to 91 percent.
Win the War on Talent
Providing generous family-friendly benefits is the best way to attract top talent. Investing in working mothers is a big part of solidifying yourself as a competitive employer. Millennials make up 38 percent of the workforce and 90 percent of new parents who place a high premium on family benefits. As a result, cutting-edge organizations are capitalizing on being early adopters of robust maternity services to recruit and retain top talent.
Consider the following:
- Millennials, globally, are more likely than other generations to say it is important to receive paid parental leave, onsite or subsidized child care, and be able to telecommute 1-2 days a week.
- More than 50 percent of millennials say that they would take a lower salary to work for a company that shares their values—values which include gender equality, family, wellness, and diversity.
- When choosing between two jobs with comparable pay and responsibilities, 96 percent of millennials say that health benefits are the most crucial factor.
Strengthen Your Leadership Pipeline
Companies with women leaders are more profitable.
- Strong female leadership generates a Return on Equity of 10 percent annually, 3 percent higher than those organizations with all-male leadership.
- According to The Peterson Institute for International Economics survey of close to 22,000 firms, organizations with women in the C-Suite significantly increases net margins.
Yet, 43 percent of working mothers end up leaving their jobs because of the maternal wall. Between opting entirely out and downshifting, organizations are escorting some of their best future leadership out the front door.
While over half of Fifth Third Bank’s employees are women, leadership is disproportionately male. It turns out a lot of the Bank’s working mothers were opting out buckling under the weight of balancing both work and motherhood. And this created a talent bottleneck in which some of Fifth Third’s best and brightest were leaving after having children – a challenge that the Maternity Concierge program addresses.
Providing a Maternity Concierge benefit shows that your organization recognizes the unique challenges of working women who are pregnant and have infants. These services help lighten the load during a stressful, life-changing time, especially when women return to work and adjust to the new reality of being a working mother.