The Best Place for Working Parents® Releases First Annual National Trends Report Revealing New Data on Family-Friendly Workplace Benefits

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Jan 11, 2023, 08:00 ET

The research study highlights the family-friendly trends and opportunities for businesses across industry, company size, and region, including tangible recommendations for businesses seeking to enhance their family-friendly practices.

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Best Place for Working Parents® and Southern Methodist University's Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) have released their National Trends Report for 2022, which examines the benefits and policies of businesses that promote family-friendly work environments and their competitive advantage in attracting and retaining employees. The report can be read here.

The insights and findings in the report were gathered among The Best Place for Working Parents network of designated companies varying in size across the U.S. that support working parents and families. The study looked at the ten family-friendly policies that have been shown to be effective in supporting working parents and families as well as businesses' bottom line. Policies include paid leave, flexible work hours, and affordable child care, among others. The report also sought to evaluate the success of implementing the top ten policies in creating family-friendly workplaces across size and industry, and what changes had occurred in these policies pre- and post-COVID. Further, the report evaluates key policy "tipping points" that are most important in helping employers earn a Best Place for Working Parents designation.

A few of the key findings from the report include:

Most family-friendly companies offer healthcare, paid time off, remote work, and flexible work policies. 90% of Best Place for Working Parents designees have these policies because they are affordable and effective, whereas onsite child care and backup child care are the least frequently offered.
Larger companies offer a wider range of family-friendly benefits, whereas smaller companies are focused on a few benefits that have a very high impact. An organization's ability to implement policies increases with its size. Micro and small organizations, however, are also capable of implementing a range of the top ten family-friendly policies and are above average in implementing high-impact benefits, such as on-site child care and backup child care.
On average, Business & Information and Finance & Insurance organizations offer more family-friendly benefits compared to other industries surveyed. Business & Information and Finance & Insurance organizations each offer five family-friendly benefits above the national average, which is more than any of the other industries surveyed.
Companies of similar sizes have key "tipping point" policies that make the difference in gaining a Best Place for Working Parents designation. Several themes emerged from examining data from those companies that earned a Best Place for Working Parents designation and those that did not achieve the designation. Across businesses of all sizes, there is a 20 percentage point or more gap between designated and non-designated organizations when it comes to maternity, paternity, and nursing leave. For organizations that applied for the designation, these policies made the difference. Additional tipping point policies make the difference for companies depending on size, ranging from micro to large.

"In order to create workplaces that are both family-friendly and business-friendly, we must first understand the specific needs, trends, and challenges of Best Place for Working Parents businesses across each industry and organization size. With the ability to benchmark a company's performance against similar organizations, business leaders can gain insights on best practices in recruiting and retaining employees and identify tangible ideas for how to implement research-backed family-friendly policies in their own organizations," said Sadie Funk, national director of The Best Place for Working Parents. "Through this study, we are giving the business community a snapshot of key family-friendly practices that are proving effective across the country in diverse industries and company sizes."

When compared to competitors, great workplaces with family-friendly cultures win when it comes to revenue growth, employee retention, productivity, innovation, resilience, agility, customer service, and employee engagement. The Best Place for Working Parents commissioned this report to support companies in implementing family-friendly policies and practices that are proven to benefit both their employees and their company's business performance.

See how various companies, industries, and regions compare when it comes to family-friendly benefits in The Best Place for Working Parents 2022 National Trends Report here.

Report Methodology

This study analyzed application data submitted between December 11, 2019 and September 21, 2022 from the Best Place for Working Parents network, revealing which types of organizations across the country are providing the top ten family-friendly policies proven to support working parents and businesses' bottom line. The Best Place for Working Parents network currently extends to nine states and 15 regions across the United States.

About The Best Place for Working Parents®

The Best Place for Working Parents is a collaborative and growing network of businesses across the U.S. dedicated to providing support for working parents through evidence-based strategies, proving that family-friendly is business-friendly. A public-private partnership, The Best Place for Working Parents offers a competitive designation that recognizes innovation across the top ten research-backed family-friendly policies that help working parent employees and boost employers' bottom line. Businesses can qualify to become a Best Place for Working Parents business designation by taking the first-of-its-kind business online self-assessment. Learn more at https://bestplace4workingparents.com.

SOURCE The Best Place for Working Parents®