As American families have changed, family-friendly policies have not only become a necessity for employees, they have also been proven to be good for business. NCBC member, Family Forward NC, has been researching the benefits of these policies to businesses here in North Carolina.
Discussions of family-friendly policies tend to focus on paid leave for mothers, but there are a variety of low-cost policies that businesses can implement from setting aside a room for breastfeeding mothers to tax-deductible vouchers for child care to flexible work schedules and paid sick days.
Here are a few reasons to put in place family-friendly policies to help your business’s bottom line:
Improve Recruitment and Retention:
With North Carolina’s unemployment rate at just 3.6%, finding and keeping valuable employees has never been more critical. Replacing an employee costs about 33% of that employee’s salary, or $15,000 for every $45,000, according to The Work Institute’s 2018 Retention Report.
Family Forward NC reports that, “73% of NC employees would be more committed to their employers if they offered more family-friendly practices and 86% of US millennials say they are less likely to leave an employer that offers paid parental leave.” While family-friendly policies can cost more on the front end, they will pay back dividends when less time is spent on recruiting and training new talent.
Increase Workplace Productivity:
In a 2016 Ernst and Young Survey of HR officers, 71% of them said that family leave had a positive effect on employee productivity. When employees have ample time for family responsibilities, they are more focused on their work.
Mitchell Gold, who owns a furniture factory in Taylorsville, opened a child care facility for his employees. He says of motivation to do so: “We recognized early on that we had employees with children, and they were distracted. They weren’t giving us their full attention because they were worried about being finished in time to pick up their child, or having to go across town to get their child if something went wrong.”
Gold noticed a difference in employee engagement and loyalty after opening the facility.
Reduce Absenteeism:
“Employers nationwide lose $4.4 billion each year due to employee absences or loss of productivity related to child care issues.” Family-friendly policies give employers an opportunity to plan an employee’s time away from work, so that other employees and the company as a whole are not adversely affected.
Paid leave can also curb illness from spreading among employees. In a startling CDC study, “49% of food workers say they worked at least one shift while suffering from vomiting or diarrhea over the past year in part because they knew they would not be paid if they stayed home sick.”
No matter the size of the business, Family Forward NC has resources to help employers plan and implement family-friendly policies. On their website, you can download their Guide to Family Forward Workplaces. It includes an employee survey that you can use to find out what family-friendly policies would most benefit your employees.