5.5x revenue growth: Data shows supporting working parents is good for business

Companies that are better for parents are better for everyone—and for your bottom line. But making the business case to invest in supporting working parents and employees who want to grow their families requires real data. Our newly-released report with Great Place to Work®—the largest-ever survey of working parents representing the sentiments of 440,000 parents across 1,244 U.S.-headquartered companies—provides the latest: 

Companies that invest in employees and their families see better innovation, which leads to 5.5 times the revenue growth of their peers.

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Let’s break this down.

Here are the three key ways investing in working parents helps unlock this revenue growth. 

1. Greater innovation 

When working parents experience a positive company culture, their organizations gain more than double the number of employees ready to innovate than their competitors, according to this new report. Whether that’s 2,000 or 200,000 employees, depending on the size of your company, this can make a significant impact on revenue. 

Plus, research shows that when more employees experience meaningful opportunities to develop new and better ways of doing things, their companies reap the benefits: 

• generate more high-quality ideas
• realize greater speed in implementation
• achieve greater agility
  

2. Higher talent retention 

Retention and revenue go hand-in-hand. And retaining talent this year—especially women and working parents—is top of mind for all employers. The latest jobs reports tell us that the pandemic has set women in the workplace back 32 years: the percentage of American women working is the lowest it’s been since 1988. 

This is a crisis. But the reality is, women leaving the workforce has been an issue for companies long before the pandemic:

• 43% of women leave the workforce within one year of having a baby
• 86% of working mothers say they would leave a job for an opportunity that better supports their work and life considerations
• Replacing an employee costs employers up to 213% of that employee’s salary
  

Best Workplaces for Parents™ know that investing in employees and their families and fostering a supportive culture for working parents to thrive is critical to stemming the tide. And, pandemic or not, providing best-in-class family benefits and support through the critical transition back to work after parental leave can make all the difference. Maven has helped leading companies retain more top talent: 90% of Maven members return to work after paid leave, compared with the 57% national average. 

3. Increased productivity 

The final driver of 5.5x revenue growth? Companies that better support and inspire working parents reap significant competitive advantages when it comes to productivity: 92% of employees are willing to give extra to get the job done at Best Workplaces for Parents™, compared with just 82% at other workplaces. 

Why? When employees feel like their employer is invested in their health and well-being as well as their family’s, they are motivated to do their best work. One recent study found that by improving overall physical and emotional health, benefit programs that provide access to holistic support like coaching or mental health support not typically covered by traditional health insurance, appear to have improved average worker productivity by over 4%—equal to adding approximately one additional day of productive work per month for each employee. 

And this adds up. If you think about a day in the life of a typical working parent, amping up support in key areas can make all the difference for their productivity and ability to engage at work. Take childcare for example: Parents spend a lot of time trying to find the best childcare options for their family, researching availability and locations near home or work or both, weighing options, submitting applications or making calls, and trying to make the best decisions. That can add up to a great deal of time, not to mention stress, which is why 78% of Best Workplaces are supporting their parents with finding childcare. 

“When you invest in your people, they'll invest in you. For working parents, strengthening their support structure at work and at home is essential—and proves that work-life integration is a winning proposition for everyone."  - Holly Duvernay, Benefits Principal, Boston Scientific 

Want to get the latest data to make the business case for supporting parents at your company? Download our new Parents at the Best Workplaces™ report now.