Working Parents Aim to Use Company Benefits Without ‘Fear of Judgment’

America has come a long way since the traditional nuclear family was the ideal and only acceptable way to have a family. Everyone has a family, and for most of the workforce, those families include children.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 74 percent of mothers and 93.4 percent of fathers with children under 18 are active in the workforce.
“As an HR leader, I think just by recognizing and embracing this shift, we can really understand that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all model for what families should look like and for how you need to support those families,” Gabriela Serret-Campos, head of people strategy and talent at Chronosphere, a platform that helps customers focus on important data by reducing complexity, cutting costs and speeding up problem-solving, told Newsweek in an interview.
In today’s workforce, families come in all forms, and companies have evolved their policies to accommodate that shift. This includes single-parent families, blended families, same-sex couples and multigenerational households.
As a single mother herself, Serret-Campos brings an authenticity to her work. She said leadership must demonstrate that families matter with action that goes beyond lip service.
“I think it’s really kind of setting the tone and ensuring that people feel comfortable using those benefits without that fear of judgment,” she said.
Newsweek recently published the 2024 ranking of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Parents and Families, in coordination with data firm Plant-A Insights Group.
For the ranking, more than 113,000 parents were surveyed. According to the data, single parents, parents working part-time and parents in nonmanagement positions require more attention and support from their companies.
“Ensuring that no group of parents—regardless of hierarchy level, work model or family situation—is overlooked and falling through the cracks is a key challenge for employers,” Plant-A told Newsweek. “Successfully addressing this will enable businesses to attract and fully benefit from the contributions of working parents, boosting productivity and ongoing success.”
Andrea Gill is the chief human resources officer at Capital Group, one of the five-star companies featured on the 2024 ranking. She interviewed for her first job at the company 25 years ago when she was eight months pregnant and is now the mother of three children. In her current role, she understands that those who choose to work at Capital Group are people first and employees second.
“When we can help working parents balance the competing and often very stressful demands of home and work—whether before the birth of a child, or after—we are all better off for it,” she told Newsweek in an emailed statement.
Capital Group offers a slew of benefits that help parents and their families, including financial support for adoption and surrogacy as well as pre- and postpartum doula services, fertility care coverage, bereavement support for loss of a child or a miscarriage, comprehensive medical benefits, including free therapy sessions, backup child care options through Bright Horizons and education services. The company recently extended the length of paid time off for new parents, whether through birth, adoption, surrogacy or foster placement, to 12 weeks.
Another way Capital Group fosters a positive and inclusive culture for working parents is through employee resource groups.
The Working Parents of Capital ERG hosts events to engage members and make them aware of the benefits available to them. It also meets regularly with HR to help address the needs of working parents, including hosting a forum specifically for single parents to share tips and resources.
Heather Cohen and Dani Martin are the co-global leads of the Working Parents of Capital ERG. They are mothers to two children each, and they have both worked at Capital Group for about 18 years.
“The Working Parents community plays a crucial role in supporting parents by connecting associates around the globe to celebrate the joys of parenthood and share resources to help associates grow professionally, personally and financially,” they told Newsweek in a joint emailed statement.
According to data firm Plant-A, the top priorities for working parents include working environment, compensation and benefits, company image and reputation, and work-life balance.
Satisfaction rates were highest among hybrid workers at 65 percent, compared to those working full-time in an office and fully remote, at 60 and 57 percent, respectively. Hybrid structures, Plant-A found, can offer flexibility needed to help parents better balance professional growth with family responsibilities.
Flexibility is paramount for working parents balancing their work and family responsibilities, Amy Spurling, the founder and CEO of the HR software company Compt, told Newsweek in an interview.
Often, parents must pick up their children from school or day care or take their children to doctor appointments during the traditional workday hours.
“Understanding that it’s not that this person is leaving work at 4:00 to pick up their child because they’re done with work at 4:00, but it’s allowing for the flexibility where they can do things that they need for their family and at the same time still get their job done,” she said. “It’s just going to be slightly different hours.”
The remote and hybrid work culture that grew out of the pandemic four years ago has been great for working parents, Spurling said. But the expectations that come with the growing push to return to the office from various companies may penalize people with kids.
Working mothers especially are feeling the burden of this balance. Spurling said women frequently leave the workplace at higher rates than men within the same organization because many working mothers are bearing the majority of the family responsibilities.
SoftwareOne, a five-star company on the ranking, offers the SoftwareOne Academy Returnship, which supports employees who take a career break transition back into the workforce. A representative from the company told Newsweek that 90 percent of those returning are women, many of whom took time away from work to be caregivers for their families.
Empathy is paramount for the company, SoftwareOne human resources officer Julia Braun told Newsweek. She said the company works with employees to offer options to go part-time, remote or hybrid.
“We’re committed to providing comprehensive benefits that take into account a variety of lifestyles—including working parents and single-family households—with the goal of providing the support and flexibility our employees need to live their best lives inside and outside of work,” she said in an emailed statement.
Overall, companies that adopt a more flexible work environment or other family policies can make the workplace more attractive and inclusive for all employees, including those with or without children.
“Everybody has a family,” Spurling said. “If you’re ignoring that, you’re ignoring a very large part of our population where a lot of our talent is.”
Having comprehensive family benefits, flexibility and open dialogue and visibility surrounding the challenges of parenthood, Spurling said that companies are sending a message to younger generations that they can advance their careers while building their families, no matter what they look like.
“By supporting parents, you’re sending a message [that] you can have both,” she said, “and we have a framework and structure to make sure that you can take care of your child and also do great work.”