Paid Parental Leave
Challenge
We wanted to continue to support new parents in our organization by providing pay during bonding time following the birth or adoption of a child, while also providing resources to help make the transition back to work as smooth as possible.
Actions
On April 1, 2018, we implemented a program that provides 6-weeks of paid leave for new parents, including mothers, fathers and those who adopt children. We also modified our short-term disability policy to provide birth mothers a minimum of 12 weeks of full pay if she has at least one year of service with Protective. The non-delivering parent receives 6 weeks of full pay. We also added a second lactation room in our corporate office and upgraded our services with an outside vendor to offer free milk delivery for new mothers who travel for work.
Outcomes
Since implementation of this program, 100% of women employees who have delivered babies have taken the full 6 weeks of paid parental leave on top of their 6-8 weeks paid recovery period on short-term disability. The non-birth parents (all men), have taken an average of 4.5 weeks off. Our CEO kicked off the new policy with an email encouraging all employees to take advantage of the policy and expressed that he wished he had this opportunity when his children were born. We surveyed the users of this policy one year following implementation, and it received overwhelming support and positive feedback.
Contact
Martina Winston
Quote
Protective is excited to join hundreds of companies and leaders throughout the United States in signing the CEO Action for Inclusion pledge. We are proud of the work we’ve done to support diversity and inclusion at Protective and in the communities where we live and work, but we also realize achieving our goals is a journey that will take time. We look forward to learning from our peers and working together to advance change.