Last spring, online retailer Etsy rolled out a gender-blind parental leave policy offering 26 weeks of paid leave to all of the company’s new parent employees. We applauded the announcement at the time.
Now they’re sharing the results and … damn.
The policy introduced last April was an expansion of Etsy’s existing parental leave policies, which previously provided 12 weeks for new moms and five weeks for new dads. The move to a flexible, gender-neutral plan—the 26 weeks can be taken over two years—was designed to combat the unconscious biases that can be harmful to mothers in the workplace and fathers at home.
It worked.
On its blog, Etsy’s Senior Director of Culture and Engagement Juliet Gorman reported that 48 employees have taken leave under the new policy – 50 percent who identify as men, and 50 percent who identify as women.
And get this:
From our early findings, we’re proud to say that taking generous parental leave has not negatively impacted our employees’ careers. Of those who have taken the new parental leave, 35% have been promoted since April, which means they were promoted either soon before, during or after taking leave. Of those who were promoted, 41% advanced to director level or above.
Great stuff. Even better: Etsy made a video to tell the story of the policy and its impact. The video is, in a word, EVERYTHING.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i12JHVHXHKc
It’s got parents talking about the impact on their family lives and ability to return to work. You’ve got executives talking about the impact on the business. EVERYTHING.
“I basically cried when I found out.”
That’s from an email content specialist who found out the policy changed about halfway through her leave. “I basically cried when I found out,” she said, explaining she couldn’t imagine going back to work three months after a C-section.
“My wife no longer has to put aside her career, now I can jump in and also be that person.”
That’s how a Senior Product Manager, who now has more than six months of paternity leave, described the impact on his family. Now, he says, he’ll be able to share the primary caregiver role and get the “alone time” with his child that he didn’t imagine he’d ever get.
“I was worried about what it would be like when I came back, and what the future of my career would be.”
With those words, an Etsy Director of Member support gave voice to a concerned shared by many women, even admitting she probably would not have returned to work if not for the paid leave her employer provides. “The ability to completely disconnect from work allowed me to come back feeling a lot more refreshed and effective,” she said.
Etsy, like many companies who introduce generous paid parental leave policies, are banking that type of employee experience. Family-friendly benefits, like paid leave and the types of care assistance offered through Care For Business, have been proven to improve employee loyalty, reduce turnover and even boost productivity.
In the words of Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson: “It’s not purely about taking care of families, I think it’s also incredibly good for business. When you can combine those two things, you’ve got something really magical.”
That’s it: magic.
