The results are in! Our exclusive research on the paid parental leave experience

You may have seen us teasing the results of a monumental parental leave survey that we recently conducted. Well…the full white paper is finally here!

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Why did we conduct this survey?

Through years of experience coaching thousands of parents working at companies across different industries and sizes, we’ve learned about the common challenges that parents face when preparing for parental leave and returning to work. 

But when we set out to find data-driven research that quantifies these challenges, we couldn’t find any. So we embarked on a first-of-its-kind comprehensive research study to: 

• assess the overall experience of paid parental leave in the U.S., from pre-leave to return-to-work 
• determine what factors influence long-term career trajectory and business outcomes during this transition
• identify the impact of an effective manager on the success of this experience
• share opportunities for organizations to better support parents taking leave

We also wanted to better understand the organizational impact of parental leaves on other team members and broader business priorities so that we could make informed recommendations on how to best enable everyone who is involved in this experience: the individual taking leave, their peers, their manager, and their employer.

We’ve built a vibrant community of parents, many of whom have recently taken leave. But when we first launched this survey, we were still amazed by how many people showed up to share their stories. 

Nearly 3,000 women in the U.S. who took paid parental leave within the past three years answered 42 comprehensive questions about their leave experience. In the process, they helped us better understand how we can be a better partner to employers.

So what did we find? 

There was a ton of interesting data to parse through. Working with a leading research firm, we spent weeks drawing insights about what’s working and what isn’t about paid parental leave today, and we’ve compiled the overarching narrative into a white paper.

Here are the top five takeaways every employer should pay attention to: 

1. Strong parental leave policies are a must-have for any organization seeking to attract female talent. 94% of mothers would consider their company’s parental leave policy when evaluating a job offer today, stressing the importance of a strong parental leave policy to companies’ broader talent acquisition strategy.

2. For women with access to fully paid leave, continued career progression is their number one concern, above childcare and health concerns. This concern increases for those who take longer leave, have a higher income, and/or work at larger companies. Many of the other top concerns are also professional in nature, such as concerns about how much time to take off, potentially burdening other team members, and the impact of leave on total compensation.

3. Women may leave their companies for other work opportunities if they don’t get appropriate support before and after parental leave. Given that new parenthood is an extremely vulnerable career moment, new parents pose a massive retention risk for companies. 73% of new parents consider leaving their company at least “occasionally” and one-third leave within 18 months of their return to work. Of those who leave, only 4% leave to drop out of the workforce, which means that companies have a great opportunity to retain new mothers better!

4. Over half of all parental leaves result in team burnout, creating a ripple effect across the organization. Other detrimental impacts to the business can include decreased motivation and productivity for new parents and stalled or delayed projects. 60% of new mothers say their organization is less than “effective” in supporting parental leave transitions and 89% want their organization to invest in the experience further.

5. Managers have an outsized influence on the overall parental leave experience and can significantly improve career and business outcomes. Although career progression is a top concern for expecting parents, only 20% receive support from their manager in this area–and 69% of returning parents don’t find it easy to have conversations with their manager about what they need to be successful as a working parent. The silver lining? Those with an effective manager are over 2.5x more likely to have a positive parental leave experience in the workplace than those without.

The policy was in place, but no one wanted to take time out of their day to transition me off / on... so it could've been great but it was disheartening. Anonymous

What should employers do?

The good news is that the survey provides several tactical ways for employers to pair generous paid parental leave policies with a thoughtful experience that aligns with employees’ career goals and employers’ business objectives.

The top recommendation that new parents have for their employers is more support for the cost of childcare. But beyond childcare, they viewed more training for managers and career support for parents as almost equally important.

The research further validates the effectiveness of these types of support. For example, the data shows that:

• Those who have a great parental leave coverage plan are over 2x more likely to feel confident about their future career trajectory than those who have a weak or non-existent plan.
• Similarly, those who have a strong re-onboarding plan are 3x more likely to find their return-to-work easier than expected, compared to those who don’t have a re-onboarding plan.
• Those with an effective manager are over 2.5x more likely to have a positive parental leave experience in the workplace than those without, and they are more likely to stay at the company longer. This suggests the need for more manager training and resources to drive ensure that all managers are equipped to create a positive leave experience.

For my first child, I had 12 weeks and came back to a terrible new manager who was a bully/micromanager. Fast forward a few years, I have the best manager in the world. My biggest fear in taking parental leave as a senior manager was that my career would suffer. But I got promoted within 3 months and bonus within 7 months of returning to work. I wish everyone had a leader like mine. Vanessa, Chicago, Illinois

We’re reviewing this data with a renewed optimism that through appropriate systems, programs, and tools, employers can reverse a brain drain of talented new parents and instead, create a consistently positive parental leave experience that results in engaged parents in thriving teams.

When employers invest in the parental leave experience, the results can be astounding: 67% of women who had "very positive" experiences returned to work equally or more engaged than before their parental leave (compared to 37% of their peers who had poor experiences). And women who had “very positive” experiences were up to 1.6x more likely to be “committed” or “strongly committed” to their careers after their return.

What’s next?

Our white paper has a ton of interesting graphs, charts, stories, and recommendations that paint a fuller picture of the paid parental leave experience. Take a look, and if it resonates with you–amplify for reach!