What companies may not know about the foster parent experience

Jenna Vassallo

Aug 29, 2024

There are more than 400,000 children in foster care in the United States, highlighting a significant need for foster parents.

The journey to becoming a foster parent involves significant time, paperwork and responsibilities. Understanding this process can help companies provide better support for their fostering employees.

Becoming a foster parent entails several steps, each demanding time and attention, often impacting an employee's work schedule:

Home study: This intensive process includes multiple interviews, home visits, background checks and more. These steps require employees to be available at different times throughout the process.

Training programs: Prospective foster parents must complete training on topics like trauma-informed care, child development, and CPR. These sessions are frequently held during business hours and may be located far from an employee's home or office..

Licensing process: Obtaining a foster care license involves medical exams, reference checks, and potential home modifications. These requirements are time-consuming and can conflict with a standard 9-5 work schedule.

Episode 25 of Parentaly podcast The False Tradeoff

EPISODE 25

The False Tradeoff

Diving into working parenthood head first

Listen to the episode

How employers can support foster parent employees

Understanding the complexities of foster care is an important first step for employers that want to provide proper support to their foster parent employees.

Here are a few ways companies can help ensure employees feel supported while they navigate the fostering process:

Offer flexibility: Allow remote work and flexible hours to help foster parents manage their responsibilities without falling behind at work or depleting their paid time off, especially since each step of the process requires time away - often with short notice.

Update leave policies: Ensure your parental leave policy is inclusive of all paths to parenthood, including fostering. Think about the language, make it clear how much paid time off employees who foster receive, and when they’re eligible to take it.

Provide emotional support: Consider offering access to counseling services specifically tailored for foster parents, or create peer support groups for parents to provide a sense of community within the organization.

Educate managers: Invest in training for managers so they feel equipped to support their direct reports and lead with empathy – starting with the foster parent process through their parental leave and return to work transition.

These are just a few ways companies can support their employees who become foster parents.

By implementing family-friendly policies and fostering an inclusive culture, you’ll create a supportive environment that truly values all employees as they become parents.

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To celebrate all we’ve accomplished, our team shared what they’re most proud of since joining the team:

I'm most proud of how much we have done to improve the single hardest moment for women's careers (going on parental leave) ... one that is often shrouded in insecurity and fear. We've been able to help advocate for so many women (and men!) in a way that is empowering and truly life-changing.

Allison Whalen, CEO & Founder

What am I most proud of? Growth! Growing a category of support that didn't exist before Parentaly. Growing from a one-woman bootstrapped operation to a global team of 25+ employees and coaches. Growing our overall impact for working parents, with companies investing in our parental leave programming to support employees all over the world. And growing as humans: new babies, new friends, new life experiences... all while tackling new and exciting work challenges together.

Rich Burke, Head of Growth

When I reflect on what I am personally most proud of during my time here, it's working alongside a team where we constantly evolve and optimize everything that we do in order to deliver the best possible experience for the folks going through our programs. It sounds cheesy, but there are processes that my team and I used to do 100% manually that are now completely automated and systems in place that have become second nature to how we operate. Working with such thoughtful, smart, and creative people is incredible.

Sara Ophoff, Senior Program Manager

I’m most proud about doing work that makes parents feel confident and empowered about their careers during a time that can be overwhelming and challenging – not only for our clients and users who go through Parentaly’s programs, but also with our advocacy work on LinkedIn, through our podcast and other big campaigns that make a difference. It’s been pretty rewarding to build a brand people know and love because what we’re doing resonates with so many employees’ experiences in the workforce.

Jenna Vassallo, Head of Brand & Marketing

I am so proud of the way we've approached growth with such care and intentionality - with every adjustment we've made to our offerings, we've never lost sight of our goal to provide the most supportive and valuable experience for our users. I love looking back on the early stages of conversations and building that have led us to the experience we offer today. Personally, I am extremely proud of the work I've done to scale and automate our backend!

Rachel Andes, Program Associate

I am most proud of the work we do every single day to make a positive impact on working parents! Everyday I get to work with an amazing group of people…we work hard but we also have fun.

‍Sarah Gruber, Client Partner

I'm proud of scaling an employee experience that consistently delivers positive outcomes for new parents and their organizations. Our north star has always been the user, and we never sacrifice our high quality bar!

Mansi Kothari, VP of Product & Experience

I feel a sense of pride that I get to work behind the scenes supporting everyone. I’m proud to see all of the collaboration between the team and how Parentaly positively impacts employees.

Leo Manalo, Executive Assistant

I'm most proud of going through the Parentaly program myself! I'm so proud to work for and promote this company in a time where parental leave and supportive policies are at the forefront of a national conversation. But beyond this, I'm most proud to call myself a participant.

Emmy Carragher, Enterprise Partnerships

I’m really proud of the work I did to expand our coaching bench globally at Parentaly. It was so rewarding, not to mention insightful, to connect with talented coaches from around the globe. This expansion not only enriched our coaching offerings but also strengthened our commitment to making a meaningful impact on families all over the world.

‍Nicole Hagemann-Bex, Senior Coaching Operations Manager

I have tremendous pride in the knowledge that what I am doing will change the career landscape for new parents, particularly mothers. This will make it more likely that my daughter can have a career AND a family without worrying about the unintentional negative impact of taking parental leave. Nothing makes me prouder than that.

Mindy Himmel-Brown, Strategic Partnerships

In my short time at Parentaly, I'm proudest of the work we're doing with our clients' ERG groups to elevate the stories and advice of actual working parents. It's such an impactful way to spread the word about Parentaly as an essential resource for all people growing their families, and the managers who support them!

Alex Diskin, Enterprise Account Manager

I'm most proud about using LinkedIn to connect with others. I was recently able to share a helpful return to work doc with 50+ new people looking to make a difference at their company. Was pretty cool that people from Chewy, McDonald's, Honda, Cisco, AWS, Walmart and more want to integrate just a piece of what we have to offer. Also...I'm so proud of the way I feel as an employee at Parentaly. For the first time in my career my personal interests align with my professional interests and I've never felt more motivated.

Jenny Hurwitz, Strategic Partnerships

I'm really proud of being able to help the Experience team by handling the supportive functions so they can focus on the bigger picture. It feels great to know that I’m making things easier for them and contributing to the team’s success.

James Mango, Executive Assistant

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