It takes a village: Benefits for the whole family

Employers are dedicated to helping their employees be their best selves in and out of the office. That means making sure the entire family is supported, too. 

Fifty-nine percent of employers believe that family-friendly benefits are important to their talent strategy, according to Willis Towers Watson. Almost all employees agreed: 96% said family-friendly benefits are a top priority when considering an employer, according to a survey from Ovia Health. 

At business consultancy PricewaterhouseCooper, an adjustment to their parental leave policy ensured that all employees could benefit from time off to bond with their new child. PwC increased their leave from eight to 12 weeks for all parents in 2022, regardless of gender or path to parenthood. According to PwC's internal data, there was a nearly 50-50 split in utilization between moms and dads.

Read more for how this policy supports all employees in the early stages of parenthood: PwC's parental leave benefit is equally used by moms and dads — here's how

To get even more employers to celebrate the support they're offering to employees, and push others to do more, theSkimm and Moms First launched their campaign, #ShowUsYourChildCare, which asks companies to share how they support their working parents. Sixty-eighty companies have joined the movement, including Etsy, Chobani, WeightWatchers and Vivvi.

theSkimm revealed that beyond 18 weeks of paid parental leave, they offer flexible and phased return-to-work options after said leave, child care and tutoring assistance and a parent-specific employee resource group. 

Read on for what Vivvi and theSkimm are doing to help working parents juggle child care needs: theSkimm and Moms First are challenging companies to share their child care benefits

Sometimes parents have to make tough decisions around the best support for their children. For a growing demographic of adolescents struggling with substance use and addiction, the last thing employees need is stigma creating additional barriers to care. Pelago, a virtual substance use platform, recently expanded their resources to include adolescent care for tobacco, opioid and alcohol misuse disorders. Early intervention is key to preventing addictions from continuing into adulthood, and for restoring well-being for the whole family, says Dr. Yusef Sherwani, CEO and co-founder of Pelago. 

"Putting your child into rehab is considered to be an 'everything else has failed' approach, and can be extreme," he says. "The vast majority of teens don't need that and they don't want that. The goal is harm reduction and abstinence." 

Read more about addiction treatment for adolescents: 5 million adolescents struggle with addictions. How can your benefits help the whole family?