After enduring 20 years of domestic violence at the hands of her husband, Michelle Robinson finally left with her three children, finalizing her divorce in 2023. While multiple legal challenges have ensued since, one
"Going through my trauma and knowing I not only have the full support of my manager on a personal and professional level, but also access to resources — I don't know that I can put into words how grateful I am," Robinson says. "The tools that Hearst has given me as a manager to not only support myself, but to ensure I can support my team members, is significant."
Read more:
"Being a domestic violence survivor makes it tricky for me to manage the financial obligation that I have been awarded for child support," she says. "If I didn't have this application, I would be spending a lot of money in attorneys fees to transact all of that correspondence, or I'd be going to court more frequently than I already am. It's incredibly helpful to know that I can leverage SupportPay to ensure that I have the power to submit and document receipts, and it goes through a third party intermediary directly to my ex-spouse. It gives me a significant level of feeling safe, and that's something I struggle with every day."
Read more:
Supporting financial well-being during divorce
Robinson is not alone in needing a secure way to navigate a difficult family situation — founder and CEO of SupportPay, Sheri Atwood, was inspired to create the platform following her own divorce, which although amicable, had plenty of complications she never anticipated.
"Everybody talks about divorce, but nobody talks about life after the divorce, especially if you have children," Atwood says. "You have child support, you're sharing medical costs, education, child care, extracurricular activities. The amount of time that I would spend, especially during the work day — it was insane. We automate everything else, why don't we have something for parents to manage this process?"
SupportPay now serves over 75,000 parents in 70 countries. In addition to managing child support payments, the platform can also process calculations based on percentages owed for things like medical costs and child care, and all information can be consolidated and sent or printed for use in court or elsewhere. For Hearst in particular, SupportPay's data found the platform was saving employees over eight hours of lost productivity since they began using the benefit, equating to $6.9 million in savings for the company.
Along with peace of mind and getting time back, parents are 90% more likely to pay what is owed when the application is utilized, improving their financial wellness, too. Parents are a big focus when it comes to benefits at Hearst, says Maria Walsh, their SVP and head of benefits. SupportPay was an immediate win for them: After communicating the addition of the platform to their benefits package through newsletters and other forms, they saw an immediate 6% engagement rate.
"We think a lot about the stretching of that full-time worker that's also a parent and how we can help them with well-being but also financially, but we weren't really doing anything in terms of divorce," she says. "We don't talk about the support they might need. We may think about it in terms of mental well-being, and we certainly address that, but not about additional support very specific to that profile of an employee. I hadn't seen anything like SupportPay that very specifically supports divorced parents trying to manage expenses with someone else. It closed a gap that we had."
Read more:
Hearst also provides benefits such as a $1,000 reimbursement offering for child and elderly care and a robust mental wellness package, which Robinson has also used for her daughter. The company aims to reach every demographic in its workforce, says Walsh, and managers like Robinson share and encourage the use of these benefits with their teams.
An advocate for employees, too
Robinsons' personal experiences have made her more empathetic and connected to her team members, and along with reminding them of Hearst's offerings, she makes sure they "don't leave anything on the table," because she knows just how valuable these benefits are.
As part of her journey to healing, Robinson also advocates on behalf of domestic violence victims, speaking to law enforcement agencies, not-for-profit organizations and other domestic violence service advocates. She takes material about SupportPay with her, as the platform is free to domestic violence survivors, regardless of whether their employer offers it as a benefit.
"I am able to share the benefit that I am so privileged to have, because domestic violence does not discriminate," Robinson says. "Here I am sitting as executive leadership for my organization, and my attitude, my mental well-being, my ability to feel safe and secure is going to filter down to a lot of people. This is just one more thing that makes me able to do my job more efficiently, productively and with a smile on my face, because I work for an organization that supports me no matter what."
