Transcription:
Paola Peralta (00:08):
Welcome to Perk Up!, a podcast about workplace culture and benefits brought to you from the team at Employee Benefit News. I'm Paola Peralta, your host for season three. So far this season we've talked about fertility benefits, recovering from pregnancy loss, reproductive rights, birth benefits and postpartum mental health. Today we're going to learn about the value of parental leave for new moms and dads. I'm here with Lee Hafner from EBN, who spoke with Kristin Major, the vice president and chief people officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprises, which separated from Hewlett Packard and became its own company in 2015, about their parental leave policy and why it benefits both employees and the company. Welcome back, Lee.
Lee Hafner (00:44):
Hey, Paola. It's great to be here with you again.
Paola Peralta (00:46):
So you and Kristin discussed HPE's parental leave policy in some other ways the company supports its parent employees. Tell me why this is such an important topic.
Lee Hafner (00:55):
Yeah, so according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 27% of workers in the private industry have access to paid family leave. HPE's parental leave policy is more than double the national average and extends to both moms and dads, which is awesome. Kristin talks about this along with some of their other benefits that round out the company's dedication to parental support.
Paola Peralta (01:18):
That sounds great. Let's see what she has to say.
Lee Hafner (01:21):
Kristin, thank you again for taking the time to do this today. So I cannot wait to talk to you about specifically HPE's parental leave policy and some of the other benefits that your company offers to support working parents within your very large organization. So your company has an incredible policy. It's 26 weeks of paid leave with additional depending on the country. Is that correct? Can you fill me in on how that works?
Kristin Major (01:53):
Absolutely, that's right. So it's six months is basically our standard policy. There are countries in the world because we operate in more than 50 around the world, and we have 61, almost 62,000 employees. So it's quite a large organization, but wherever we operate, our standard policy is six months. And of course there are countries where by local law or regulation we need to offer more. And so of course we comply with that as well. But six months is really the baseline policy for all of our employees.
Lee Hafner (02:25):
And why did the company feel it was so important to offer such a rich leave time for their parents?
Kristin Major (02:34):
Well, I think it is something that's becoming increasingly popular. I would like to think, and I do believe that we were ahead of the curve on this in supporting working parents, but really it's about the value we place on our team members and their emotional and physical wellbeing and the support for them as parents. And it's about retaining and attracting top talent. Frankly, these kinds of policies are very good for business in the sense that our team members appreciate them and it does incent people, obviously, to join us and to stay once they have come on board.
Lee Hafner (03:08):
And this is a policy that is available to both the men and women, moms and dads within your organization, but also for any type of new addition to the family, is that correct? So birth parents, but also adoption and surrogacy as well?
Kristin Major (03:26):
Yes, absolutely. Any type of parental situation that's happening in the first year of life, and it is open of course to moms and dads. We are very proud of the fact that actually 70% of the participants in this policy have been men, which is great. And I think that is really a cultural thing as well. I hear from lots of employees, our team members each week about how they appreciate the policy. Many of them are dads and they're really excited to be able to take this. One of the other cool things that we do is it's available anytime in the first 12 months. You can break it up, you can take it in pieces. Lots of dads do that. I hear from them. They'll say, I'll take three months and then I'll take three months so I can be bookending around my partner's, time on off. And that's been really, really helpful to our parents. And you can get the whole family home for almost the full year,
Lee Hafner (04:17):
Which is just awesome as far as their ability to bond and build a routine that allows them to come back to work. I would think more ready, more refreshed, more confident. Do you see that in the feedback that you have from your employees?
Kristin Major (04:32):
Absolutely. I see that. I see the real excitement that our team members have when they're able to take this leave and just the gratitude they have when they're coming back because they've been able to take this really important time. I'm a mom myself. I had my kids a long time ago, they're in college now, but I do remember I did not have the leave that was anywhere near as long as this, but it's certainly really important to have that time off and to be able to take that time to take care of your new baby. So really excited that we offer this. I think it's one of the things I'm most proud of at HPE in terms of our health and wellness benefits, but we try to take care of our employees at all stages of their career. I think that's really important to really take care of the whole team member.
Lee Hafner (05:17):
So let's expand upon that a little bit and can you tell me about some of the other benefits that you offer that create a really holistic package for the working parents within your organization?
Kristin Major (05:32):
Absolutely. So it is obviously subject to geography where people are in terms of where they're in the world. And so when I speak generally, it's a little bit more of what we do in the us, but we have similar policies in all the places we operate, subject to obviously local legal requirements and regulations, but starting with our parental leave, that's very important. We obviously offer very comprehensive healthcare and welfare benefit to support people in their health. And then we have the parental leave policies, but we also, as families progress in time, we have backup care policies, we have support for team members who are taking care of their parents, for instance. So elder care, really supportive policies around that. We look at when people are getting close to the end of their career retirement planning, looking at how we can help people as they make that transition, that really important transition in their life. So trying to be there at all stages and all steps of the team members' career here at HPE is very important to us.
Paola Peralta (06:35):
And we'll be back after this brief message. And we're back with Lee Hafner talking about parental leave. So clearly HPE has designed its policies and benefits, what their employees best interest in mind.
Lee Hafner (06:50):
Yes. Making sure the entire spectrum of caregiving is accounted for in their offerings is really great and has become a growing request from employees in general. Approximately seven out of 10 employees have some type of caregiving responsibility, and for many millennials, it applies to both children and elderly parents. So the more support they have, the better companies like HPE that offer good support are bound to see it pay off in attraction and retention of talent.
Paola Peralta (07:16):
That makes complete sense. Well, let's get into this next segment where Kristin talks about making employees needs and wellbeing a top priority.
Lee Hafner (07:24):
Why is it so vital for organizations like HPE to be very people centric, put their human population first and foremost when it comes to retaining good talent, but also the overall success of the organization?
Kristin Major (07:41):
I think it's really about the values we have as a company, and that's really important. It's important to our customers, it's important to the communities in which we operate, and it's certainly important to our team members and frankly, it's very important to our shareholders. I had the privilege of being on a number of investor calls in the last quarter where we talked about going into our shareholder meeting, we talked about what our values are and how we basically make people's lives better and how they live and work. And that's really what we want to do through our products and through our policies. And that obviously extends to our team members because such an important part of our company. And so our investors appreciate this. They certainly told me that they wanted to talk about what we're doing to further those values. So I think that we're all really on the same page from our board through our CEO, our executive committee where I sit and then down into our executive ranks and then with our team members as well. We certainly are all committed to that, and it's very important to us because it's part of what makes us, I think, a profitable, successful company as well. Fundamentally, and my CEO says this often, our CEO, that people like to buy from us, people like to work with us and do business with us because we're the kind of company that does about our team members and basically trying to be the best company we can be.
Paola Peralta (09:01):
Seems like this is a great example of ways a company can make sure that new parents have the time and support that they need when they're bringing home a new child into the family.
Lee Hafner (09:09):
Absolutely. It was great to hear that dads especially are taking advantage of the paid leave option HPE offers. This is an all too rare occurrence and something more parents are asking for.
Paola Peralta (09:20):
I completely agree. Well, thank you again for joining us. I can't wait to hear what's next in this season now that we're getting a little closer to the end. That wraps up our latest episode of Perk Up! I'm Paola Peralta, and thanks again to Lee Hafner, EBN and Kristin Major from HPE. And to all of you at home for listening, we'll be back in two weeks with a brand new episode. This episode was produced by Employee Benefit News. Rate us and review us wherever you get your podcast and check out more content from the EBN team at www.benefitnews.com.