As the benefits season rolls around, it’s always best practice to evaluate your organization’s current offerings to see what works, what doesn’t, and what you can do to provide better value to your team members. Use the following template and best practices to announce a change to your paid parental leave policy.
Paid parental leave is a type of employee leave where employers grant an extended leave of absence to teammates, typically for the birth or adoption of a child. It is sometimes referred to as maternity leave or paternity leave.
There is no federal legislation in the United States that requires private employers to offer partial or fully financially reimbursed parental leave. However, it is available for federal employees.
With this said, robust parental leave policies can serve as a significant indicator of an organization’s company culture and can help boost other important human resources goals.
More and more employers are offering improved benefits packages to current and prospective workers. Why? According to SHRM, “92% of employees surveyed indicated that employee benefits significantly impacted overall job satisfaction.”
In essence, an organization's benefits package is a bargaining chip that, if optimized, can attract new employees, retain current team members, and improve the livelihood of everyone involved. As a result, many organizations have taken it upon themselves to review and refine their benefits offerings, including paid parental leave.
More and more employers offer a paid parental leave policy to recruit and retain team members. However, not all policies are the same.
Paid parental leave can vary widely in scope and scale depending on the policy and the employer. These variables can include:
For organizations that have decided to make a change to their parental leave policy, use the following steps to announce the updates.
When communicating with your team about changes to their benefits, it’s always best to be upfront from the beginning. After all, aside from payroll, benefits administration is often the highest expense for most organizations. In essence, it’s essential that you get these kinds of communications correct.
In journalism, this tactic is sometimes depicted as an inverted pyramid to demonstrate that the most important information is presented first—the who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Consider the following example:
Changes to [Organization]’s Paid Parental Leave Policy
In an ongoing effort to optimize and strengthen the team’s benefits options, we’re
pleased to announce that [Organization] will internally administer a maternity benefit
to our employees, which was previously offered by [Provider] under the Short Term
Disability benefit.
You’ve already explained what change was made, why it was made, and how it will be made. Now, dive a little further into the details.
If possible, be sure to announce this change well in advance of the open enrollment period to give your team members ample time to adjust their budgets accordingly.
Team members can expect this change to take effect during our renewal on [date].
Next, break down the changes so that each is clearly and concisely communicated. You don’t need to include all of the relevant details, as a simple CTA to contact their HR manager will suffice.
Consider the following example, with sample details filled out for each category:
What’s New
The following changes will be made to the benefit:
Effective Date: Date of the child’s birth
Elimination Period: None
Benefit Duration: 90 days
Benefit Amount: 100% of salary (assuming 40-hour workweek for hourly employees)
Eligible Employees: All full-time employees
Administration: Benefits will be administered internally, meaning employees will continue to receive their normal paycheck through payroll
Finish your communication with a final sentence or two detailing exactly what the change means for employees:
Results
For a standard delivery, no claim would need to be filed to [Provider] and no benefit would be paid. [Organization] will handle both the administration and payment internally.
At the bottom of the message, consider including contact information in case team members have additional questions about the change and what it means for their benefits package.
It's important to get these steps right. Every benefit and communication of that benefit can add to your company culture in the short and long term.
Likewise, make sure to include the new policy information in your Culture Guide (or employee handbook) to ensure that it's easily available for all employees. A robust HRIS empowers you to share this information and store it for streamlined employee access, meaning HR doesn't have to retrieve the policy every time a team member asks about it.