The Baby Gifts and Perks America's Top Companies Give
Whether you are a small company or a large corporation, celebrating an employee's journey into parenthood isn't just thoughtful, it's good business. Employee turnover is expensive, disrupts the efficient workflow of a business and can rob a company of the experience and insight that only long-term employees possess.
In today's competitive job market, prospective employees rate benefits and work-life balance high on the list of priorities they use in their selection process. So, upping the ante when it comes to maternity and paternity perks can help companies attract and win the most highly sought job applicants.
Of course, maternity and paternity leave and on-site daycare are the most important benefits for new parents. However, many companies are also getting pretty innovative in addressing the needs of their employees who journey into parenthood. We researched companies across the country and these were some of the favorite perks we found!
Maternity Concierge
What does every tired pregnant working mother want? More time! Maternity concierges help pregnant executives save time finding the right car seat, the perfect daycare or a good lactation consultant. Maternity concierges field your questions, give you options and use their considerable experience and knowledge of all things maternity to take the stress out of preparing for a baby's arrival.
A Year of Diapers
Forget the novelty onesie with the company logo. What do new parents really need as a gift? Diapers! Companies in every sector from tech to finance, industrial manufacturing to healthcare, are giving new parents an IncrediBundles.com Diaper Subscription to save them the cost and the hassle of buying diapers in their baby's first year. Some companies give it as a standard perk and some give it as a reward for completing a corporate prenatal wellness program. Recipients get a unique activation code that lets them log on to IncrediBundles.com and select the brand and size diapers they want delivered straight to their door each month. Subscribers can choose from all the major brands - Pampers, Huggies, Luvs & Members Mark. Each Diaper Subscription comes with a sweet announcement package featuring a premium plush teddy bear - perfect for presenting at the company baby shower.
Here's a tip!
If you are planning a co-worker's office baby shower, celebrate at lunch-time rather than at the beginning or end of the day. This is the time most employees have already purposefully or subconsciously allotted for a break so it will be less stressful and disruptive.
We love:
When Companies and Co-Workers remember to celebrate the new dad in their midst. Create a perfect New Daddy gift by pairing a backpack style diaper bag with an IncrediBundles.com Diaper Subscription.
Help for Breastfeeding Moms
New moms are inundated with the message that breastfeeding is important. However, they don't always get the support they need to get started on the right foot and to keep breastfeeding when they go back to work. Companies like American Express are addressing these problems by offering their new moms access to a 24-hour lactation consultant and allowing mothers traveling for business to ship their breast milk home for free.
Take-Out Meal Allowance
It is said that newborns do nothing but eat and sleep. Ironically, helping a newborn accomplish those two things leaves little time for parents to eat or sleep. Salesforce helps new parents with the eating part by giving their employees who bring home a baby a $250 allowance to order takeout during those bleary-eyed first weeks.
Peer Support Groups
Big companies know that collaboration, mentoring and support are crucial when you're on a learning curve. New parenthood comes with a really big learning curve. Many companies are developing mentoring programs that pair employees who are new parents with veteran moms and dads within the company. These mentorships help newbies gain important insight into how to find a balance between their work and home lives and how to adjust to going back to work once their leave is over.
Here's a tip!
Assemble your own support group of people due around the same time as you are. This can be an online group or a real-life cadre of parents-to-be found through your ob-gyn or pediatrician. It will make your first year with your baby less scary, less isolating and alot more fun.
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Companies that ease their employees back to work after maternity leave ends with shortened work-weeks at first. Those first weeks and months with a baby are physically and emotionally draining so a staged transition can make life less stressful and more successful for everyone!
Large companies today seek to create corporate environments that attract the best people, train them well and retain them for longer periods of time. This results in a culture that encourages employees to view their co-workers as part of their work family. Embarking on parenthood is a major life event. So, it makes sense that, rather than ignoring this milestone, companies are developing new ways to celebrate this time in an employee's life. We're big believers in any effort that makes the lives of new parents easier. The less stressed parents are the happier their home life - and baby - will be!
