It’s amazing how much publicity a tweak to an employee benefit can bring a major company.
This week, Marissa Mayer did just that for Yahoo: generating headlines around the world by declaring the company would extend its parental leave policy for new mums from eight to sixteen weeks, with Dads to receive eight weeks.
Of course in Mayer’s case, much of the publicity for this announcement extends from the last company-wide decision she made that didn’t go down so well — banning work from home — as well as her own personal decision to take just two weeks leave following the birth of her first child last year.
But the curious thing about how much attention this Yahoo announcement has received is that it’s not actually all that generous compared to its Silicon Valley counterparts. Google offers 22 weeks for new mothers and seven weeks for fathers, while Facebook offers four months to both mothers and fathers, as well as $4000 in “baby cash”. Yahoo hasn’t exactly broken ground with this latest policy announcement — other than its own.
Still, any announcement that at least acknowledges the need to make the workplace a little easier for women, and helps encourage men and women to return to work following the birth of a child, is good news. Not all organisations publicly declare such changes, and by failing to do something as simple as issuing a press release they miss a great opportunity to show-up their competitors, or at least make some ground on what their competitors are offering.
The more companies that publicise what’s on offer, the more effort companies will put into their employee benefits. We all win then.
In the war for talent, policies like maternity leave and flexible work can quickly become part of the arms race as organisations compete for the best. There’s a benefit in being the first to move on something that aids women — and there’s a consequence for organisations that fail to keep pace with the changes their competitors are making. That’s why we see large law and accounting firms in Australia typically offering similar periods of parental leave — when one moves to extend its offering, the others quickly find a way to catch up.
Organisations don’t aways have to offer the absolute best. But they do need to move, declare their moves publicly, and show they’re open to ideas and initiatives that can better support women.