Several Providence-based technology companies are following Silicon Valley tech giants such as Google and Facebook by improving their family-leave policies to make their workplaces more attractive to potential employees and help existing workers manage their work-life balance.
Take Splitwise, which just instituted a paid family-leave policy in October. The seven-employee company previously did not have a policy.
"I figured we would make one if it came up. I realized that's not a very good answer when you're recruiting or trying to attract people who have a family or who want to start one. You want to show your commitment," Splitwise CEO Jonathan Bittner said.
The change is so recent that Splitwise has not made use of it yet, but employees have reacted positively to it, according to Bittner.
Through Splitwise's policy, an employee must work for the company for six months to take advantage of 12 weeks paid parental leave – that covers leave for a mother and father after the birth of a child, or adoption of a child. The company will pay for an additional six weeks if the employee personally gives birth.
"We believe this is very competitive in the R.I. market. We aren't aware of anyone with a more competitive policy," Bittner said.
While expensive for the company in terms of short-term productivity, he says they believe it's worth it for recruiting and retaining talented employees, as well as increasing the diversity of people willing to work for Splitwise.
Bittner said the change was driven by wanting to be more competitive, and following what the most progressive companies in Silicon Valley were doing.
He said the policy helps make Splitwise more attractive to prospective job seekers.
Bittner, and others interviewed, noted that studies have shown strong family/parental-leave policies result in longer employee retainment.
For example, when Google increased its parental-leave policy to 18 weeks from 12 weeks, the rate at which new mothers quit was cut in half, according to a report.
When Bittner and his co-founders began talking about changing the family/parental-leave policy, they all had the same belief: That parenting is a shared responsibility and "our response shouldn't be sexist."
"I'm very proud of this policy. I hope it influences others to do it," Bittner said.
Courtney Fanning, marketing manager at MojoTech, a local web- and mobile-app development company, noted that with the addition of more tech companies in the city such as GE Digital and Johnson & Johnson, which plans to open a health technology center, competition for employees in an already tight tech-labor market will be even more difficult.
MojoTech launched a new policy in January regarding family leave. Employees can take six weeks paid leave for family or personal medical reasons.
Part of that compensation may come from government benefits, such as Temporary Disability Insurance/Temporary Caregiver Insurance in Rhode Island, with MojoTech paying the balance between those benefits and the employee's salary.
If a new child is joining the family, whether through birth, adoption or foster placement, employees can take an additional six weeks of unpaid time off for bonding, according to Fanning. The company has approximately 50 employees.
Another tech firm, Upserve, a restaurant-management platform with approximately 175 employees companywide, has a "family-first" culture, according to Alaina Restivo, vice president of talent and operations.
Restivo, a mother of two, noted that CEO Angus Davis is a father of three, and they understand the challenges of raising a family and juggling work.
The company offers fully paid leave for up to 12 weeks following the birth or adoption of a child.
About a year and a half ago, the company retooled its parental leave and time off, with its "family-first" culture in mind, she explained. The company always had unlimited sick time, and expanded it to include all time out of the office, such as time off for bereavement.
"We think about how to best maximize employee engagement," Restivo said. "Part of that is making sure people feel cared for."
As for dealing with employee absences, Restivo said, "We ensure that the business isn't negatively impacted by employee time off by managing those working norms team by team."
Amanda Roman, events and communications coordinator at Tech Collective, Rhode Island's information technology and bioscience industry association, said she thinks Rhode Island tech firms are "slowly trying to catch up to some of the other places (such as Silicon Valley) where these kinds of benefits are customary in attracting the best talent." •