Working Parents, Burnout & the Great Resignation

Julian Lute:

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's conversation on working parents, burnout and the Great Resignation. I know how dedicated you all are to creating great workplaces for all of your employees. And we are thrilled that you joined us today. My name is Julian Lute, and I am a senior strategic advisor for Great Place To Work. We're the global authority on workplace culture, and everything we do is driven by our mission, to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work for all. I'm really looking forward to spending the next 45 minutes or so with you all, and to share some of our most fresh research on working parents in partnership with Maven. If you didn't know, this is the largest study ever of working parents, and what we learned, we're here to share. So during our time together, we're going to explore how to break through parental burnout, how to combat the Great Resignation and how to help parents thrive in your workplace, and spoiler alert, acting on what you learn today can mean the difference between competing or falling behind. So this is a must have, as we continue to define our new normal.

Before we get into the conversation, let's cover a few points of housekeeping. We want you to participate in today's session, so please submit your questions and your comments using the questions panel. And today's presentation is being recorded and will soon be available on our website for you to share with your community. Now, this work is only possible in partnership with Maven, an extraordinary organization with an extraordinary purpose. Maven is the largest virtual clinic for women's and family health, offering 24/7 whole person care for fertility and family planning, pregnancy and parenting. Maven's award-winning digital programs are trusted by leading employers and health plans to reduce cost and better drive health outcomes for both parents and children. Founded in 2014, Maven has been recognized as Fast Company's number one most innovative health company, and has supported more than 10 million women and families to date. Maven has raised more than 200 million in funding from leading investors, such as Sequoia Capital, Oak, Dragoneer Investment Group and Lex Capital.

We are absolutely delighted to be joined today by Kate Ryder and Marcus Erb. Kate is the founder and CEO of Maven, the largest virtual clinic for women in family health. Kate has been named to Fortune's 40 Under 40 and the Fast Company's Most Creative People. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children. Marcus is the Vice President, Data Science and Innovation at Great Place To Work. He loves using data to better understand the world and make it a better place. Under his leadership, this team focuses on turning data into actionable insights and tools for executives building high performing workplaces. In his free time, you'll likely find him enjoying the beautiful outdoors of San Francisco Bay Area, rooting loudly for the Giants and the Warriors, and trying to keep up with his two young daughters. So thank you both for joining us and I, for one, am excited to jump into the conversation. Does that sound good?

Kate Ryder:

Yeah. Thanks so much for having me and really excited to be here for the second year in a row.

Marcus Erb:

Likewise, excited to be here and excited to talk with you both.

Julian Lute:

Great, good to see you all. Let's start with you, Kate. As founder and CEO of Maven Clinic, you're in constant dialogue with leading employers about their people strategies and the challenges that they're facing around attracting and retaining talent. How have those conversations evolved since this time last year?

Kate Ryder:

It's a great question, Julian. You know, I think we entered 2021 kind of cautiously hopeful, and we felt like maybe this would be the year we turned the corner with the pandemic and returned to a more normal work working world. Unfortunately, even I think with the incredible breakthroughs with the vaccines, our return to normal is taking a little longer. So number one, the first is really just about putting in place a whole person approach to supporting family building journeys. So I think, the pandemic has made starting a family, which I think we can all agree has long been chronically undersupported, particularly here in the U.S. It's really made it even more challenging. And so we're working with clients across industries to stand up a family building solution that's supportive of all paths to parenthood, fertility treatments like IVF, adoption, surrogacy, and all prospective parents.

And I think what we're finding is that this isn't just employers doing something of kindness. Our internal data based on member feedback tells us that employees are 80% more loyal to their employer when they have access to a family building benefit. The two other themes that I'll touch on briefly are number one, just parity, and then also engagement. So by parity, I mean that employers are really conscious that the solutions they put in place work for their full population, wherever they are. And so we're seeing a lot of global requests and to have global benefits parity across countries when it comes to family benefits. And we work in more than 175 countries today, so really supporting those unique pathways. And then on the engagement side, I think at the end of the day, employers want to see that their employees are actually getting value out of these benefits.

You work hard through the contract, the selection, the implementation, and then you want to make sure that people are using the products. And so our philosophy at Maven has always been about meeting every member where they are, and also providing the many different ways to support individuals, no matter their background, no matter what they're looking for, what language they speak, they can always find someone on Maven who shares their lived experience and can really kind of help to make their journeys feel a little bit less intimidating. So a lot going on, but it all speaks highly to the fact that highly engaged employers are really seeking to do right by their people, which is great to see.

Julian Lute:

Wow, okay. So let me take a step back for a moment because when I hear you talk, it sounds like companies have a lot of competing priority and that HR teams are really stretched super thin. Why should working parents be a focus as companies think about their priorities over the next year or so?

Kate Ryder:

Yeah. I mean I think yes, HR teams are very, very stretched thin, ours included, but I think parents are really the ones that make up the vast majority of the workforce of the managers of large teams. And so they have this disproportionate impact on kind of wellbeing at work. Millennials, which are a lot of the parents today or the younger parents make up a disproportionate amount of workforce. And so if you're not really kind of fulfilling a lot of their needs, then actually you're not addressing kind of the core concerns of much of your workforce. So parents, everyone, there's many parents in the workforce that I think in the past have maybe not spoken up as much about kind of the competing demands of work and family and parenting, but I think with COVID, I mean they really have started to. And so what we've seen HR teams do is really prioritize parents and families as one of the biggest things to kind of focus on within COVID.

Julian Lute:

Thank you. So let's pull that thread a little bit. Marcus, Kate laid out what's happening for leaders, what's going on in the organizations, what are some of the things that HR teams are grappling with at this time inside of the organization. You went straight to the talent. Can you walk us through how you designed this year's research into the state of working parenthood? So what stood out to you most in the results?

Marcus Erb:

Yeah, well we were very fortunate this year, even though parents are amazingly busy people, we heard from nearly a half a million of them. So working parents, we've collected 493,000 surveys this past year from great companies that are trying to support their employees. And you listen to 493,000 employees, you learn a lot. Some of the things we learned were not surprises, although maybe we hoped for different outcomes. And some of the things though were surprising and hopeful. One of those things that was an unsurprising, unhelpful thing was burnout. Like Kate mentioned, burnout is still an issue. When we looked at our data and we look at the survey responses, we looked at burnout in the same lens that the World Health Organization looks at it. And with that lens, we found that one in four parents at work right now are experiencing burnout, which is the same level it was roughly a year ago.

So even though the peak of the pandemic seemed to be last year, or as you said, Kate, we were hoping to turn the corner on it, we haven't. Working parents are still experienced the same level of burnout they were year ago. And it matters, especially as you look at it in the lens of the Great Resignation, because when employees experience burnout, especially when working parents experience burnout, they more than double their odds of leaving the workplace. So actually we found that when people experience burnout, the actual odds go up by a factor of 2.4 that they're going to leave their employer. So it's no wonder that we're seeing the Great Resignation happen, that the working parents out there right now are a part of that. And in fact, many working parents, especially working mothers are even leaving the workforce.

So unsurprising finding, not necessarily hopeful, but we did find something hopeful, which was that there are companies out there who are showing you can do this. You can prevent burnout amongst working parents. You can actually help them, not just stay at the workplace, but thrive and sustain their energy there. These workplaces were the ones that we celebrated as the Best Workplaces for Parents in 2021. And they really showed us a lot. In fact, at these workplaces, the level of burnout amongst employees was 45% lower than the rest of the organizations we studied. And when you think about that reduction, you kind of think about, well, what does that look like across the entire workforce, across everybody working in the United States? If we had that same secret sauce that the best workplaces had and were able to spread it out everywhere, we'd save about 4.8 million cases of parental burnout happening in the workforce right now. So we're really excited about that because everybody knows that parental burnout is happening, but there is hope, and there are ways for solving it.

Julian Lute: 

Thank you, Marcus. You really touched on how burnout is impacting employees, and whether that be an individual contributor up to the CEOs of organizations like we know to be true. Now for you, Kate, the Maven platform really provides support from preconception through pediatrics. So you also have a very unique perspective on the needs of those on this parenthood journey. What are you seeing from your members as far as trends and say utilization? And what does that tell you about what parents right now that might be impacting or might be helpful for their experience with burnout?

Kate Ryder: 

Sure. So I think one of the things just kind of comparing it to last year, so last year was the year where telemedicine utilization just kind of rose across the board because things were shut down. And so we were seeing things like 300% spikes in mental health in our network, a 50% spike overall. And so then the question is what's happened in 2021? Well, I think one of the biggest things is that first of all, those levels have sustained and we're just also seeing a near 40% increase in per member touch points in 2021 versus 2020. So we're seeing even more utilization, not just kind of on the telemedicine side, but again in our communities where parents talk to other parents and reading through our content, going through some of the tips and tricks to kind of managing burnout right now and kind of messaging with providers, whether they're career coaches or pediatricians or fertility or pregnancy specialists. All of that continues to kind of go up.

So I think some of the talk in healthcare is that oh, telemedicine has gone down as things have gone kind of back. People have gone back to in person care. We are seeing sustained, and continue to see elevated levels of support that our parents are looking for. I think another thing is that when someone enrolls in Maven, so 30% of those members actually don't have an in-person OB at the time, and then 50% don't have a clinic. And so I think that journey as well, to kind of picking someone that you trust to support you through these journeys is so critical to get right, and to get support on because that too, I mean, if you're already kind of experiencing burnout at work, then all of these kind of incremental jobs that you're supposed to do to kind of take care of your wellbeing and your family just seem proportionately large.

And so I think given that so many of our members continue to just not have those in-person providers at their fingertips is another kind of stat that really kind of stands out to me. I think the other thing is that one of the big questions that came up last year, I think philosophically in the women and health community that people were debating, we always had a point of view on this was is fertility treatments a nice to have, or need to have? And so one of the things, and that kind of that debate happened around PPE and shutting down clinics during the kind of heady time in spring of last year, and then a lot of people saying, "Well, wait a second, this is a need to have treatment. This is, medical people have medically diagnosed infertility and we should not be shutting clinics."

And so I think that that's been also another trend that we've seen this year in particular is just a surge activity on our fertility and family building platform. And so we've done roughly 4x the number of reimbursements and users kind of submitting reimbursements for IVF, adoption, surrogacy as compared to Q1 suggesting that people are really beginning to seek a lot of these treatments after the pandemic disrupted care, and their employers are really supporting them to do that. And so, and then yeah, I mean, I think the other thing is just, one of the things that's also consistent from last year is particularly within our parenting product, that most booked services have been mental health. So there's just still, I think a lot of needs in that category.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Kate. I mean, I'm hearing there's a lot of activity. Well, folks may say that in-person visits are going up and telehealth might be on a decline. You're not seeing that. You're seeing people actually have more activity in all the areas that parents and people need support right now. Let me go a little bit deeper into statistics with you, Marcus. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 10 million mothers living with their own school aged children were not actively working in January, 2021. That's 1.4 million more than during the same month last year. When you looked at the research, what did you see that might explain why we're continuing to see this phenomenon?

Marcus Erb:

Yeah, that's a great question. I think Kate actually touched on a couple of them. Mental health, the need for support is definitely out there. And I think the need from our data shows that it's a disproportionate need that some employees out there, some people are more affected by these changes and impacts than others. And that's due to systematic inequities in our childcare system, access to healthcare access to mental health support. There's a whole bunch of things out there. So even though every everybody is experiencing burnout to a different degree, we clearly see in our data that working mothers, particularly working mothers of color, experience higher levels of burnout in our data. In fact, working mothers, 20% more of them are suffering from burnout than working fathers. When you look at the odds of experiencing burnout, black mothers, Latinx mothers, Asian mothers, they're all 20% to 47% more likely to be experiencing burnout than white working fathers.

And one of the hardest hit groups that we found in our data too, was actually young parents and the millennial generation that Kate mentioned earlier, but folks who are 26 or 34 years old and working hourly jobs, they were actually 200% more likely to be experiencing burnout than other groups we studied. So this need is out there, but the need is definitely sharper among different groups. And when we kind of looked at like what's causing some of the difficulties and driving some of the burnout, and some of this variation, we looked at what employees were telling us. And we found a few things. Some themes stood out, flexibility and support, support for childcare, flexibility in scheduling, but also just the sense that you get to be supported, that fathers are supported, this kind of continued need for paternity support, for fathers to be able to take time off to support their partners, to support their families. And also just fundamentally, this idea of feeling genuinely cared for. That kept coming up over and over again. So feeling that your needs are seen, heard and valued by your employer was another kind of key predictor of whether or not people were going to feel burned out or not regardless of their race or gender.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Marcus. I mean I'm hearing burnout, I'm hearing flexibility, the need for flexibility. I'm also hearing the need for additional support in genuine care. And so for you, Kate, when you think about employers that really want to make a difference for their working parents and stand out in a very competitive talent market, what are some concrete steps that they can take to show that they're listening to employee concerns and that they're really committed to supporting them in this new world of work?

Kate Ryder:

Yeah, great question. So I think one of the big things is of course always following words with action. So I think fundamentally, one of the big themes of the report is that the Great Resignation is a crisis of recognition, of employees not feeling valued and seen and understood in this kind of very crazy time we're living in. And so I think one of the big things is you can actively listen through surveys, so you can kind of do an employee survey, and particularly with so much flux, like what you might have learned last year definitely probably has changed this year. And so making sure that you're constantly having that dialogue. And then I think building against that. I think it's creating employee resource groups, if you don't already have them.

And then if you do, kind of encouraging senior leaders to take an active role in attending meetings and serving as executive sponsors and allies. I think offering special and unique benefits that kind of show you're investing in the full employee experience. So I think one of the things that's so interesting in our market is what we see is a lot of times with particularly the fertility market, what our patients and members are kind of saying on the ground of how that's impacting them this year and how they're showing up to work, kind of a lot of the benefits managers don't actually necessarily know as much. And so again, just kind of they don't necessarily know the problems or the fact that when you're going through IVF you may have to be going to the doctor every other day, that you're taking tons of injections and hormones and how lonely that journey is and how anxiety is actually one of the biggest effects of that. And so again, just kind of having leaders really ask the questions and understand the problems, and then you can build action plans to address them.

Julian Lute:

Wow. So listening is fundamental to understanding employee concerns. There's a lot of ways to do it, but being able to demonstrate that and show your commitment starts with listening. And so Marcus, let me turn it to you because in our research, I'd say we listened to what employees were saying, especially from these best companies. And through that, your research identified five key steps that companies can take to retain and sustain working parents. And one remarkable finding in this research is that when companies deliver on these keys, they can save four out of five working parents from potentially quitting. That's huge. So Marcus, how can companies keep themselves honest on these five practices? What are some of the concrete steps that they can take to ensure that they're getting the right information so that they can make the changes to help sustain their people?

Marcus Erb: 

Yeah. Excellent question. And I think a lot of the things Kate shared, you're going to hear me say again, too, but what our data and what the half million working parents told us as well. When we look to find out what is the secret sauce of the best workplaces, what are they doing to prevent burnout, to make that not happen, to save those four out of five parents from experiencing that, our data showed us there was five key experiences that stood out. One of them was seeing that your benefits at your employer are specially unique and meet your need. Another is that you experience a psychologically healthy workplace. Imagine just that sense of stress being a parent, is that also being compounded when you come to work or not was a factor, feeling treated as a full member regardless of your role, feeling able to be yourselves at work as a working parent.

And you can imagine if you've been on a Zoom call or any kind of call where you're parenting, your kids would walk in in the background, is your employer and your coworkers going to understand or not? That kind of sense of being like, I don't have to worry about my being a parent or being known as a parent or being known that I want to be a parent. And fundamentally, it's that sense of empathy that Kate was describing too, this sense that my leader genuinely cares for me as a person, they understand the anxiety that I'm going through as a parent or as a parent, as aspiring parent, that they understand that and care about that. There's a sense of empathy. And when we saw that employees experience those five different In fact, it lowered it by 86%. So how do you know if you're delivering on those experience or not? The way I would describe it is it's two parts listening and one part reflection. I really like how Kate talked about really understanding and deeply getting that sense of what employees are experiencing. If you can start with that one piece of listening, hold a listening tour with your working parents to really understand what are they going through? What are they caring about and what support can the organization offer to them? I should say fairly wide definition of parent, meaning parent or parents to be people who are on the journey. And once you have that deep sense of listening, also kind of continue to listen, kind of continue to check in. So survey often, check in with your employees often, but this continuous sense of listening is going to be really critical.

So if you deeply understand and empathize with people's needs and kind of keep an eye on it through continuous listening, you got two parts of the solution. The final part to know whether or not you're keeping yourself honest with those experiences is reflection and genuinely looking at your programs and practices, the support you offer to your parents and parents to be, to understand what needs might not be supported, what messages are you sending that show you really do care and understand what they're experiencing and what they're facing and who might be missing out. And when you keep that in mind, about what care are you sharing and expressing, and how inclusive is that care, you're going to realize where you can improve and accelerate the benefits you need to offer to make sure your working parents are thriving.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Marcus. I'm going to go back to you Kate, because the journey of Maven is also your own personal journey, right? So your journey through parenthood is something that's deeply woven within the fabric of why this company exists, but this is not conceptual for you either as a business, because in addition to speaking to employers constantly, you're running a fast growing company that's more than doubled in size over the past year. What are some practices that you've put in place to support your own people during this challenging time?

Kate Ryder:

Yeah, I think it's been definitely, I did have a baby seven months ago, so I've done the whole pregnancy journey while doing this. And so I think one of the biggest things is just prioritizing flexibility and transparency. So one, I think there's so many unknowns in the world right now that I think it's really important to be clear about dates that kind of policies would be implemented to help employees plan their lives. So we kind of always are thinking about school schedules and trying to let people know, okay, we're not going to have return to office anytime soon. And so if you're going to be leaving to go somewhere else to the school, please do that. I think so constantly just being clear about return to office dates, knowing that of course they can shift at any time, but we just want to be setting dates so that people can plan.

I think, and a lot of this, we're co-creating it with the employees. So we're constantly asking through our own employee resource groups and our people team and surveys and whatnot, what works for people. I think, and we're also though of course doing it with principals and values that we have as well. So one of ours is that when you're scaling and growing a really dynamic, fast growing startup, being in person is important because it promotes learning and empathy that you kind of need when things change constantly. And so really it's that we're always planning around that, those kind of core principles as well of Maven. Another thing is just kind of we stood up last year new DEI working groups, each with an executive sponsor, and they each have their budgets and resources to help implement inclusive practices across all facets of our business.

So it's really personally important to me. We don't just talk the talk, we walk the walk. And so, we publish diversity stats on our website and we're just constantly listening. There's always areas that every company can improve and ourselves included. And so what are they? And they could also change a lot. And so what are they and keeping that dialogue open. And so, I think that that too, it's not only I think good for culture, but employees, what we find, I think they want to work for companies that kind of demonstrate this integrity that we mean what we say, and we do what we say. And so I think transparency's the first step.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Kate. This is a good line for you, Marcus, because your research shows that over the past two years, the best workplaces have shifted their focus from simply, say sustaining working parents, reacting to what's been happening to really creating an environment to where working parents can thrive. Can you explain what that really looks like in practice? And then tell us what types of programs and benefits separate good workplaces from great ones.

Marcus Erb:

Well, I touched on it a little bit earlier, but just to kind of, it's this environment where working parents and parents to be thriving are environments where our data says that they believe the company's investing in benefits that are specially unique to their needs. And also the environment is one where it's empathetic, psychologically safe and accepting of who they are. When you have those, you basically, you fundamentally have an environment that is both caring and inclusive for working parents and parents to be. That's what an environment looks like, wherein working parents can thrive, both the tangible support, but also just the day to day and empathy and understanding you need to make all of that like work. So you can bring your full self to work and unlock your talents there.

We've talked about a couple of the day to day practices that we've talked about. I think doing what you say you're going to do, living up to the promise is one of those things that people don't think of as a benefit, but it is one of those practices you need to do. We talked about listening and acting. So those are also things that are really important to invest time in. In terms of benefits, it's the ones that offer meaningful support. So Kate touched on one about offering parental ERGs. That is one that we see more and more employers offering, particularly amongst the best workplaces, but just finding a variety of ways to offer and signal your support for working parents and the diverse set of things that they're dealing with, given wherever they are with their own kids, their own situation, or the journey of parenthood.

Some of the things that we're seeing and trends in how the best workplaces are differentiating themselves with benefits right now is around support for planning and raising a family, so both starting a family or expanding a family or just the support of helping get kids through the day. So for example, we see that among the best workplaces for parents, half of them, 44%, offer subsidized childcare expenses. So they help pay for the childcare that employees need right now. Among the other companies we looked at, that was only 14%. So that was a big difference for us that we saw in terms of offering support for parents. But we also saw this trend, and Kate touched on it a little bit, which is that this idea of starting a family, whether that's through fertility support and IVF or through adoption, those are also places that the best workplaces are distinguishing themselves. Among fertility support, 75% of the best workplaces offer some type of support for fertility programs. Whereas other companies, it was only 38%.

So the best workplaces are definitely distinguishing themselves in how they support working parents and parents to be. And I think given the data and what we found back, it's going to continue to be a differentiator. Partly, we ask where are these companies going to be investing their benefit money in the future? Half of the kind of overall companies in our study said supporting working parents was the top priority in 2022. So one out of two, not bad, but not necessarily great given the level of support that we see and that working parents need, but among the best workplaces for parents, that figure is 82%. So 82% of those best workplaces are going to continue to prioritize supporting parents in the future in this next year. So they are going to continue to find ways to expand the benefits and support their offering to working parents as we continue to ride this crazy rollercoaster of the pandemic, to make sure that their working parents are able to thrive within their workplace.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Marcus. What you just described really connects tightly to what Kate just described as well, where and her organization's focus on listening, focus on standing up new DEI groups to make sure that they're really creating an inclusive environment to where they can actually hear from everyone and actually deeply understand that parenting journey is key to this next, is to the future. And Kate, I want to ask you, speaking, building on Marcus' point around investment, the best workplaces for parents are investing in offsetting things like childcare expenses, offering fertility benefits, making family building much more inclusive through the support for say, surrogacy and adoption. How important is it to understand the full breadth of experiences parents are facing on their life journey? How can leaders become more aware of the type of support that their parents need to actually thrive within the organization?

Kate Ryder:

Yeah, I think at the understanding, it's so important to know that the path to parenthood is often not linear. My own personal experience includes a miscarriage, which is extremely common, one in four pregnancies, but rarely supported. So I think just knowing that there's no linearity, and that loss and failure are often part of becoming a parent is a critical insight in building a support system that works for everyone. And so whether it's kind of reimbursement support for the gaps that we see in the family forming journeys, whether it's kind of mental health support across the board, whether it's kind of access to postpartum support, lactation consultants, career coaching to go to work, whether it's access to kind of middle of the night pediatrics, all of that is part of the puzzle. And so really, I think it's listening to your working parents, you could build an ERG for working parents and consult them, making sure there's kind of an intersectional approach on that.

And then leaning on vendors that specialize in this. I mean, I know we work with our clients all the time when thorny issues come up, like for instance, we've been working with a lot of our clients on vaccine rates among pregnant population. That's really, really important as well. And a lot of our clients have come to us kind of asking us for our support and resources and experts to really talk to some of that. And so I think that that is another part of the puzzle that it's really complicated. I mean I'm a woman and I've had many friends who've gone through all journeys and I still learn new things all the time about the family forming journeys, because it is so complicated and there are so many different experiences. And so yeah, so I think really leaning on the experts is important as well.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Kate. And I want to stay with you for this next question, but I really want to hear your perspective on one of the most striking findings in this research is about the unequal experience that senior women have inside of organizations when compared to their male counterparts. According to the data from this year's report, however, moms across managerial levels have lower results than dads as it relates to equity and things like representation, promotions, compensations, involvement, favoritism. What's your reaction to that? And how can companies, what can companies do to start change how their senior women and women across other managerial levels experience the workplace?

Kate Ryder:

There's a ton of research coming out on this. The Bureau of Labor stats show that last year, women devoted almost three more hours per day than men to childcare, which is a 15% increase year over year. It's a big reason why so many had to leave the workforce. And so that's why thinking about flexibility, it is so critical in retaining mothers particularly in rolling out some of those policies. I think also even before COVID, 43% of mothers end up leaving their job after their pregnancy, despite 75% saying that they want to stay. Those reasons stem from everything around the financial burdens of childcare to not having inclusive workplace or a manager who supports them.

And so that too is a devastating statistic and one that we personally work to change and have seen results in some of our clients, but ultimately, the data is the data and it all does tie back to business outcomes. McKinsey, I love McKinsey reports because I feel like it's always, the reports are always saying what I think I personally know already is that companies with diverse leadership show higher profitability over time than their peers. I think the latest one, it's 20% higher profitability. And so it's just critical to always, that we are businesses at the end of the day. And so there's a hard ROI case to actually invest in supporting senior or women and mothers in the workforce.

Julian Lute:

Thank you for that. All right, so we have a huge audience of people oriented leaders that are on the line today, listening and for each of you, I'd love for your one big thing, big thing for these folks to take away as they think about driving meaningful change in their companies. So what's the one big thing folks can take away from the report, from this conversation as they're working towards meaningful change? I want to start with you, Marcus. Can you share your one big thing for folks to take away?

Marcus Erb:

Sure. If you'll indulge me, I'll start with just some parenting advice I got that stuck with me and just resonated a lot over the pandemic. But early on, somebody told me that parenting's like riding a rollercoaster blindfolded. That was given to me 12 years ago and has stayed true since. And I feel like working through the pandemic was exactly like riding a rollercoaster blindfolded. We had no idea where it was going, where the turns were, where the fear and screaming would start or when it would end, but it was really hard. And I think that rollercoaster's going to keep going. So we may have turned some curves, but we've got a new future ahead of us at work where we're looking at working in hybrid environments, we're looking at how do we stay on top of different variants as they come out, and how do we establish a new normal of work?

So the work in front of everybody here is really difficult. It's really complicated. And I think there's no single silver bullet. So I'd say the one big thing for me from the research is as we ride this rollercoaster together ahead, sustain a mindset of care and inclusivity. If you can really just think about, as you make decisions about where to support working parents, where to invest your money, how to support your business and run it, think about how will your working parents know that you care about them today? What will they need from you tomorrow to still know that you care about them? And as you build that sense of care, who might be left out right now that you could reach out to and connect with? If you sustain that mindset of care and inclusivity, you'll be making great choices for your working parents so that they can thrive and also help your business thrive wherever this rollercoaster takes us.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Marcus. Great comparison to what was going on and what is still going on for many of us, but care and inclusivity are the big things to take away from your perspective. Bring us on home, Kate. What is your big thing?

Kate Ryder: 

Well, Marcus, I love how you started with parenting advice. So I can also, I think the one that I was given when I first had my son, my oldest son, is that parenting is a job and it's your most important one, and so treat it like that. And so I think given that, then that just means parents have two jobs. And so as a result, at a brass tax level, I think flexibility is just so critical in helping your employees and your parents kind of face everything that they're facing amongst all this uncertainty. And I think in general, the bigger kind of more macro trend that we're seeing is, we're in the midst of a sea change in business where it's becoming more and more clear that how you get the results that you report on an earnings call really matters. And so I think whether it's stakeholder capitalism or ESG, whatever you want to call it, that's happening. And so talent is right in the middle of that. And it's just so critical to really kind of listen and support all of your talent in all of their diversity.

Julian Lute:

Thank you, Kate. So I'm hearing flexibility. I'm also hearing, making sure that you're listening to the needs of folks as often as possible, and as a parent of two boys six and under, the rollercoaster analogy, spot on and the full-time job, that hits home with me as well. So well, I mean, really there you have it folks. I mean, these best workplaces, this work research is really showing that not just how we retain working parents is important, but how we achieve more by sustaining them with inclusive benefits and caring, equitable work environment. So I want to thank you both for your insight. I want to thank everyone who's listening. What we know is that organizations that take the time to understand the experiences of their working parents and proactively address what matters to them will improve in ways that are better for business, better for people, and of course, better for the world.

But before we go, helping working parents doesn't stop here. So to find out more about how Maven's products and services can help your organization, visit mavenclinic.com. And if you're interested in finding out if your organization is great for working parents, get certified. Go to greatplacetowork.com and you can join us on that journey of certification and recognition. For the full report, and I'm telling you, you got to get this report on the state of working parents in 2021, you can download it at mavenclinic.com as well. So on behalf of Maven and Great Place To Work, thank you again for joining us today. And we look forward to staying connected with you all throughout your entire journey to creating great places to work for all. Take care.