If no money is put behind a corporate wellness program, does it exist?
It’s a question people (like me) working with companies to change the level of support for workers – in my case for Lead Dads and Working Moms to fulfill their full potential at home and at work – ask ourselves.
Well, this is the time of year when that question has been answered for everyone else. It’s now that companies reup or rethink their benefit plans.
There will be a lot of focus next month on the hashtag #OpenEnrollment period for employees. But what that barrage of emails contains has already been decided.
And here’s a blunt fact: What money the company you work for has set aside for employee resource groups focused on parenting – and how much it has set aside – says everything you need to know about whether the company is serious about rethinking how workers manage competing roles in this hybrid world.
When employee resource groups say they don’t have “budget” for programs to help workers, I think one thing: the company has decided working parents can figure it out on their own or do it on the cheap.
Why? Because what matters in the benefit world gets funding. Programs to help working parents should have lots of “budget” because they keep employees from leaving and that lowers a company’s retention costs.
Would a company ever not have “budget” for Open Enrollment for health insurance? No way. Who wants underinsured employees stressing out in the office?
What about the push for all employees to sign up for their 401k plans? Big “budget” because if enough regular workers don’t sign up, highly compensated executives are limited in how much they can defer, per Department of Labor rules.
In other words, you need a lot of $50,000 a year employees to sign up for 401k plans, so $500,000 and $5 million executives can defer the maximum. Not enough $50,000 employees and 401k deposits can get sent back to executives.
Yet when it comes to workplace wellness plans and family-focused employee resource groups, not having “budget” is a popular refrain.
Not having a budget is a choice companies make. Just as much as hiring more people or buying a corporate jet. They’re all choices.
But no budget here is detrimental to employees and their wellbeing. It’s also not good for companies that say they want to build resilient workforces.
Money spent on helping working parents works. It keeps them engaged and loyal. It backs up rhetoric with action. It gives them solutions to manage competing demands. It keeps them from leaving for small raises that really mean they hate their job.
Zero is a budget as much as $100,000 or $1 million is a budget. It’s a decision, and decisions send signals.
At The Company of Dads, we work with future-focused companies at a variety of price points, from virtual webinars to in-person, on-site training. I’d welcome your stories on workplace support.
