A recent report from The Best Place for Working Parents® and Southern Methodist University's Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) highlights the advantages of family-friendly policies, revealing their positive impact on both working parents and businesses' overall performance.

Titled "Making the Connection: How Small Business is Gaining a Competitive Edge through Family-Friendly Policies," the study focused on evaluating family-friendly benefits for small businesses in two key areas. First, it scrutinized the implementation of the Top 10 Best Place for Working Parents policies across diverse business environments, analyzing the nuances in their execution. Then it gauged the effects of these family-friendly policies on outcomes for both businesses and their employees.

The study discovered a favorable influence on personal and professional outcomes for employees across various industries, as well as tangible benefits for businesses. Among the small-sized businesses studied, the report highlighted positive correlations between well-executed family-friendly policies and improved employee outcomes.

Key findings from the report emphasize the positive outcomes linked to well-implemented policies:

1. Health Care Coverage: Offering health care coverage increases the likelihood of having high-performing employees by four times and creates a workplace that is five times more supportive.
2. Maternity Leave: Providing maternity leave makes it 50.8 times more likely to have high performers and results in a workplace that is considered 1,327 times more supportive
3. Workplace Flexibility: Embracing workplace flexibility creates an environment that is 123.2 times more supportive.
4. Remote Work Options: Offering remote work options not only doubles employee motivation and health but also leads to 2.2 times higher satisfaction in personal relationships.
5. Child Care Assistance: Providing child care assistance boosts employee motivation by 3.9 times, enhances family life satisfaction by 6.8 times, and grows personal relationship satisfaction by 6.7 times.
6. Paid Time Off: Offering paid time off can significantly increase personal relationship satisfaction by 16.7 times.

Sadie Funk, National Director of The Best Place for Working Parents, remarked, "Since the launch of The Best Place for Working Parents in 2020, we have witnessed increased implementation and innovation across all Top 10 family-friendly practices, particularly within small businesses. Recognizing that small businesses constitute 99% of U.S. businesses, our aim was to showcase diverse options for implementing family-friendly policies and underscore the positive impact these benefits can have on small businesses. While acknowledging there's no one-size-fits-all solution, we hope this report will inspire small businesses to consider and implement family-friendly policies to support their employees' needs and drive their business goals."

Source: CCH