Nearly half of all tech pros are satisfied with their company’s paid family leave policy, according to a recent survey from Blind. That's an opportunity for tech recruiters and hiring managers whose companies offer solid paid family leave; such a benefit can potentially pull in well-experienced tech professionals who need some time away from the office.
Blind surveys tech pros anonymously via its app, so it’s difficult to determine whether respondents actually work for the companies cited in this newest poll. Nonetheless, some 49.26 percent of respondents said they were happy with their company’s paid family leave policy, while 29.43 percent said they were unsatisfied.
Another 21.31 percent weren’t sure if they were happy with their company’s policy, suggesting there are a lot of tech pros who simply haven’t evaluated what’s on offer; maybe they don’t have a family, or their partner handles the childrearing aspects of their mutual lives.
Here’s the company-by-company breakdown. At most firms, a majority of employees are happy with the parental leave offerings; the only companies where the percentage of those saying “Yes” drops below 50 percent are Intel, Apple, Cisco, and Amazon.
Many tech companies have a paid family leave package of some kind. For example, Netflix offers 52 weeks of paid maternity leave, placing it well ahead of Microsoft (22 weeks), Amazon (20 weeks), and Uber (17 weeks). According to Recode, which did a pretty extensive study, some tech companies offer additional goodies for new parents; for example, Amazon allows employees to donate up to six weeks of paid leave to partners whose companies may not offer the benefit, while Google lets new parents work part-time at their full salary after they return.
But nationally, it’s a different story. According to Blind (which cited data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), only 13 percent of private-industry employees could access paid family leave through their employer. That’s a pretty low percentage of employees able to bond with their newborn (or handle family health issues) while still receiving a paycheck.
The tech industry seems to be leading the way with regard to this particular benefit, but many companies nonetheless don't offer it. For hiring managers who can't necessarily compete with rival firms in offering sky-high salaries to new employees, paid family leave could prove just the right benefit necessary to pull in the necessary candidates.
