PR Newswire | The report identifies the top policies that positively impact small businesses’ employees and employers including flexibility, remote work, maternity leave, child care assistance, and more.

The study’s findings revealed a positive effect on both personal and professional employee outcomes within diverse industries, as well as measurable benefits for businesses.

Today, The Best Place for Working Parents® and Southern Methodist University’s Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) have released their latest report, Making the Connection: How Small Business is Gaining a Competitive Edge through Family-Friendly Policies. The report examines the tangible benefits and employee outcomes that businesses experience when implementing the Best Place for Working Parents’ Top 10 research-backed, family-friendly policies. These policies have been proven to benefit working parents and enhance businesses’ bottom line. The report can be read here.

The study focused on two key evaluation areas for family-friendly benefits for small businesses. First, it examined the implementation of the Top 10 Best Place for Working Parents policies across a variety of business environments and analyzed the differences in their execution. Second, it assessed the impact of the Top 10 Best Place for Working Parents®’ family-friendly policies on outcomes for both businesses and their employees.

The study’s findings revealed a positive effect on both personal and professional employee outcomes within diverse industries, as well as measurable benefits for businesses. With a majority of small-sized businesses that participated in the study, the report points to positive associations between well-implemented family-friendly policies and employee outcomes.

A few of the key findings for businesses in the report link well-implemented, robust policies to positive outcomes.

• Offering healthcare coverage increases the likelihood of having high-performing employees by four times and creates a five times more supportive workplace.
• 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.
• Embracing workplace flexibility creates an environment that is 123.2 times more supportive.
• Offering remote work options not only increases employee motivation and employee health by more than double, but also leads to 2.2 times higher satisfaction in personal relationships.
• 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.
• Offering paid time off can significantly increase personal relationship satisfaction by 16.7 times.

“Since launching The Best Place for Working Parents in 2020, we have seen increased implementation and innovation across all of the Top 10 family-friendly practices, and especially with small businesses,” said Sadie Funk, National Director of The Best Place for Working Parents. “Given that small businesses make up 99% of businesses in the U.S., we aimed to highlight the diverse range of options for implementing family-friendly policies and underscore the positive impact that these benefits can have on small businesses. We know that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to family-friendly workplaces, but we’re hopeful this report will help small businesses see the possibilities of implementing family-friendly policies to support their employee’s needs and drive their business goals.”

To learn more about how family-friendly policies support the growth of small businesses, read the full report here.

Report Methodology
This report is based on data collected from 49 businesses, the majority of which were small and micro organizations in The Best Place for Working Parents® network across nine states in the U.S. The Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) and Best Place for Working Parents® used a phased data collection approach, recruiting organizations, conducting employee surveys, and developing policy implementation profiles. Organizations were evaluated using a Policy Implementation Rubric, scoring family-friendly policy implementation on a scale of 1 to 4. Data sources included employee surveys, interviews with business leaders, and reviews of employee handbooks or policy documents to confirm written policy implementation extent.

About The The Best Place for Working Parents®
The Best Place for Working Parents® is a collaborative and expanding network of businesses across the United States committed to providing support for working parents through evidence-based strategies, effectively demonstrating that family-friendly policies contribute to a thriving business environment. This public-private partnership offers a competitive designation that recognizes innovation in the top 10 research-backed family-friendly policies, benefiting working parents and enhancing employers’ bottom lines. Businesses can qualify for the Best Place for Working Parents® business designation by completing the first-of-its-kind online self-assessment available at https://bestplace4workingparents.com.