The Best Place for Working Parents was established in 2019, when about 100 business leaders inNorth Texas — from Fortune 500 employers to mom and pop shops — collaborated in multiple roundtable sessions to discuss which of their family-friendly policies were working, and where they were coming up short. Combining their feedback with national research, they came up with a list of 10policies that have an evident impact on ROI, and created a three-minute online self-assessment so employers can see how their current efforts compare to others in their industry. 

With the right kinds of policies in place, companies can receive badging and designation as a BestPlace for Working Parents — something more than 2,000 businesses nationwide have alreadyachieved. 

“It’s become this network of businesses that have the opportunity for great camaraderie and thinkingabout what policies really matter,” says Sadie Funk, the organization’s national director. “We have ourtop 10 [policies], but we’re also really fortunate to have a pretty good lens into how businesses acrossthe country are making other small innovations, like a late start on the first day of school, so nobodyhas to worry about missing that moment, and what that can look like.”

Small, customized family-friendly offerings can help companies stand out in the eyes of working parents. Funk reminds employers that there is no silver bullet set of benefits and policies that fits the needs of everyone, so keeping a good pulse on a workforce through communication, surveys and other methods allows leaders to put together the best options for their particular population. 

“The first thing we always encourage employers to do is to survey their employees, and do it regularlyso they can understand what benefits make [the most] sense,” she says. “And it may look different nowthan it does in five years. You may have a workforce whose children are growing, or who are taking onmore responsibility caring for their elders, so checking in is important.” 

Funk points to an example of an individual company in The Best Place for Working Parents networkputting meaningful policies in place, such as Eastern Bank. Since not all of its employees could takeadvantage of their hybrid work policy, management added three days of additional PTO for workerswhose job required them to be in-person. Another company in their network reframes its policiesconsistently by asking particular, open-ended questions.

“Country Maid, which is a manufacturing company out of Iowa, has two great questions that I love,”she says. “Every year they ask their employees, ‘What about your work life is impacting your homelife? And what about your home life is impacting your work life?’ And that’s how [they] go aboutdeveloping new policies — leaning in, revisiting policies, and really trying to understand kind of wherethose two pieces rub.”

In addition to working directly with companies to survey employees and put policies in place, TheBest Place for Working Parents also connects businesses with things in common, whether that be industry, geographical location, employee population, or other traits, so they can use each other as resources. 

In a recent report highlighting the impact of family-friendly benefits, the organization was able to emphasize their ROI: Employees who are offered on-site child care reported 4.1 times higher social well-being at work and 8.9 times more loyalty to their employer. Those who offered remote work were 2.1 times more motivated at work, and those offered child care assistance were 3.9 times more motivated. 

Not every company is capable of providing the optimal parental benefit to their employees, but that shouldn’t discourage leaders from starting somewhere, Funk says. 

“You don’t have to do everything all at once; just taking that first step is great,” she says. “Whether that be leaning into flexibility, thinking about a dependent care FSA, whatever that is, it is so incredibly valuable in and of itself. And once you do that, you can see the impact on your employees, and think about that next step you want to take. It’s not an all or nothing game.”