By Michael Wood, Managing Director of Education and Workforce
BEST PLACE FOR WORKING PARENTS DALLAS® IS PRESENTED BY
Since 2021, the Dallas Regional Chamber (DRC), in partnership with PNC Bank, has presented the Best Place for Working Parents® Dallas, a local partner of the Best Place for Working Parents® national initiative, to recognize family-friendly workplaces in the Dallas Region and raise awareness of the importance of family-friendly benefits and policies for employers and workers.
Through a self-assessment, Best Place for Working Parents® allows employers to quickly determine whether their workplace qualifies for a Best Place for Working Parents® business designation by comparing their family-friendly benefits to companies of similar size and industry.
The DRC launched the 2023 Best Place for Working Parents® Dallas initiative in January. To date, more than 70 companies representing more than 25 industries have received the designation. Of those designees, 46% are micro or small businesses with fewer than 200 employees. Twenty-five percent are medium-sized companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, and the remaining 29% are large companies with more than 1,000 employees.
As the DRC sees it, there is a clear business case for employers to implement family-friendly policies in the workplace. Research conducted by the SMU Simmons School of Education & Human Development demonstrates a clear return on investment associated with the 10 policies included in the Best Place for Working Parents® self-assessment.
Parental leave, for example, has a meaningful impact on retention of first-time mothers, who are 32% less likely to quit their jobs and 19% more likely to return to the same employer if they use some form of parental leave. Flexible working environments also move the needle on retention: 70% of credentialed women who left the workforce report that they would have stayed if they had access to flexible hours. Likewise, work-from-home capabilities decrease company attrition rates by as much as 50%.
Childcare assistance benefits also deliver a positive return on investment for employers. Companies that offer onsite childcare – the most intensive of the childcare assistance benefits – experience reductions in workplace absences by 30% and turnover by 60%. An employer with 250 employees that provides access to backup childcare services can save as much as $75,000 per year in lost work time, and companies offering dependent care flexible savings accounts can save up to $382 per participating employee.
Notably, Dallas is a regional leader among the Best Place for Working Parents® national network in paternity leave, nursing benefits, childcare assistance, and backup childcare. Compared to implementation rates across the country, Dallas Region Best Place for Working Parents® designees are 18% more likely to offer paternity leave, 5% more likely to offer nursing benefits, 10% more likely to offer childcare assistance, and 13% more likely to offer back-up childcare.
The DRC encourages company executives, human resource leaders, or talent management staff to complete the Best Place for Working Parents® self-assessment on their company’s behalf. Businesses will be notified of their designation status immediately upon completion of the self-assessment.
For more information about the Best Place for Working Parents® Dallas, visit the DRC website or contact DRC Managing Director of Education & Workforce Michael Wood at mwood@dallaschamber.org.