STAFFING RESOURCE CENTER

San Francisco recently became the first U.S. city to require employers to provide six weeks of parental leave -- at full pay. The city's policy applies to any family welcoming a child, whether by birth or adoption. No state requires fully paid parental leave, either. But what's news in San Francisco is likely to become "par for the course" nationwide.

What's Changing When it Comes to Paid Parental Leave?

Currently, California is one of only five states to require any form of paid parental leave. New York recently passed a bill that will phase in 12 weeks of paid leave for workers by 2021. New Jersey and Rhode Island both require employers to offer six weeks of paid parental leave -- as does Washington, although the state does not enforce its rule.

In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama urged lawmakers at both the federal and state levels, as well as business leaders, to offer paid parental leave. Both businesses and states have listened. Twitter recently offered a generous 20 weeks of parental leave at full pay. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. are also working on passing paid leave bills.

Currently, only two countries in the world offer no nationwide form of paid parental leave to workers. The United States is one of them -- but signs indicate that we won't be for long.

Why It Pays to Get Ahead on Paid Leave

Currently, most U.S. businesses aren't required by law to provide paid parental leave -- or if they are, they're required to offer only a limited amount of time, and don't have to offer full pay. For businesses with an eye on the short-term bottom line, the tradeoff makes sense.

If your goal is to thrive in the long term, however, paid parental leave pays off. Consider:

• Most new parents come back to work in 9 to 12 months if they have paid leave -- and never return if they don't. The short-term inconvenience of missing a staff member is easily offset by the astronomical costs of replacing a team member and bringing the new employee up to speed.
• Paid parental leave offerings increase productivity. In a National Partnership for Women and Families study, 90 percent of responding businesses noted a bump in productivity once they started offering paid parental leave -- even before anyone had actually taken advantage of the policy!
• Paid parental leave improves motivation and employee engagement, and it reduces stress levels. In the same study, 99 percent of workers described feeling less stress and increased motivation when a paid parental leave policy was put in place -- even if they had no immediate plans to have or adopt a child.

Not only does paid parental leave improve the productivity and engagement of the staff you already have, it also increases your chances of attracting even better talent in the future. Companies that offer generous paid parental leave policies position themselves as companies that "get it" -- they understand the value of work-life balance, and they want their employees to understand it, too.

These employers also attract more diverse talent: Top performers who want families are more likely to apply when they see they can "have it all" with a company.

Sound surprising? Here are the numbers:

• 73 percent of workers have turned down, or will turn down, a job that doesn't offer enough flexibility to let them start a family.
• 50 percent of workers whose companies have paid parental leave policies decide to come back after having or adopting a child -- instead of quitting entirely.
• 12 percent: The percentage of U.S. companies that currently offer paid parental leave. In other words, you can get the edge on 88 percent of your competitors with a single policy.

Paid parental leave is becoming policy in states and cities throughout the U.S. By offering a generous paid leave policy now, your company can attract better talent -- and boast that you offered paid leave before it was cool.

Need interim support to cover paid leave?

Trust your staffing firm to provide the qualified, reliable people you need -- so you can offer your employees the paid leave they deserve.