New Research Reveals Americans, as Both Employees and Consumers, Value Family-Friendly Benefits Over More Costly Perks
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American workers say they are letting both their families and employers down due to poor work-life balance, and value family-friendly benefits over flashier, costlier work perks, according to findings of the Work + Life Report, a research study released by Care.com. Conducted as the first effects of the novel COVID-19 pandemic swept across America, the survey asked 1,254 full-time American workers how family-friendly benefits, like backup childcare, affect employee productivity, recruitment, retention, and attrition, as well as how they influence what brands or stores consumers favor.
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“American workers, both as employees and consumers, choose whom to work for and whom to buy from based on how companies treat their workforce, and the Work + Life Report shows that family-friendly benefits are among the key criteria on which companies are being judged.”
In the best of times, families struggle to balance work with caring for children and elderly family members. Over the past decade, the cost to U.S. businesses in lost productivity due to care-related absenteeism, distraction, adjustments and turnover was in the multi-billions annually. Yet, before the current COVID-19 crisis, employers at large were still slow to register the full impact of care issues in the workplace or to respond to demands of employees for more support.
“What the COVID-19 pandemic has so brutally revealed is that a sustainable balance between work and family life is crucial for both personal and economic well-being,” said Scott Healy, executive vice president and general manager of Care@Work, Care.com’s enterprise solution for employers. “American workers, both as employees and consumers, choose whom to work for and whom to buy from based on how companies treat their workforce, and the Work + Life Report shows that family-friendly benefits are among the key criteria on which companies are being judged.”
Across all respondents, from Gen Z to Baby Boomers, both salaried and hourly, male and female, family care benefits ranked highly as a reason to stay at a current job or pursue a new one. Flexibility, paid family leave, and subsidized backup childcare all ranked above commuter benefits, student loan assistance and tuition reimbursement, and half of respondents even said that a company’s offering family-friendly benefits is important when choosing an employer—whether they personally need the benefit or not.
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