By Rachel Feintzeig And Lauren Weber
Netflix Inc.'s message for new parents is one rarely heard in
the U.S.: take as much time as you need.
Amid debate over whether tech is a family-friendly industry, the
Los Gatos, Calif., web-video subscription company unveiled one of
the most generous parental leave policies among big U.S. employers.
Effective immediately, new mothers and fathers will be able to take
an unlimited amount of time off, at full pay, in the first year
after the birth or adoption of a child.
"We want employees to have the flexibility and confidence to
balance the needs of their growing families without worrying about
work or finances, " the company's chief talent officer, Tawni
Cranz, wrote on the company's blog Tuesday.
Netflix's policy is especially notable for its fluidity,
workplace experts say. Workers can take up to a year at regular
pay, or choose to stay home for a few months, return part-time for
a spell and then head out of the office for a few more months.
"We'll just keep paying them normally, eliminating the headache
of switching to state or disability pay," Ms. Cranz wrote. The
company declined to make comments Wednesday.
The leave benefit has much in common with those in Europe, where
generous, government-funded paid leave policies for new parents are
the norm. In a December 2013 review of maternity-leave policies
around the globe, the Pew Research Center noted that the U.S. is
the only nation among 38 countries without laws guaranteeing some
paid leave for new mothers. Among the sample, governments mandated
a median of five to six months of fully paid leave to women after
the birth of a child.
About a fifth of U.S. organizations offer paid maternity leave
above what short-term disability or state law covers, according to
a 2015 survey of 463 human resources professionals by the Society
for Human Resource Management. That is up from 12% of organizations
polled in 2014.
Decoupling parental leave from disability has an added
advantage--for women--by allowing mothers to stay connected to work
even as they attend to family needs, said Ken Matos, senior
director of research at the Families and Work Institute.
Mothers' leave is often covered by temporary-disability
policies, which mandate that they can't work at all while on
disability, or risk their claim to insurance money, he said. As a
result, many women get cut off from work during their leave, which
can hurt career advancement, he said.
Tech companies are known for showering employees with lavish
perks and rich benefits packages, even as they demand long hours
from employees. Google, for example, offers 18 weeks of paid
maternity leave.
Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it, too, will expand
parental benefits. Starting in November, new mothers will be able
to take up to 20 weeks of paid leave, with additional time off in
the two weeks before their due date, wrote Kathleen Hogan, the
company's human resources head, on a company blog. That time off
includes 12 weeks of paid parental leave for new mothers or fathers
as well as disability leave for birth mothers. Currently, mothers
get eight weeks of paid disability leave and new mothers and
fathers get 12 weeks of parental leave, of which four weeks are
paid.
Some employers in other industries have begun following suit in
an effort to woo top talent--private-equity firm Blackstone Group
announced in April that it was bumping its maternity leave benefits
from 12 weeks at full pay to 16 weeks.
Unlimited policies like Netflix's sound generous, but they can
be tricky for managers and workers alike. For example, research
shows unlimited vacation policies result in workers' taking less
time off, because they are unsure how their requests will be
perceived by managers and peers. But a strong culture helps:
workers are more likely to take leave if they're confident they
won't be punished for doing so, Mr. Matos said.
While parental leave is no vacation, all leave programs rely on
employees' "ability to declare 'I'm taking time to do what I need
to do for my family'," he said.
Netflix may expect some logistical challenges ahead. Managers
might not know how many employees they will have on hand during
busy spells, said Bruce Elliott, SHRM's manager of compensation and
benefits, and might need to draw on resources from across the
organization or cross-train employees on performing additional
tasks to make it work.
And the change could be tricky when it comes to paternity leave,
as men remain reluctant to take time off after the arrival of a
baby. The average break new fathers take is two weeks, using a
combination of parental, vacation, and other policies, according to
the Boston College Center for Work & Family. Men say they are
far more likely to take time off when it is paid at 70% or
higher.
Write to Lauren Weber at lauren.weber@wsj.com and Rachel
Feintzeig at rachel.feintzeig@wsj.com
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