Adoption can be a difficult and lengthy process. The last thing an adoptive parent should have to deal with is an unsupportive employer during that process. Fortunately, a growing number of companies are providing adoption-related benefits, including reimbursement for adoption expenses and paid leave benefits comparable to those provided to biological parents.
Every year, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption publishes a list of the 100 most adoption-friendly workplaces and its 2019 list was recently published here. The list compares financial reimbursement and paid leave offered to employees who adopt, based on a survey of organizations across the United States.
The foundation also publishes lists of employers that provide the best foster care benefits, the best paid leave, and the companies that make the best impact.
While it is wonderful that these employers provide these great adoption benefits, many employers still do not have such policies in place. As an adoptive parent or hopeful adoptive parent, you can advocate for your employer to add these benefits. An incredible tool that the foundation provides is a sample adoption benefit proposal for employees. If your employer currently does not provide adoption benefits, you can simply edit the document where appropriate and provide it to your Human Resources department and/or management. If your employer wants more information, the foundation also created this employer toolkit that can assist the company in providing these types of benefits to its employees.
There are a number of arguments to be made in support of an employer adding adoption benefits. As the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption points out, any employer gains from having these policies by:
Strengthening employee loyalty, retention, goodwill, and productivity.
Gaining a competitive edge in recruiting new employees.
Enhancing the company’s family-friendly image.
Recognizing the need to support adoptive and biological parents.
Giving employees time to bond with their children.
Making adoption more affordable.
Helping move children from foster care to loving, adoptive homes.
Additionally, according to the The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employers that offer adoption benefits have found that the “employee goodwill derived from offering this benefit is significant.” Further, the benefits are inexpensive to an employer because few employees will actually use them. Even employees that have no intention of using the benefit themselves still view their employers positively for offering the benefit. From a purely business perspective, SHRM lists the following benefits to having these policies: consistency for all employees (regardless of whether they are adoptive or biological parents), low cost, high goodwill, and numerous social benefits (including helping to provide a loving, stable home for children and creating an adoption-friendly culture by supporting families formed through adoption). (For additional information, direct your employer to this SHRM toolkit and/or this SHRM article.)
On a personal note, I find it encouraging to see employers offer these benefits for adoption and hope that more companies follow suit. At the time I adopted my daughter, I worked for a company that refused to provide the same paid leave to me that it provides to biological mothers. After spending many years unable to become pregnant, it was difficult to be told that I could not receive maternity pay because I had not actually been pregnant with my daughter. I felt upset at a time when I should have been experiencing nothing but elation at finally becoming a mother. No adoptive parent should have to go through that. (On the bright side, it made it easier to leave that employer and start this firm!)
I hope more companies continue to provide these benefits to adoptive parents. Even if you currently work for an employer that does not have any such benefit, you can request and advocate for these benefits so that more adoptive parents receive them in the future! As Dave Thomas said, advocating for better adoption benefits in the workplace is “the right thing to do.”