2017’s Best Companies For Working Moms Have A Few Key Things In Common
Working moms know all too well that juggling their careers and families is never going to feel easy. And even though research shows that working moms are just as ambitious as women without kids, the sad reality is that at many companies, mommy-tracking is still a thing.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to highlight the companies that are doing right by their employees — particularly those employees who have kids at home. Working Mother has done just that: it’s just published its annual 100 Best Companies For Women list, pointing to employers that explore industry-leading policies on equitable promotion, institutional support, paid leave and flexibility.
PwC — in addition to earning a spot on Working Mother’s list — consistently ranks on Fortune’s list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, and this year the firm landed the #1 spot on Fortune’s list of best places for parents to work.
PwC’s leaders prioritize diversity and inclusion, and also encourage flexibility and individualized career options in order to provide employees with extra support. “The flexibility offered by PwC is second-to-none,” one woman wrote on Fairygodboss. “I have two kids and lead a very large national team. I have always felt that I could take the time I needed to be with my kids while at the same time, I have felt fulfilled and appreciated at work.”
In addition to offering 8-10 weeks of paid short term disability leave to birth mothers plus six weeks of paid parental leave, PwC allows parents to take a total of 26 weeks (including paid and unpaid time) and also provides adoption and lactation benefits.
Accenture has long been a leader in the fight for gender equality — and they don’t just talk the talk. This past June, Accenture declared that its workforce will reach true gender balance (50% female) by 2025, and announced plans to grow its percentage of women at the managing director level to 25% globally by 2020.
The firm, which each year hosts incredible events for International Women’s Day, is not only focused on hiring women, but also on updating and establishing its policies to support women — particularly working moms. Moreover, Accenture conducted research aiming to disprove the myth that motherhood diminishes career ambition, and found that working moms have the same — or an even higher level of career ambition — as those without children.
Company leaders have made it their mission to disseminate their findings and to act on this research internally. Perhaps that’s why Mary Hamilton, Accenture Labs managing director based in Silicon Valley, says she didn’t doubt whether she’d return to work after having children. “For me, it was really important to take on new opportunities, and Accenture really did offer me an opportunity to stretch and take on those roles [after returning from leave],” Hamilton says. She adds that she’s worked with various leaders at the company, but all have been “extremely supportive.”
Dow Jones is known for supporting its employees not only so they can function in the office — but also in a way that allows them to maintain a healthy, balanced life. Raakhee Mirchandani, a senior content development editor at Dow Jones and the editor-in-chief of Moneyish.com (another Dow Jones media brand), says that as the mother of a toddler, she feels particularly fortunate to work for an employer that’s family-friendly. “Flexibility is not even something we talk about; it’s just understood,” she says.
She drops her daughter off at school every single morning, sometimes works remotely for part of the day, and has the flexibility to block off an hour-and-a-half in her calendar for her daughter’s daycare graduation.
Mirchandani and other employees are also huge fans of Women@DJ, a women’s group that hosts a speaker series, “lunch and learn” events, and opportunities to network not only with other Dow Jones employees, but also with other media peers in the area.
GE has a history of creating progressive programs for employees in the areas of advancement of women, flexibility, childcare and paid parental leave. There are countless reasons women love working at GE; the company has fabulous flexibility policies (which encourage remote working), fantastic benefits (including paid parental leave and a “Moms on the Move” program that enables moms who are nursing and traveling to arrange for GE to ship their breast milk to their baby), mentorship opportunities and unlimited PTO.
“It’s an honor to be recognized as one of the Working Mother 100 Best Companies for the 15th consecutive year,” says GE Global Inclusion Leader Isabel Cruz.
Casey Kulka, Global Sourcing Executive Finance Manager for GE Healthcare, has also been recognized by the magazine as Mother of the Year. As Working Mother writes:
“Casey has built a reputation as being approachable, thoughtful and a career advisor. As a 17-year veteran with GE, Casey is the Global Sourcing Executive Finance Manager for GE Healthcare [...]
Casey has also been a leader and advocate beyond her official titles. She has played a key part in establishing Women in Finance (WIF). This group is specifically focused on the continued recruitment, development and advancement of women throughout GE Healthcare [...]
Besides her commitment to GE, Finance and her multiple leadership initiatives, Casey is equally proud of her family, which includes her husband John and their two sons (Jack and Christopher, who are four and two respectively). Like many working parents, Casey prioritizes her work schedule to include t-ball games, golf lessons and swimming lessons.”
Earning a spot among Working Mother’s best companies — or a top ranking in Fairygodboss’ similar, user-generated list, for that matter — isn’t exactly new to this global tech giant. Thanks to a targeted emphasis on diversity, IBM has made the magazine’s list for the past 32 years — and their effort to promote equality goes back way further than that.
Well over a century ago, in 1899, IBM hired its first female employee — well before there was precedent for this. Then, in 1914, its first employee with a disability was hired (76 years before the Americans With Disabilities Act went into effect). In 1953, the company’s first written Equal Opportunity Policy advocated for equal hiring opportunities “regardless of race, color, or creed.” And in 1983, it launched the first-ever national corporate child care initiative to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities.
Based off that last milestone, especially, it isn’t hard to see why moms love to work at IBM. Today, female employees benefit from a variety of robust benefits, including: global work-life integration initiatives; comprehensive parental leave offerings for moms, dads, and adoptive parents; discounts with national childcare providers; and even an innovative breast milk delivery service for moms who are nursing during business travel.
Interested in becoming one of the many women at IBM who are killing their careers? Head over to its jobs page to find plenty of openings!
To understand why this healthcare company earned Working Mother’s accolade (also for the 32nd year in a row), one need look no further than a few key statistics. At Johnson & Johnson, women make up: 45 percent of employees; 44 percent of managers and executives; and 47 percent of new hires.
Talk about an even playing field! Not only that, but in 2016, as Working Mother noted, 95 percent of women promoted to the manager level or above utilized flexible work arrangements — which is obviously a major perk for working mamas.
"All families belong at J&J and they are an important part of the patients and customers we serve," says Wanda Hope, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Johnson & Johnson. "We are committed to meeting the needs of these families through progressive policies like paid leave for all new parents, family planning benefits, breast milk shipping and onsite childcare. In addition, we regularly assess our policies and benefits so they continue to meet the fast-changing needs of families today and tomorrow. We know that by investing in the whole life health of our employees, we enable them to be themselves and change the world -- improving health for all humanity.”
Work-life balance isn’t solely prioritized for women in leadership positions, either; all full-time employees, in fact, can take up to 40 paid hours of “personal/family time” off annually. The company’s parental leave policy was also recently upped, making birth moms eligible for 17 weeks of PTO and dads eligible for nine — none of which has to be taken consecutively. And once new parents have eased back into their working lives after taking leaves, Johnson & Johnson is still there to support them with seven on-site child-care centers in the U.S.
Considering that Boston Consulting Group was ranked by Fairygodboss users as the No. 1 best company for women in 2017, it’s no surprise that it’d earn a spot on Working Mother’s lineup, as well!
At BCG, conducting research into women’s issues is a true priority. One of the key areas where this research led to positive action? Parental leave. The firm analyzed the policies of more than 250 mid- and large-size companies and spoke to 25 HR leaders at large organizations to better understand how paid family leave makes good business sense — then went on to bulk up their own parental leave offerings, up to 16 weeks for birth moms and 8 weeks for dads and adoptive parents.
BCG is well aware that consulting hasn’t always been a field considered friendly to women, especially those with children. The firm’s diversity efforts highlight its determination to erase that stereotype, and the results speak for themselves — the number of female consultants here has doubled since 2011. Not only that, but Fairygodboss users consistently cite BCG’s hours, culture, and policies as being “family friendly.”
Earning a top 10 ranking within Working Mother’s list, this professional-services firm is accustomed to garnering applause for its women- and family-friendly policies. One of the key accomplishments Deloitte is recognized for, in particular, is the way its redefining the way we see caregiving in the U.S.
At the end of 2016, this 115-year-old organization debuted a paid family leave program that was billed as an industry first, and it’s quickly proven itself to be as indispensable as it is progressive. Under this new program, eligible Deloitte employees — both men and women alike — can take up to 16 weeks of fully paid leave to bond with a new child (birth, adopted, or foster) or to care for a family member with a serious health condition. The program was designed with the understanding that caregivers aren’t simply women and men with new infants, especially given today’s growing sandwich generation.
Supporting employees during all of their caregiving endeavors is just one the ways Deloitte prioritizes comprehensive well-being. It also boasts extremely generous flex-work and PTO policies, offers 30 days per year of backup child care or eldercare, and offers extended sabbatical programs.
If you’re interested in any of these fabulous perks, we can’t blame you. But we might blame you if you don’t check out what jobs they have available — there’s lots of ‘em!
We applaud all the companies that made Working Mother’s list! This recognition is critically important — not just for praising the companies that lead the way, but also for establishing a blueprint for how all companies can improve over time.
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