How One Company Improved Its Female Retention Rate by 25%

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Mom does work with child on lap

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Leah Thomas
Leah Thomas866
Updated: 6/19/2018
Last year, Fifth Third Bank implemented a Maternity Concierge service to assist its female employees with the transition into motherhood and all that comes with it.
Since initiating this new service and partnering with another Cincinnati-based company, Best Upon Request, the bank has improved its female employee retention by almost 25 percent, according to their recent press release.
Eighty-six percent of women who enrolled in the program remained at work six months after maternity leave, while only 62 percent of women who didn't choose to enroll remained at the company post-leave.
Over 400 of Fifth Third's female employees used the Maternity Concierge service, which helps expectant moms or new mothers do everything from prepare for the baby to research daycare programs to planning a first birthday party.

“They reach out to women and ask things like, ‘Is this your first kid? Do you have a car seat? Do you want us to order you a breast pump?’ They’ll let women know that they need to request access to rooms for breast pumping," Laura Trujillo, senior manager for Corporate Communications, told Fairygodboss.

“They’ll do things you don’t feel like doing when you’re seven or eight months pregnant,” said Trujillo, a mother of four. “They’ll grocery shop for you and put groceries in your refrigerator, for example.”

While employees pay for the products purchased, the concierge service is free.

Teresa Tanner, Chief Administrative Officer, created the program with a certain statistic in mind: 60 percent of employees at Fifth Third are female, but only 23 percent of senior-level executives are women. And she wanted to change that.

“Tanner made the case that we should have more women at the top, and she knew that the year after maternity leave was very critical [in terms of retaining women],” Trujillo told Fairygodboss.
Trujillo also said that the employees love the program, claiming it's been "crazy popular," and that she received over 100 emails from employees after the announcement of the maternity concierge program to tell her how happy they were.

“Fifth Third’s Maternity Concierge program is one of the reasons that I want to stay and grow with the company,” said Charnella Grossman, a mother of two and a portfolio manager for the bank.

“They helped me plan my daughter’s birthday party, decorate the nursery, waited for a delivery at my house and so many more things to help relieve the stress of coming back to work.”

Another Fifth Third employee and concierge customer, Katie Ockerman, also praises the program, which she told Fairygodboss helped her balance her career and her three daughters.
“Knowing the program was there was the #1 major thing for me that made me feel like I was valued at work,” she said. “They’ve sent me meal prep ideas and recipes for dinner, which has been very helpful. I don’t have the time when I get home to be cooking dinner, nor do I want to. I really enjoy having them at my fingertips if I need a gift idea or party preparations."
Ockerman also said that just knowing the program existed helped her transition into motherhood, noting the bank's designated breast pumping areas at work.
The ultimate goal of Fifth Third Bank's Maternity Concierge program was to retain its female employees, and the bank believes to have achieved that goal.

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