Building the best team starts with attracting top talent, and in a competitive market, you need to offer benefits that differentiate your business. Providing paid parental leave will put you miles ahead of your competition. Consider the following statistics:

• Only 14% of US workers have access to paid family leave
• Nine percent of workers at organizations with less than 100 employees have access to paid family leave
• Eighty-six percent of US employers do not offer paid paternity leave

Offering paid family leave becomes even more critical as Millennials, now the largest working demographic, begin having children. Here are some of the benefits of paid family leave:

• Employer Brand Differentiator – Millennials want work-life balance and in less than a decade, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce. By providing paid family leave, you’ll show that you care about employees, their families, and a healthy work-life balance. And in the end, you’ll drive better quality applicants to your open roles.
• Lower Turnover – Mothers who take paid family leave are more likely to return to work than those who do not.
• More Productivity – Employees who take paid parental leave are more likely to work 15 to 20 percent more in the second year of their child’s life than those who do not.
• Happier Employees – If parents are able to spend time with family and make the transition to work after a life changing event, they come back happier and more engaged.

At Hireology, we care about our employees and their families, and as our company has grown, our family leave policy has, too. Previously, our benefit was twelve weeks’ paid primary caregiver leave and two weeks’ paid non-primary caregiver leave. We recently announced that we are expanding our policy to offer four weeks paid leave for non-primary caregivers and changing the requirement from one-year tenure to 150 days.

Companies like Starbucks, Nordstrom, IKEA and others have also recently expanded their parental leave policies. You may be thinking, “yeah, all that is great, but my small business can’t handle the expense of paid family leave policies.” I’d like to respectfully challenge that notion.

California mandated paid family leave about ten years ago, and according to this study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 87% of employers say that the policy has not increased costs. Furthermore, nine percent say paid family leave has actually reduced costs, especially those affiliated with turnover and training.

There are many ways to make paid family leave part of your benefits package, and I believe it’s possible to find a policy that works for your business and your employees.

Here are a few low-cost ways you can offer paid family leave:

• Work with a short-term disability insurance provider. This insurance policy covers you in a wide range of leave situations that are out of your control.
• On top of your typical vacation policy and sick leave policy, offer as many weeks as you believe you can afford for paid family leave – even if it’s two weeks, that’s more than the vast majority of employers.
• Remember, this is a once or twice in a lifetime event that you’ll know about well ahead of time. You and the employee will have plenty of time to prepare for the time off. It’s possible to offer paid leave without having to cover the work by hiring someone temporarily, and if employees work together to cover certain duties, you’ll find that everyone manages well during the short-term leave.

Soon, paid family leave will be approaching obligatory for companies that want to attract the best talent. Be ahead of the curve: attract and retain the best employees today and consider the benefits of paid family leave for not just your employees, but for your company as well.