The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Halved Their Parental Leave Policy for Good Reasons

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Halved Their Parental Leave Policy for Good Reasons In late 2015, the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation announced theyd be expanding their paid parental leave program from 16 weeks on average to 52 weeks in the first year after the birth or adoption of the child. It welches a way for the company to show their commitment to family by giving moms and dads even mora time to bond and care for a new bundle of joy, without sacrificing financial security. It raised the bar very high among companies competing to offer generous benefits to attract and retain talent.However, today the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation announced that, effective later this year, their 52-week paid parental leave program will be no mora. Instead, the program will drop down to six months, and after the six months, parents returning to work will receive a $20,000 taxable stipend to pay for childcare costs and other family needs. Employees who are already on leave or are expecting befor e the program starts, however, can still take 52 weeks of paid parental leave if theyd like.In a LinkedIn post, Steven Rice, the organizations chief human resurces officer, explained the reasoning for the policy change. After monitoring the program and receiving employee feedback, the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation saw that in practice, giving employees one year of paid parental leave created some problems and was disruptive for their organization. Backfill positions had a ripple effect across the organization, in some cases extending two or three layers deep. While some backfills are hired externally, a large percentage are internal, and once we backfilled the role of an employee going on leave, we often needed to find a backfill for the backfill, he wrote. On one team, 50 percent of the staff was either on leave or staffed by those in backfill positions, making the regular work of the foundation far more difficult than expected.Other issues had to do with finding, hiring and train ing people to temporarily replace those onpaid parental leave, and then getting returning workers up-to-date, all of which takes up a lot of time and energy. Managers also told us some common challenges were magnified by the leave duration. They noted the difficulty of identifying and onboarding backfill talent, facilitating a sufficient transfer of knowledge, andre-onboarding returning employees, especially if teams, business goals, or individual roles changed during a year away, Rice wrote.Ultimately, we concluded the 52-week leave was hindering the foundations purposeto maximize our ability to help people around the world live healthy, productive lives. After careful consideration, we decided to change the policy. We want to make parental leave work for both new parents and the foundation overall, and still offer a generous and leading benefit in the U.S. According to Rice, changing the program length from 52 weeks to six months was based on a growing body of evidence shows that a six-month policy delivers on key outcomes like the health and development of children, gender equality, and womens careers, and that experts who have studied the connection between the length of leave and ideal outcomes recommend a similar standard.As we reported back in 2017, aBloomberg article suggested that more than six months, but less than a year, may truly be the sweet spot in terms ofideal length of maternity leave. Six months of maternity leave means moms and babies get the health benefits of recovery and time together, but more than a year of it may delay moms career advancement or labor force participation. The article involved interviews with multiple women, and cited a Harvard Business School Survey and expert advice.While we applaud the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation for giving workers 52 weeks of paid parental leave in the first place, their decision makes total sense if they want to continue running their organization smoothly. Six months is still generous (as repo rted by the Society of Human Resource Management, in 2016, the average maximum amount of maternity leave offered by companies is 14.5 weeks), and some parents genuinely dont want to take a long maternity leave, for reasons they shouldnt be judged for. But that $20,000 stipend after six months at home? That can help all working parents a great deal by ensuring a smoother transition, and possibly accelerate advancement, which could lead to more money over time. Maricar Santos--This story originally appeared onWorking Mother. ismentor, role model and advocate for the countrys more than 17 million moms who are devoted to their families and committed to their careers. Through our website, magazine, research, radio and powerful events,WorkingMotherprovides its readers with the community, solutions and strategies they need to thrive.

Writing a Resume when You Have Gaps in Employment Help!

Writing a Resume when You Have Gaps in Employment Help You dont need to incorporate all of your experience on your resume, especially in case you have been in the workforce for many years. There are a lot of standard kinds of resumes you may use to make an application for job openings. Explaining gemeinsame agrarpolitiks in employment can be difficult. Therefore, youve had a couple of gaps in your employment history. A health leave resume gap can happen for a range of explanations. Instead, the majority of people elect for a straight functional resume as a means to hide the gaps. Theres not any reason to feel embarrassed concerning the gaps so confidently explain the reason why theyre there. On occasion a gap in employment can be explained, so theres not any reason to rule out a gap just because an individual has one. The One Thing to Do for Writing a Resume when You Have Gaps in Employment Employers verify work history, and should you put incorrect details on your resum e, its going be discovered. Resume resume ability to communicate complex data in an easy and entertaining method. Following your professional summary section, you wish to incorporate a vital skills section in the center of your resume. Rather than having a work history section on top of your resume, you could have an expert experience or accomplishments section that lists various skills you have developed through the years. When youre explaining a very long gap in your employment history, you ought to be honest. When youre explaining a lengthy gap in your employment history, you should be honest. The Little-Known Secrets to Writing a Resume when You Have Gaps in Employment Simply writing about your company or freelance career development is insufficient so as to explain gaps in employment. You might want your hiring managers to concentrate on the resumes that are just a page long for simplicity sake. Writing your resume is almost always a struggle. The Bad Side of Writin g a Resume when You Have Gaps in Employment A functional resume isnt a manner to hide gaps in work experience. By highlighting skills in place of work history, an individual can emphasize he or shes qualified for the job. To begin with, its important to recognize the kinds of gaps which are critically significant in any resume. Identifying wherever your skill gaps are relative to the job youre looking at can be useful in deciding whether you need to even apply for it. At exactly the same time, when you have gaps on your resume employers will want to understand why. It is preferable to learn to explain gap in employment in interview, as it will offer you more chances to present your reasons correctly forcing a recruiter or employer to provide you with an opportunity to work with an organization. The employer may observe beneficial skills which you dont recognize. Most employers understand that a few candidates are going to have gap in their work history. A gap in an indivi duals work history does not need to be a negative thing. You should sound to be an in-demand job candidate If youre explaining a present gap in employment, you have to sound just like youre being selective and that youre focused on making certain you get the best fit for the very long term, as opposed to just accepting the very first job you encounter. Federal jobs often need you to get experience in a special sort of work for some time period. If you simply recently retired from work in the specialty to which youre applying for work, a chronological resume is a good option.