A recent report from The Best Place for Working Parents shows when small businesses offer benefits such as health coverage, parental leave and flexible work options, it can lead to improvements in employee productivity, motivation, satisfaction and health, according to HR Dive.
The analysis of 49 U.S. employers found employers offering health coverage were four times more likely to have high-performing employees. Small businesses that offered maternity leave were more than 50 times more likely to have high performers.
The report also shows remote work options increased employee motivation and health, as well as employee satisfaction with personal relationships. Paid time off and child care assistance had similar results, with PTO increasing personal relationship satisfaction by more than 16 times.
In a press release accompanying the report, Sadie Funk, national director of The Best Place for Working Parents, said small businesses increasingly offer family-friendly benefits—a significant trend considering small businesses account for many U.S. firms and employ nearly half of the U.S. workforce.
Additional research supports this trend. Virtual women and family health vendor Maven found 63% of human resources professionals said their companies planned to increase family health benefits soon, and 87% said such benefits were “extremely important” to current and prospective employees.
