Babies in the Workplace

Earlier Return to Work

   Companies are likely to get new parents back on the job far sooner with a baby program, since parents don't have to leave their babies in order to return to work. A company will thus spend far less on temporary employees or on overtime for other employees to cover a missing employee's workload. A business also has to pay out far less in disability payments or in paid maternity or paternity leave. Parents get to stay with their children and earn money, and the work gets done. Everyone wins.

   As Willie Jones, owner of Magical Journey Bookstore, explained:

   I got my employee back six times faster
   than I would have. I didn't have to worry
   about covering shifts. It's much easier to
   stop maybe six times a day to cover for an
   employee with a baby than do it all day long.

   Fran Oswald raved about how much this factor impacted the branch she manages at Schools Financial:

   It's a dynamite program. I get the employee
   back a lot quicker. When an individual is out
   on maternity leave, under California law, I
   can't replace them. I'm short-handed for the
   whole time. But this way, I get the mother
   back in eight to ten weeks, and I have
   coverage again. And the mom is happy
   because she has time to bond with her
   baby. It's a win-win for both employer and
   employee.

   Nathan Schmidt corroborated the benefits to Schools Financial, saying:

   The mother comes back to work sooner, so
   we don't necessarily have to direct work flow
   to other employees for as long. It helps to
   facilitate business.

   One company allowed a mother to bring in her baby because the employee