‘Working Parent Support Coalition’ Founded to Support Workplace Wellness Improvements for Parents & Newborns
Barclays, Danone, Ernst & Young, KKR, Nestlé Commit to Share Best
Practices, Continually Improve & Invite Others to Join
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today at the 11th Annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)
Annual Meeting, leading and progressive businesses in the USA announced
their commitments to improve workplace wellness for new parents and
their children. The Working Parent Support Coalition was conceived of by
leaders at Danone’s US-based companies in consultation with CGI, and the
founding members are US-based divisions and subsidiaries of Barclays,
Danone, Ernst & Young, KKR and Nestlé. Leaders from each joined together
during the CGI Annual Meeting’s closing plenary to announce the
Coalition, which is the first of its kind. Coalition members committed
to implement a range of parental workplace support practices that
ultimately improve health, development, and economic outcomes for both
families and companies. These practices around parental workplace
support range from transformative strategies, such as longer paid
parental leave, to more modest yet highly meaningful ones, such as
providing transition support training.
Despite efforts made in the last decades to lower the barriers for
parents, and especially women, to balance work and parenthood, the
reality is that parental leave practices in the U.S. are still well
below global standards. This may have a negative impact on health, the
economy and women’s advancement in the workplace. At the heart of the
issue are the conditions around parental leave, back-to-work strategies,
leadership and company culture, and in-office support.
Prior to today’s announcement, each of the founding Coalition members
carefully considered how it can measurably improve the quality of life
for their employees who are new parents and their infants. And, based on
the variety of different businesses in the Coalition, the commitments of
the founding companies vary widely in type of benefit, scale and reach.
Each company’s commitment takes into account the unique baseline of
current benefits and what each company believes is sustainable; and each
shares the requirement that the commitment be new, specific and
measurable over a baseline assessment. This flexible approach recognizes
that all workplace settings and job requirements are not the same, and
workplace wellness must be assessed in the context of social and
business sustainability. Coalition partners must commit to improve in
the areas of company culture, in-office support and/or paid leave. No
effort is too small, and every improvement counts to help improve health
and economic outcomes. The new Coalition is unique because it will
inform and inspire other companies to join in a collective movement to
improve the quality of life for parents and their newborns when a child
and mother’s health are so heavily influenced.
Also unique to the Coalition are the roles that the American Academy of
Pediatrics and Cornell University will play. Each has committed to
provide access to their existing resources and tools to help Coalition
companies to establish workplace programs to support parents and
families with education and guidance to make the most out of this window
of opportunity for the best start in life.
Commenting on the Coalition, Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder of
Families and Work Institute, said, “Progressive companies have taken the
lead in the United States in improving comprehensive workplace practices
during the transition to parenthood, including paid leave as well as
supports for new parents and their infants. They’ve found that the
beneficiaries are not only the health and well-being of babies and
employed parents, but their companies and our economy!”
Jennifer Owens, Editorial Director, Working Mother Media, said, “As the
number of dual-income families continues to rise, progressive employers
like these coalition members are considering the challenges of working
parents and responding to them holistically. This is where the most
change is needed in the workplace and for these companies, where it is
happening. We applaud the coalition for its support of working parents,
innovations that will allow us to thrive both at work and at home.”
About the Founding Coalition Members and Supporters
American Academy of Pediatrics: “Every child needs a safe,
loving, and nutritious foundation for a successful start in life. The
American Academy of Pediatrics and its member pediatricians are
committed to partnering with parents to be sure they have the
information they need as they begin this important journey with their
growing family,” said Sandra Hassink, MD, FAAP, president of the
American Academy of Pediatrics. The American Academy of Pediatrics is an
organization of 64,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical
subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the
health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and
young adults. In addition to numerous patient education brochures and a
series of child care books, the AAP supports the HealthyChildren.org
website for parents, which offers pediatrician-backed health advice,
interactive tools and personalized content for parents.
Barclays PLC: “As a client-focused, talent-driven organization,
Barclays is committed to helping our employees integrate their work and
life successfully,” said Yun Chung, Head of Human Resources, Americas.
“We acknowledge that personal circumstances may require additional
time-off and flexibility in the way parental leave is taken. Thus,
Barclays pledges to continue to create flexibility in our return-to-work
parental policies through our Dynamic Working and Work from Home
programs.” Barclays engages in investment banking, corporate banking,
wealth and investment management services, online personal banking, and
consumer credit cards in the U.S.
Cornell University: The faculty and leadership of Cornell
University look forward to partnering with, and learning from, companies
that have made a commitment to parental and child health. We share their
commitment and offer the expertise of our faculty, academics, and staff
in the areas of global maternal and infant health to other
collaborators. Likewise, we look forward to learning from those
companies that have advanced effective workforce and community practices
that are having positive impacts. Cornell University is a leading
privately endowed research university and a partner with the State
University of New York. As the federal land-grant institution of New
York State, Cornell University has a responsibility to make
contributions in fields of knowledge in a manner that prioritized public
engagement to help improve the quality of life in our state, the nation,
and the world.
Danone’s U.S.-based companies: “To help fulfill our mission to
bring health through food to as many people as possible and be an even
better place to work, we are going to improve our parental leave
practices and want to inspire others to do the same,” said Luciana
Nunez, General Manager of Danone – Nutricia Early Life Nutrition, who
also conceived of the Working Parent Support Coalition with CGI. “Today,
all of our companies in the USA can commit to improving parental
benefits, with the commitment of getting to 6 months of paid parental
leave, inclusive of primary caregivers within same sex couples.”
Danone’s US-based companies include Dannon, Danone Waters of America,
Happy Family Organics, Nutricia North America, Nutricia Early Life
Nutrition, Stonyfield Farm and YoCrunch.
Ernst & Young: “EY is proud to be a member of the Clinton
Global Initiative commitment Working Parent Support Coalition. We look
forward to partnering with the coalition’s private and public members to
share best practices and policies that can help create a more inclusive
and flexible workforce culture for all working parents. We are proud
that our working EY parents in the US express the highest levels of
engagement among all our US professionals, which leads to higher levels
of job satisfaction, productivity client service and retention.
Coalitions like this provide leaders and experts with the forum to share
lessons learned and provide specific recommendations for other
companies,” said Karyn Twaronite, EY Global Diversity & Inclusiveness
Officer.
KKR: Building off KKR’s recent decisions to extend parental leave
to 16 weeks, create a policy for new parents to bring their infant and a
caregiver when traveling for work within the first year, and establish a
transition support protocol around parental leave, today the global
investment firm is committing to improving lactation support and
resources for new mothers. As part of this CGI commitment, the firm also
recognizes that families come in many forms and thus will support
employees who are pursuing adoption via a new global adoption
reimbursement policy. “Our most precious assets are our people, which is
why we are evolving to build and support a more diverse and family
friendly environment,” said Mike Michelson, KKR member and head of the
firm’s Inclusion and Diversity Council. “These are critical issues that
can create barriers to healthy, happy families. We hope that these
changes will have a significant and positive impact on our employees,
their families, and the firm overall.”
Nestlé: “Earlier this summer we announced a new global Maternity
Protection Policy because we believe all of our new parents deserve
more. Our expanded policy offers new parents 14 weeks paid maternity
leave and the right to extend their leave up to six months,” said Paul
Bakus, President of Nestlé Corporate Affairs. “Today, with industry
leaders, we’re taking another step in the right direction by committing
to evaluate and share the impact of our new maternity leave policy on
employees in the U.S. Our goal is to use this information to contribute
to the ongoing dialogue around maternity leave policies so we all can
continue to improve.” Nestlé in the U.S. consists of eight main
businesses operating in 47 states with 51,000 employees. The United
States is Nestlé S.A.’s largest market with combined product sales in
the United States totaling more than $26 billion in 2014.
Any companies interested to discuss joining the Working Parent Support
Coalition are encouraged to contact Luciana.Nunez@Danone.com,
and to make their own CGI Commitment to Action related to family
workplace practices contact CGI directly. For more information, visit: http://bit.ly/workingparentsupport.
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes
global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most
pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together 190
sitting and former heads of state, more than 20 Nobel Prize laureates,
and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major
philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI
community have made more than 3,200 Commitments to Action, which have
improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.
In addition to the Annual Meeting, CGI convenes CGI America, a meeting
focused on collaborative solutions to economic recovery in the United
States; and CGI University (CGI U), which brings together undergraduate
and graduate students to address pressing challenges in their community
or around the world. This year, CGI also convened CGI Middle East &
Africa, which brought together leaders across sectors to take action on
pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges. For more
information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter
@ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
Contacts
Coalition members
AAP:
Susan Martin, 847-434-7131
SSmartin@aap.org
or
Barclays:
Kerrie
Cohen, 212-412-4096
Kerrie.cohen@barclays.com
or
Cornell:
John
Carberry, 607-255-5353
jjc338@cornell.edu
or
Danone
U.S.-based companies:
Michael Neuwirth, 914-872-8708
michael.neuwirth@dannon.com
or
EY:
Armando
Diaz, 561-729-6091
Armando.diaz@ey.com
or
KKR:
Kristi
Huller, 212-230-9722
kristi.huller@kkr.com
or
Nestlé:
Michaela
Balderston, 202-253-4995
michaela.balderston@us.nestle.com
