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As your employees start or grow their families, some are likely considering welcoming a new child through adoption. It's becoming a more common way for families to expand: in the U.S. alone, over 135,000 children are adopted every year, and four in 10 Americans have considered adopting a child at some point in their lives.
While adopting children can be joyful and exciting, the process is often long, complex, and expensive. Potential parents often have to wait for one to two years before being matched with a child, and the process can cost over $45,000 when all is said and done.
To better support employees as they navigate the process of adoption, companies are offering a suite of specialized benefits. These benefits support parents of adoption with information, financial assistance, leave policies, and more to make the process more manageable and less stressful.
Here's what HR leaders need to know about offering adoption benefits at work.
Why should companies offer adoption benefits?
There are a variety of advantages to offering adoption support to your employees. First, employees now want their employers to help them as they pursue adoption. A recent Maven report found that one in four employees wanted support during this time. Without support on their family building journeys, employees may feel disengaged or unable to stay productive. The same Maven study found that 60% of employees have left or considered leaving a job because of inadequate family-orientated benefits.
Outside of employee loyalty, adoption benefits help companies achieve their DEI goals. While any employee may pursue adoption, it's especially common among members of the LGBTQIA+ community. 10% of children raised by same-sex couples are adopted, compared to 2% of children raised by different-sex couples. Single parents by choice also adopt at higher rates—28% of all parents adopting from the U.S. foster care system are single.
By not offering such benefits, companies exclude these groups from receiving the same support as couples who pursue parenthood through pregnancy. As a result, employees may feel like their company doesn't care about them or support their needs, leading to higher rates of attrition.
What types of employer-provided adoption benefits exist?
While some adoption benefits can mirror benefits offered to birth parents (like paid parental leave), others are specific to the adoption process and its nuances.
- Informational support: Adoption can be complicated—giving employees access to experts, mental health support, and clinically-vetted content to help them navigate the process can make a big difference.
- Financial assistance: Expenses can add up quickly, and companies can relieve some of the financial burden by covering some–or all—of the costs.
- Paid parental leave: While U.S. law requires that employers offer parents 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave upon birth or adoption of a child, many companies opt to offer paid parental leave to adoptive parents as well.
How common are adoption benefits?
Despite the desire for more support, adoption benefits still aren't very common. Maven's recent report found that only 25% of companies offered robust adoption or surrogacy benefits to employees. Other reports show that companies also lag behind in offering specific adoption benefits: only 10% offer some form of financial assistance, and 36% provide some form of paid leave for parents going through adoption.
Companies that provide adoption benefits can distinguish themselves from competitors and frame themselves as family-friendly workplaces for prospective talent. A Great Place to Work report found that the Best Workplaces for Parents are significantly more likely to offer adoption benefits, with over two-thirds offering this support. In contrast, only 25% of companies without the Best Workplaces for Parents designation offered help with adoption.
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