Jennica Christiansen, senior director of people operations for CHG Healthcare, knows firsthand the difference access to paid maternity leave can make. When she found out in 2013—on her second day of employment with CHG Healthcare—that she was pregnant with her first child, the company didn’t have a dedicated maternity leave policy.

“At the time, I didn’t have another source of income. I could only take six weeks off,” Christiansen says. “That was pretty impactful for me, as someone who was young and starting my career.”

She had her second child after CHG Healthcare added a six-week paid maternity leave benefit. Although she still didn’t take the full time off, having a paycheck the second time around had a noticeable impact on her stress, which improved her relationship with her kids, she says.

With the onset of Covid, CHG Healthcare took its leave policies a step further and expanded to 12 weeks of fully paid family leave for any qualifying event like the birth or adoption of a child, the death of a loved one or the health crisis of a relative. If it qualifies, it’s covered—and CHG Healthcare isn’t the only Utah company that has re-evaluated its leave policies in recent years.

According to an online survey of over 3,500 women conducted in 2021 by the Utah Women & Leadership Project at Utah State University, 11.3 percent of Utah employers expanded their paid leave offerings during Covid. The state saw some backsliding in the pandemic’s waning months, but many companies have stuck with the expanded policies, citing employee and productivity benefits.

“If you had a child who was dealing with an illness and you were trying to manage that while also working, inevitably you’re not giving 100 percent to any of it—not to work, not to your child, and you’re likely not performing at the level we need you to perform,” Christiansen says. “Our feeling is, let’s give these individuals the ability to take care of what they need to take care of so they can return to work fully focused. We underestimate the kind of impact these sorts of distractions have on employee performance as a whole.”

Shifting the status quo

CHG first began to reconsider its leave policies about six years ago. At the time, Christiansen says, a short-term disability insurance policy represented the company’s sole leave policy. Getting claims covered through their insurance vendor often proved frustrating, and the company didn’t formally recognize any kind of family leave outside this policy. Over time, Christiansen says, the company realized if they truly wanted to live up to the claim that CHG Healthcare “put people first,” they needed to offer some form of maternity leave. 

Then Covid happened. Employees began to request far more leave for family medical emergencies, including mental health emergencies. The short-term disability vendor who continued to administer the company’s leave benefits outside maternity and paternity leave was reluctant to approve these claims. CHG Healthcare dropped the vendor and began to administer a more flexible program that offered up to 12 weeks of paid leave for various family emergencies.

“We have had situations where an employee has come to us and their child is going through a mental health crisis … and they were able to take 12 weeks of [paid] leave to help the child navigate those challenges,” Christiansen says. “Those employees came back extraordinarily grateful and at peace because they could make sure their child was on the path to recovery. We have all sorts of amazing stories like that.”

The new leave policy also helped CHG Healthcare navigate the great resignation that followed the pandemic, improving company retention at a time when other companies struggled to keep talent. In some cases—among CHG Healthcare employees dealing with Long Covid, for example—employees were faced with a situation where they had to either take a leave of absence or quit their jobs. Inflexible leave policies could have forced their hands, Christiansen says.

Expanding the vision

While Covid inspired changes in some companies’ leave policies, others have offered flexible leave and time-off benefits from the start. But even among these companies, leave policies have begun to transcend the conventional time-off following the birth of a child to recognize a plethora of needs outside birthing, such as adopting, caring for elderly parents or other dependents or even recovering after being the victim of a violent crime.

“We have bereavement leave, military leave, voting leave, jury duty leave, temporary disability,” Amy Caldwell, co-founder and chief people officer at RevRoad, lists off. “We try to cover all the possible realms of the need for leave for any reason. It’s not something that we even ask. If a team member had a death in the family and they needed to go to the funeral, we’re not even asking them to take PTO. … Work should not consume or take priority over those personal needs.”

RevRoad has long emphasized the importance of work-life balance. Caldwell says they believe giving employees flexibility builds loyalty and helps team members feel valued as individuals. But lately, she says, the emphasis has shifted to taking mental health into account as well. The idea that work should come first and occur around the clock causes emotional damage, particularly among startups and founders.

While RevRoad doesn’t dictate leave policies to its portfolio companies, they have tried to teach founders that workers are more productive when they feel supported outside of work and fulfilled in their personal lives. And they try to practice what they preach: When the founder of a portfolio company had a son develop a life-threatening brain condition, RevRoad encouraged him to take the time he needed to be with his family.

Looking beyond leave

Caldwell says mental health concerns have highlighted that taking leave isn’t always enough. RevRoad and other Utah companies have begun to take leave even further as they look for ways to show support to employees in both times of celebration—such as the birth of a child—or in bereavement.

Managers at RevRoad are encouraged to reach out to team members to ensure their needs are met during these significant life events. The company has sent care packages, flowers, cookies and baby gifts as appropriate; they’ve even helped team members move into new homes. 

Caldwell herself has been on the receiving end of this treatment twice, once when she had to help a sibling through a life crisis and again when her father developed a life-threatening lung infection. 

“There was a constant, ‘We’re good here. What do you need?’” Caldwell says. 

Software company Weave has also taken steps to show support for employees who may take family leave, according to Brooke Shreeve, Weave’s chief people officer. The company has created two separate support groups employees can join, one for women and another for parents. They also pay employees who take maternity leave a bonus to help pay for incidentals such as diapers or house cleaning. There are also the smaller details, Shreeve says, such as helping employees fill out their leave paperwork and putting high chairs in the break rooms.

Shreeve says focusing on these details has proven critical to recruiting talent at Weave.

“It’s amazing. As you are interviewing candidates, you ask, ‘Why do you want to work at Weave?’ And many say, ‘We have been researching and see that you’re forward-thinking on benefits for women, that you focus on diversity and inclusion,’” she says. “We hear a lot of that in the interview process.”

Like Weave, CHG Healthcare and RevRoad have also seen the benefits of leave policies in improved recruiting, retention and employee satisfaction. With this success in place, RevRoad has shifted the focus to providing more support for women and families through other supplementary programs like child care. 

At CHG Healthcare, implementing existing leave policies has become a top priority. It’s not enough to just have a policy, Christiansen says. There’s also a need for reliable internal structures to transition employees into and out of leaves of absence. 

Many situations that require an extended leave—like a cancer diagnosis—won’t resolve themselves in 12 weeks. Christiansen says it’s essential that employees are able not only to adapt but have the same opportunities to thrive regardless of their new life circumstances.

“We try to create an environment where it doesn’t matter if you’re a mom, if you’re a dad or if you are dealing with a chronic or more acute condition,” she says. “CHG Healthcare wants employees to feel like the same opportunities they left with are there when they get back.”