Intel adds parent 'reintegration program' to its leave offering

Dive Brief:

Intel will expand its paid leave offerings Jan. 1 to include a parent reintegration program, according to a Dec. 17 press release.
As a part of the program, Intel will allow new parents to work part-time schedules for up to four weeks with full-time pay and will provide breast milk shipping, it said.
Other additions include 12 weeks of bonding time (expanded from eight weeks), eight weeks off to care for a seriously ill family member, two weeks of bereavement time and no-cost short-term disability coverage.

Dive Insight:

Employers that extend parental leave beyond a few weeks may be aiming to improve retention rates, as an April FlexJob survey indicated. Of the 900 parents polled, 60% said they took more time off work than anticipated before eventually leaving the workplace. Studies like these show that many workers find that they need more leave time than they originally thought to meet the demands of new parenthood.

Some parents feel forced to leave the workplace when they'd rather resume their careers, the FlexJob survey said. Benefits like flexible work and paid leave may give parents the time they need to ease back into work — a possible win-win for the employers that need them and the workers who want to stay on board.

Similarly, employers are revisiting the traditional two or three days of bereavement leave, finding they don't offer enough time to workers who are grieving, according to a report from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP). Organizations originally granted workers time to make funeral arrangements, but that didn't include time process their loss and cope with grief. "Expanding bereavement leave policies is a potentially low-cost benefit that can go a long way in supporting employees," Julie Stich, vice president of content at IFEBP, said in a public comment. "The way a person responds to the loss of a close loved one differs from person to person, but such a loss is always devastating. An employer that offers extra time off shows empathy and compassion."