Engineering employers are increasingly challenged to attract and retain talent. Here’s a compelling (and counterintuitive) case for helping new moms and dads stay off work longer.
A diverse workforce generates fresh ideas, sparks creativity, and drives innovation. Individuals with different experiences and thinking patterns view problems from unique angles, leading to innovative solutions. However, despite these benefits, a 2022 McKinsey & Company study revealed a decline in women’s representation in technical roles like engineering, dropping from 18% in 2018 to 16% in 2022. Additionally, 32% of women in these roles often find themselves as “the only woman in the room—a situation known as being “onlies.”
Generational shifts in the workforce are driving engineering employers to focus on motivations beyond paychecks and essential benefits. Robust parental leave policies have emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing workplace diversification, retention, and recruitment. Not only do these policies provide parents with valuable family time and economic stability, but they also cultivate a more loyal and committed workforce. A 2022 Unum consumer research study identified paid family leave as U.S. workers’ third-most important non-insurance benefit. Furthermore, a 2023 Pew Research Center survey showed that 91% of workers deem it essential for their employers to offer paid parental, family, or medical leave in addition to vacation or paid time off (PTO).
The Great Resignation amplified the importance of parental leave, as more than 47 million Americans left their jobs. In response, countless HR leaders prioritized retention. Understanding what drives employees—whether family needs, personal achievements, financial goals, or cultural factors—aligns leadership with team priorities. As more engineers who are planning families seek accommodating employers, parental leave should become a key part of competitive compensation alongside salary, paid time off and promotions.
Retention and Recruitment
In male-dominated fields like engineering, retention and recruitment have always posed challenges. Poor retention undermines recruitment since prospective talent struggles to see themselves in organizations with limited diversity. Weak recruitment stifles diversity across all levels, perpetuating the problem. Offering paid parental leave to birth parents, mainly cisgender women, boosts their return rates, enhances loyalty, and strengthens diversity. Extending parental leave to non-birth parents increases men’s participation, reduces stigma, and promotes gender equality by normalizing the act of sharing parental responsibilities.
“When people are looking for purpose in their lives, to know that a parental leave benefit exists—even if they’ll never use it—says something about the organization,” says HR consultant Michelle Berg, founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Elevated HR Solutions in Calgary, Alberta. “It’s very similar to bereavement leave policies, where you know it’s there if you need it. Most people want to be in a company that has these types of benefits.”
Parental Leave Compensation
In the U.S., the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides new parents, whether by birth, adoption, or foster care, with 12 weeks of unpaid annual leave while maintaining group health benefits. However, many parents struggle with unpaid leave, often relying on PTO or skipping leave entirely. Some states have supplemented FMLA by lowering eligibility barriers, extending leave, or offering state-funded benefits, but most provide no additional support.
Private companies have stepped up in response to federal funding gaps and state inaction. Netflix offers up to 52 weeks of paid leave for new parents, though most parents take between 16 and 32 weeks. KPMG provides up to 52 weeks for birth parents and two weeks for non-birth parents. In 2022, Google extended its paid leave to 24 weeks for birth parents and 18 weeks for non-birth parents.
McKinstry, a 3,000-employee construction and engineering firm headquartered in Seattle, offers all parents eight weeks of paid parental leave and eight more weeks to birth parents. McKinstry aligns with federal and state benefits by topping up salaries or extending leave when benefits are available. If no such benefits exist, McKinstry covers the cost. The company offers leave with no waiting period nor repayment obligation if an employee resigns rather than returning from their break. It also allows employees to split their leave into two periods over one year and doesn’t require PTO depletion before qualifying.
Around 50 McKinstry employees take parental leave in any given year, with 81% using their full allotment. “We encourage people to take that time away,” says Karla Sperber, Senior Director of Employee Experience and Operations at McKinstry. “We back that with support for coverage while people are gone.”
Employee Transitions
In technical fields like engineering, the complexity of knowledge transfer can complicate parental leave. Clear documentation, structured handovers, and open communication ease the burden of this transfer. Comprehensive guides on projects, workflows, and key contacts, along with knowledge-sharing sessions and mentoring, ensure continuity and minimize disruptions.
Leaders should model the use of parental leave and time off, demonstrating the importance and feasibility of these benefits. “Parental leave is one of those policies that are great to talk about and to say you have, but it’s one of those sneaky policies that some of these organizations have knowing full well that very few employees will actually take it,” says Berg.
Impact on Businesses
The benefits of parental leave extend beyond employee satisfaction. A 2019 American Sustainable Business Council report found that technology companies experienced increases, on average, of 14% in revenue, 25% in profit, and 6.5% in return on human-capital investment after adopting paid parental leave. These gains stem from reduced turnover, increased productivity, and improved morale. Depending on an employee’s position, replacing them costs between 30% and 400% of their annual salary. Experienced employees bring valuable institutional knowledge, which takes replacements months or even years to acquire.
Small businesses, however, face unique challenges with paid parental leave due to limited resources and tight profit margins. One option is to leverage state benefits programs to help cover costs. Short-term disability coverage can also provide financial relief for birth parents in states with paid leave programs, allowing for a combination of disability and state benefits to extend parental leave.
McKinstry recognizes that supporting employees outweighs the costs of parental leave. “We gain from having strong benefits that keep people here and engaged and make them feel like this is the place for them to be versus having to go and buy that talent,” says Sperber. “It’s good for business and aligns with the value of always putting people first.”
Impact on Perceived Experience
One problem for parents is that time taken for parental leave is often perceived as time not taken to gain professional experience, including the continuing education hours required to maintain engineering accreditation. Such perceived gaps in career progression can create competitive pressures, particularly for women. “The fight that I still have with many of the employers that I work with is, just because parents take parental leave doesn’t mean that they’re that much less experienced,” Berg explains, citing competencies developed through parenting such as task prioritization, time management, resource allocation, and problem-solving. “Life still plays a role. I would argue that when you go on parental leave, the skills that you learn are incomparable to what you have at work.”
If more men took parental leave in male-dominated fields like engineering, it would normalize the policy and reduce competitive pressures for women. Comprehensive parental leave policies also reduce gender disparities by fostering a more inclusive culture around parenthood. Observing women and non-binary individuals in senior roles provides hope, but unequal opportunities often make employees believe that only a few can reach top positions.
“If you’re that person who is having a baby or wanting to have a baby, our parental leave policy is fantastic,” says McKinstry’s Sperber. But McKinstry knows it’s only part of a competitive compensation package. “We work hard to provide benefit options that appeal to our entire workforce, whether they’re a new parent, an empty nester, or never plan to have children at all,” says Sperber. It’s a sound strategy for engineering organizations competing for uncommon talent in today’s business environment—especially for those recognizing the power of workplace diversity.
