The headline on a blog at Netflix drew a lot of international attention Tuesday and likely means an increase in bidding wars to recruit as well as retain tech talent.
“Starting Now at Netflix: Unlimited Maternity and Paternity Leave,” the streaming company declared.
Will a tech company with Triangle roots follow suit?
IBM recently announced a plan to help breast-feeding moms ship home milk while traveling.
Now comes the Netflix offer.
Here’s the blog in full from Tawni Cranz, chief talent officer at Netflix:
“At Netflix, we work hard to foster a ‘freedom and responsibility’ culture that gives our employees context about our business and the freedom to make their own decisions along with the accompanying responsibility. With this in mind, today we’re introducing an unlimited leave policy for new moms and dads that allows them to take off as much time as they want during the first year after a child’s birth or adoption.
“We want employees to have the flexibility and confidence to balance the needs of their growing families without worrying about work or finances. Parents can return part-time, full-time, or return and then go back out as needed. We’ll just keep paying them normally, eliminating the headache of switching to state or disability pay. Each employee gets to figure out what’s best for them and their family, and then works with their managers for coverage during their absences.
“Netflix’s continued success hinges on us competing for and keeping the most talented individuals in their field. Experience shows people perform better at work when they’re not worrying about home. This new policy, combined with our unlimited time off, allows employees to be supported during the changes in their lives and return to work more focused and dedicated.”
So what’s the impact?
The Netflix move could pressure other technology employers to improve their baby benefits as they vie for talent.
And Netflix isn’t alone in targeting mothers.
Next month, IBM is launching a program that helps breast-feeding moms to ship home milk and coordinate the shipments with an app for smartphones.
“We are going to experiment with this and see how many women are interested,” Barbara Brickmeier, vice president of benefits at IBM, explained to Fortune magazine. “As long as it appeals to a segment of our population and they feel that they can better balance their work and home, we will continue it.”
But the Netflix employee benefit is generous even by the high standards of Silicon Valley, where free meals and other perquisites supplement lavish salaries in the fiercely competitive battle for computer programmers and other technology workers.
Google, which consistently ranks among the best places to work, offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. Parents can also take seven to 12 weeks of paid “baby bonding” time during their child’s first year.
The U.S. and Papua New Guinea are the only countries among 185 nations and territories that hadn’t imposed government-mandated laws requiring employers to pay mothers while on leave with their babies, according to a study released last year by the United Nations’ International Labor Organization.
Netflix’s baby-benefit policy covers all of the roughly 2,000 people working at its Internet video and DVD-by-mail services, according to the Los Gatos, California, company.
Salaries at Netflix vary widely, according to Glassdoor.com, a website where workers from a variety of industries share information about their compensation. Pay at Netflix ranges from about $15 per hour for customer service representatives fielding inquiries from the company’s more than 65 million subscribers around the world to more than $200,000 annually for software engineers.
Most Netflix employees also receive stock options, which have been producing huge windfalls in the past few years as the company’s shares have soared. Netflix’s stock closed Tuesday at $121.15, nearly 16 times more than its price three years ago.
Netflix traditionally has long given its workers more leeway than most employers. For instance, the company already allows employees to take an unlimited amount of vacation each year, as long as they get their assignments done and fulfill other requirements of their jobs.
