The Mayor’s Office wants more Kansas City businesses to adopt family-friendly policies as a workplace retention strategy.
In a joint news conference with the Women’s Foundation Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Sly James announced the “When Work Works” initiative, which encourages companies to make their business a place people want to work.
James says he’s seeing already seeing innovative policies around parental leave from Kansas City companies.
“When you’re concerned about whether you can afford to be on that leave, it just stresses everybody out,” James says.
James is a fan of not just maternity and paternity leave, but on-site day care.
“You don’t have to rush out at a certain time to go get your child from some distant location and then maybe have trouble getting there,” James says. “You bring them right to the same door you come through every day.”
Women’s Foundation President and CEO Wendy Doyle says working parents aren’t the only ones who benefit from paid leave policies.
“Thriving and productive businesses and organizations recognize that family-friendly workplace policies are not only good for the working parents or the employees caring for for aging family members,” Doyle says, “but for the bottom line and to grow local economies.”
James and Doyle made the announcement at Lockton, an insurance brokerage headquartered in Kansas City. Lockton recently extended four weeks of paid paternity leave to fathers. Women get 12 weeks of paid leave.
The initiative will also promote family-friendly policies such as flextime.
Elle Moxley is a reporter for KCUR. You can reach her on Twitter @ellemoxley.
