Making It Work: Top Adoption-Friendly CompaniesLet's hear it for companies that get the message: Adoption benefits are vital in today's workplace.
Adoption support at work is moving into the mainstream. Reimbursement of adoption expenses up to $10,000, paid adoption leave up to three months (in addition to Family and Medical Leave Act time), and flexible work arrangements are some of the benefits now on the table.
If your company's adoption benefits aren't up to snuff, do something! Make an appointment with a big cheese at your company and recommend that adoption benefits be introduced or expanded. Or send a persuasive letter stating the case (download Adoptive Families' Instant Letter here). Don't forget to use the adoption-benefits statements, provided by the companies below, to help you make your case: Adoption benefits are becoming mainstream, and that employee goodwill and loyalty will rise, despite a very low utilization rate.
United Business Media benefits statement: download PDF (80kb)
Citizens Financial Group/RBS Americas benefits statement: download PDF (28kb)
Adoptive Families applauds the forward-thinking companies that go the extra mile to help their employees build families—and set an example for the rest of the nation.
Readers' Picks for Adoption-Friendly Companies
Benefits information provided by readers.
AstraZeneca International
Benefits: Up to $5,000 reimbursement/ seven weeks paid maternity leave
Readers say: “AstraZeneca played a pivotal role in my daughter’s adoption from China. The support from leadership was remarkable, and with encouragement from human resources and senior management, I partnered with another adoptive parent to launch the Adoption Employee Network&madhs;an employee adoption network that provides education and support to adoptive and perspective parents.”—AZ employee Vanessa Kraus
The Booksource
Benefits: Up to 6 weeks paid leave/ The Booksource Baby Policy allows parents to bring babies to work until the age of 6 mos.; or part of daycare is subsidized
Readers say: “My employers have bent over backwards to offer support before and after my adoptions. I’ve been able to be home with my daughter for therapies, special needs school placements, and other critical appointments the first year home. The Golden Rule is practiced there, from the top management down through the ranks.”—Booksource employee Mary Robertson
Booz Allen Hamilton
Benefits:Expense reimbursement/ Paid leave/ Parents' Forum, a network for parents
Readers say: “From the day I told my manager and coworkers about my adoption plans, I felt a tremendous amount of support and understanding. When I visited my son in San Salvador, my teammates stepped in to cover my workload. And when I went to pick up my son, they transferred their hard-earned vacation days so that I could spend more paid time off with him. I could not imagine working for a more flexible, generous, and supportive employer.”—Booz Allen employee Alicia White
Capital One Financial Corp.
Benefits: Up to $5,000 reimbursement/ Six weeks paid time/ Flexible return to work allows new parents to work 50 percent of their normal schedule for the first 30 days after returning from leave
Readers say: “I received tremendous support through my son Ryan’s adoption. Our story was even featured in the annual report, after the company president heard about our failed adoption—and our subsequent use of Capital One stock options to pay for our second, successful try."—Capital One employee Joe Ferguson
First Data Merchant Services (a subsidiary of First Data Corp.)
Benefits: Up to $10,000 reimbursement/ 12 weeks paid time off
Readers say: “I couldn’t have asked for better before, during, and after the adoption of my daughter Molly from China. In addition to the wonderful support from coworkers, the chief financial officer—a fellow single adoptive mother—was particularly supportive and offered to help out however she could.”—First Data employee Anna Salvage
JPMorgan Chase
Benefits: Up to $10,000 reimbursement/ 12 weeks paid leave
Readers say: "Whether my girls were at the backup day-care center at our site or 'helping' me punch holes or sort papers, tehy felt they were part of Chase. The great adoption benefits were the icing on the cake."—former employee Robin Stanton
Merrill Lynch
Benefits: Up to $5,000 ($8,000 for special needs) reimbursement/ 13 weeks paid leave for primary caregiver/ One week for secondary caregiver
Readers say: "I can't say enough about how helpful my supervisors have been during the whole process. Merrill Lynch is very progressive in treating all families the same. It sends a strong message, especially to women."—ML employee Keli Tuschman
More reader-nominated top companies:
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Comments
I just started at Alliant Energy, but was elated to see that they have a $5000 adoption benefit to pay for any adoption costs. Paid once the adoption is finalized.
Posted by: Sharie Greif at 1:47pm Aug 25
Texas Instruments - $4,000 adoption reimbursement and 2 weeks off for both the father and/or mother. TI's reimbursement really helped us get through the cash flow crunch of the adoption process. It was a huge benefit that really helped us out. Thanks TI!
Posted by: Scott Himes at 8:12pm Aug 28
Three years ago, while preparing for the adoption of our daughter I approached my employer - RSM McGladrey, Inc. - regarding offering adoption benefits. The company responded with a formal adoption benefit of $3,000 adoption reimbursement and three weeks adoptive parent leave. Each year in November (national adoption month) the company features a story on the adoptoin benefits available. I am pleased so say the last time I checked the adoption benefit was used by more than 22 families across the company.
Posted by: Colin at 6:49am Aug 29
Wheaton College of Illinois - The model chosen by the college is to provide an equivalent benefit to parents by adoption as they do for biological parents. A parent is a parent and a family is a family! In dollars and cents the adoption benefit is an approximation of the insurance costs for a normal and healthy delivery. That works out to be just $10,320. An additional benefit of the financial benefit is the growing number of adoptive families within the college community.
Posted by: Larry Potter at 4:46am Aug 30
I nominate my employer (Microsoft) as a top company for adoption benefits and adoptive families. $5,000 expense reimbursement, 1 month paid leave, and a family friendly work environment all make Microsoft a big friend of adoptive families.
Posted by: Matt Latimer at 7:17pm Sep 3
KPMG, LLP - provides 6 weeks of maternity leave + 2 weeks of parental leave for adoptions. In addition they provide a $5,000 expense reimbursement program! Thanks KPMG for all of your support!
Posted by: Annette at 7:39pm Sep 4
My employer, McGraw Hill, provides one week of parental leave and a $10,000 expense reimbursement. It helped us a lot with our adoption.
Posted by: Scott at 9:21pm Sep 5
My husband's company, Expert Support, Inc, out of Silicon Valley, was very supportive of our adoption. They provided my husband with payroll loans so that we could afford the expenses - foreseen and unforeseen. They were also flexible in allowing him to work from our hotel room halfway across the country, so we could all be together for the ICPC wait. It's not as great as some others, but this is a small company (50 or so employees), so it's nice that they helped where they could.
Posted by: Robyn Chittister at 11:19pm Sep 20
My employer, Greenheck Fan, has a wonderful reputation in our community and lived up to it by implementing a $5,000 reimbursement for adoption expenses. Our family benefited and has now opened the doors for more families to use this benefit.
Posted by: Beth Brinkmann at 6:43am Nov 13
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield provided $5,000 in reimbursement expenses, and one week of flexible scheduling when we returned. Anthem was fantastic about accommodating our three week international travel to receive our daughter. Our new child had insurance coverage from the moment her adoption papers were signed in China. They even helped provide us with a list of doctors and hospitals who utilize western medicine practices in China (should our new child or we need medical attention). We appreciated how the employee benefits materials include adoption benefits and acknowledge very positively that adoption is another important way children and families unite. This is a very adoption-friendly employer, and we are grateful!
Posted by: Julie Staub at 9:54am Nov 13
Bank of America is extremely adoption friendly. They provided $8,000 in reimbursement and 8 weeks paid leave. I had less than 24 hours notice from the time of our match to the time we flew across the country to pick up our son, and I was able to start maternity leave immediately. Everyone was extremely supportive, and the process was so easy. They also offer access to resources and information to help with parenting, childcare choices and other family stressors.
Posted by: Lauren Hood at 7:13am Feb 21
MetLife- Boston has updated their 2008 adoption benefits to include-$10,000 adoption toward adoption expenses with 2 weeks paid vacation with option to use PTO after the initial 2 weeks and emergency back up day care benefits/contracts.
Posted by: Debbie in Massachusetts at 2:39pm Mar 19
Warner Music Group just created their adoption assistance policy in 2007. We submitted a proposal in April 2005 for them to consider and were happy to be their first family after the completion of our daughter's international adoption. The $5000 adoption benefit was extremely helpful.
Posted by: Debra at 10:19am Aug 26
Eaton Corporation provides $10,000 towards adoption expenses and four weeks of paid leave, which I've been able to take on a flexible schedule. I've been able to take advantage of these benefits twice in the four years I've worked here with overwhelming support. They also recently funded a grant to help defray the costs of a Birthmother Support hotline sponsored by a local adoption support group.
Posted by: Anita at 11:26am Aug 26
Children's Hospital of WI has wonderful adoption benefits. I am able to work part-time, and receive $5000 towards adoption expenses. I also received 2 weeks paid time off, which I choose to use later. Not only that, but I received a discount on services provided at our hospital. I use this benefit after insurance has paid their part. Children's Hospital of WI is a wonderful employer.
Posted by: Laura Hinkle at 9:31am Sep 4
Boston Scientific also has good adoption benefits. I was reimbursed for the cost of our adoption up to the current IRS amount (a little over $10,000) per adopted child. I also received 6 weeks paid and 6 weeks unpaid leave time, which I chose to spread out over the course of 6 months to enable me to work a part-time schedule while our family adjusted.
Posted by: Heidi at 12:29pm Sep 7
Bodine Electric Company went above and beyond when my husband and I adopted our little boy. My husband works for them and has worked for them for almost 14 years and they allowed him the time off needed when we brought our son home and were very supportive and kind. He took a week off when we first adopted our son and he was able to be off for any of our first pediatrician appointements. They even threw us a "baby shower" with snacks and gifts and my husband, son and myself were all there and all the management staff as well as other employees were able to come in and see our new bundle of joy. Thank you Bodine Electric!
Posted by: Tracy at 12:36pm Sep 11
I work for Bank of America and they are great. They provide $8,000 reimbursement and 12 weeks of maternity and paternity leave for adoptions.
Posted by: Amy at 11:07am Sep 26
My husband works for Edward Jones as a financial planner. We received a $5000 reimbursement for adoption expenses once the decree was issued. They also offered to re-schedule one of the incentive trip that my husband earned if our baby had arrived during that time. (Our little boy arrived after we returned though, so we had a little pre-infant vacation!)
Posted by: Nancy at 12:14pm Oct 7
My company is an embarrassment when it comes to adoption support for it's employees. I work for a large electric utility, Progress Energy in the southeast and all I wanted was to carry over one additional week of my vacation time to the next year so I'd have extra time to travel to China. The site vice president declined my request for no apparent reason. I ended up losing my "extra" vacation time that I had saved up during that year (2004). Still bitter about it.
Posted by: Bill Christensen at 6:26pm Oct 7
My husband's company, Honeywell Technologies, Inc., gave a $5,000 reimbursement when the adoption of our son was finalized. It was very helpful because we'd already spent a bundle on two failed adoptions....
Posted by: Lisa at 10:43am Oct 13
My husband's company, Patagonia was very supportive of our adoption. We received a $5000 reimbursement and he had 8 weeks paid leave. My employer gave us $3000 but no leave except FMLA. I petitioned for special consideration since I was able to breast feed but was told that maternity leave falls under disability. I thought that that was interesting..... We had 2 adoptions fall through before our daughter came to us so our extra funds for time off were depleted and the reimbursements brought us back to normal financial status. As a country we do not seem to consider the importance of parent's presence in children's lives to be very important or we appear to make it difficult for families to create time to be together. Work is more important than raising the next generation. With my FMLA and my husband's leave we were able to cobble together time so that our daughter would be with one of us most of the time. An important consideration with any child, adopted or not. In reading through the other comment, I am struck by the diversity of employer response. Excited to see so many employers who consider adoption to be a reasonable time to provide paid leave!!
Posted by: Liz at 7:55am Oct 16
Florida Power & Light Company was very generous and helpful for both our adoptions. We received a reimbursement of $4,000 for each adoption, which is available to both full-time and part-time families. They offered assistance and support with my leave from work during my "waiting period" and after our dauthers were born, and were wonderful in making sure both my children received health benefits from day-one. Finally, they have provided on-going support and flexibility in allowing me to work part-time and with a flexible schedule.
Posted by: Rachel at 6:13pm Aug 14
I'm told I don't get maternity leave because I didn't have the baby. I get to use 8 personal days, and 6 for family leave. Oterwise, it's expected that I take unpaid leave for the rest of the leave. In my contract, it states that, "Adoptive parents have equal rights as natural parents," but it doesn't seem that way. Lucky for those who get reimbursement and/or paid leave. I don't get either. Currently I'm still fighting for more rights and use of my 61 days of sick leave that I was told I can't take since I'm not sick.
Posted by: Laura at 9:54pm Oct 25
Honeywell was already commented on but I wanted to add that in addition to the $5000 expense reimbursement, they also offer 4-weeks paid leave.
Posted by: Andrea at 8:13am Nov 19
This article hits right at home for my wife and I. We are in the process of adopting two children. There are some tips we could have used a few months ago.
Posted by: Shayne at 11:52am Aug 9
I'd also like to recognize Nelnet for their very good benefits (which I am proud to say that I played a role in). http://feitcanwrite.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/benefits/
Posted by: FeitCanWrite at 8:15am Jan 30
This is a great list and I just wanted to add my comment on another incredible company. Financially supportive, time off, special needs assistance - Nestle USA is a wonderful place to work especially if you are adopting. For current openings http://nestlejobs.com To read more about their adoption and other benefits http://careers.nestleusa.com/whats-new.html
Posted by: Mary Z at 8:54am Oct 16
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