Credly’s recent acquisition by Pearson was certainly an exciting professional milestone, but my most important achievement to date is Benjamin. No, it’s not a new consumer AI product with a familiar first name. Benjamin is my son. And only two and a half years in, he is the most amazing product I’ve ever helped launch and grow. He is also the one I least imagined being possible. I came of age when gay marriage was illegal and gay parenting frowned upon in most of the world.
We still have a long way to go on these issues.
After an early work experience ended with me being fired because I was gay, I decided to start my own business built on the values I care about. In 2012, I founded Credly, a tech company that helps organizations make human capital decisions based on skills and abilities, instead of bias and faulty assumptions.
When my husband Andy and I decided to become parents, there were lots of eyeballs on us but no societal playbook to follow. Questions such as “With two dads, which one of you will stay home after the baby is born?” (which for some translated to “Which one of you is the mom?”) made us realize that whatever plans we made for parental leave would help educate and become a model for others. We saw a chance to help move past a conversation dominated by the archaic maternity-leave playbook, which has perpetuated bias against women in the workplace and permitted men to operate under lower expectations.
While the number of big businesses offering paid paternity leave is growing, just 23 percent of civilian workers have access to paid family leave offered by their employers. It is even more unusual that Andy and I each took a full month of parental leave.
Although new fathers eligible for paid paternity leave are increasingly using the benefit, 76% return to work in less than a week. Most take less time than their benefit allows. Studies tell us why, though I’m pretty sure most women already know the answer: “to minimize the risk of stigmas and other penalties” in the workplace.
Even as the CEO, I had concerns about whether my decision to take parental leave would adversely impact anyone’s perception of me or their confidence in my ability to keep leading. From my admittedly privileged position, the experience made me see how hard it is for millions of women to navigate this decision. They wonder if interviewers or managers are gaming out the likelihood they will get pregnant and take a leave.
Companies should foster cultures where paid parental leave is an expectation for every new parent, regardless of gender. With more equal numbers of women and men taking leave, over time this will reduce fear and bias, as everyone will benefit and feel the impact more evenly.
Gay dads—especially those in positions of management—need to lead the way and advocate for paid paternity leave. Obviously, this is easier said than done. When I started my career, there were very few gay business leaders who were out. While that’s been changing in some industries, there are still a lot of gay people experiencing unfairness and discrimination in the workplace. And despite a June 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling – which determined that the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination, applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity -- recent signals suggest the current Court may not consider the issue settled. We may soon find ourselves relying again on businesses to be on the front lines of protecting basic human rights and dignity.
When a gay executive publicly avails himself of parental leave, it demonstrates what a positive workplace culture looks like. As the leader of a business that serves a diverse global audience of employers and job seekers, and where about 10% of our own employees identify as LGBTQ, my actions set an important tone.
And whether they admit it or not, straight men are influenced by what gay men are doing, too. When men feel safer taking parental leave, it reduces the relative stigma women experience at work and leads to greater gender parity in career opportunity.
Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve seen an even greater need for flexibility and compassion in the workplace when it comes to managing childcare. While parental leave policies recognize that the arrival of a new child is a special moment in time, companies should also appreciate that parenting responsibilities don’t diminish when a parental leave absence ends.
According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study that came out in December of 2020, 58% of working parents reported leaving work because they were unable to find childcare solutions that met their needs. Leaving the workforce to care for children has long-term financial consequences. Both men and women face a 7% wage penalty for stepping away from the workforce to care for a child. The consequences are even steeper for women when you consider the pervasive wage gap, and starker yet for women of color.
Imagine how encouraging more workers to take parental leave can have positive ripple effects for the entire organization. When people are permitted to be their true selves, they develop greater loyalty to and sense of engagement with their employer. And engagement leads to reduced absenteeism, increased productivity, and much less turnover. The impact of having the right culture in your workplace is felt by customers, too. Customers are happier, and there are increases in sales, according to Gallup.
Someday Benjamin will be old enough to judge my performance as a dad. In the meantime, I’m happy to be judged by how well my company lives up to the values of a new world of work that cares about fairness and equal access to opportunity—including the opportunity to manage time at work alongside the needs of one’s family.
A version of this article originally appeared in Fast Company.
Jonathan Finkelstein is founder and CEO of Credly, a Pearson business. Credly is helping the world speak a common language about people’s knowledge, skills, and abilities. Thousands of employers, training organizations, associations, certification programs, and workforce development initiatives use Credly to help individuals translate their learning experiences into professional opportunities using trusted, portable, digital credentials.