Latest / The Diversity Career Podcast with Fexingo: Inclusion, Equity, and Underrepresented Professionals / How One Company Made Its Parental Leave Truly Gender Neutral
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this assumption that parental leave policy has been basically solved in progressive companies. Six weeks, twelve weeks, maybe sixteen for the birth parent, two weeks for the other parent. That binary model is still the default. But one company that I think is worth looking at decided that the whole approach was built on outdated assumptions. Luna: Which company and what did they change? Lucas: It's a mid-sized tech firm called PivotWorks. About twelve hundred employees, headquartered in Austin. And in early 2025 they announced a new parental leave policy that is completely gender neutral. No maternity leave. No paternity leave. Just one single policy: twenty weeks of fully paid leave for any new parent, regardless of gender, regardless of how they became a parent — birth, adoption, surrogacy, foster placement, all covered equally. Luna: Twenty weeks across the board. That is more generous than most — but the gender neutral piece is actually the more radical shift, I think. Lucas: Exactly. The length itself is notable — the US average for paid leave is still around eight weeks for birth mothers and zero for fathers in most companies. But what PivotWorks did that's really interesting is how they structured the policy. They deliberately avoided terms like 'primary caregiver' or 'secondary caregiver.' They didn't ask employees to designate who the main parent is. Everyone gets the same entitlement, no questions asked. Luna: And that matters because those designations often create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you label someone the secondary caregiver, you're implicitly saying their role is less important. It becomes harder for men or non-binary partners to take the full leave without feeling judged. Lucas: Right. And the data from PivotWorks after the first year is pretty telling. Before the change, only about 15 percent of non-birth parents took more than four weeks off. After the change, that number jumped to 68 percent taking at least twelve weeks. The birth parents' uptake stayed high — over 90 percent — but the big shift was in the other half of the equation. Luna: So the policy change actually changed behavior, not just optics. Did they do anything else to make it work? I'm thinking about things like return to work support, or how they handled people who might be worried about career impact. Lucas: They did a few things. First, they made the leave fully stackable with state leave where applicable. So if you're in a state like California or New York that has paid family leave, the company pay tops it up to full salary. Second, they guaranteed that anyone taking leave would have their role or an equivalent role waiting for them when they returned — no restructuring while you're out. And third, they communicated the policy internally with a lot of specificity. They published a FAQ that covered things like: what if both parents work at PivotWorks? Answer: both take twenty weeks, can be taken consecutively or overlapping. What if you're a single parent by choice? Same twenty weeks. What if you're fostering a child who isn't legally yours yet? Still covered. They really thought through the edge cases. Luna: That level of detail is actually crucial. A lot of policies sound good on paper but then employees don't trust them because they're vague. If you have to ask for permission, or if the policy says 'up to' twelve weeks, people assume they'll get less. Lucas: Exactly. And the other piece is that PivotWorks made the announcement alongside a transparency report showing their current parental leave usage broken down by gender and role. They were basically saying: we know the old system wasn't working equally, here's the proof, and here's what we're doing to fix it. That built a lot of credibility internally. Luna: Let's talk about the business case, because I imagine some listeners are thinking: this sounds expensive. Twenty weeks for everyone, plus the administrative lift of rethinking the whole system. What did PivotWorks say about the cost? Lucas: They were pretty transparent about that too. The CFO estimated the direct cost at about three hundred thousand dollars in additional paid leave in the first year. That sounds like a lot, but when you compare it to the cost of replacing an employee — which for a mid-level tech role can be one and a half to two times salary — it pays for itself if you retain even a handful of people who might otherwise have left. And the company's turnover rate for employees who took parental leave dropped from about 22 percent in the two years after leave under the old policy to just 8 percent after the change. Luna: So retention improved dramatically. And I'd guess there's also a recruiting benefit. In a competitive labor market, a policy like that is a signal. Lucas: Absolutely. The CEO said in an interview that after the policy was announced, the number of unsolicited applications from parents and prospective parents went up by about 40 percent. And the applicant pool became more diverse — more women, more non-binary candidates, more men who explicitly said they wanted a workplace that supported caregiving. So it's not just a retention tool, it's an attraction tool. Luna: I want to push back a little, though. Is this something that only works at a small, relatively well-funded tech company? Can a manufacturer or a retailer or a hospital do the same thing? Lucas: Fair question. The specifics are harder for companies with thin margins or shift-based work. But the principle — removing the gendered distinction — doesn't have to cost more. You could have a gender-neutral policy of eight weeks instead of twenty and still see the same behavioral shift. The key is that everyone gets the same entitlement, and you remove the designation hierarchy. Several larger companies are starting to move in this direction. For example, a major consumer goods company recently announced a gender-neutral leave of sixteen weeks. So the model is scalable. Luna: That makes sense. And I think there's an under-discussed angle here about non-binary and trans employees. In a binary system, they often have to out themselves to HR just to get the leave that aligns with their identity. A gender-neutral policy eliminates that burden entirely. Lucas: Yes. PivotWorks actually consulted with an LGBTQ employee resource group when designing the policy, and that was one of the biggest points they raised. The old system forced people to choose between 'maternity' and 'paternity' forms, which is both inaccurate and invasive. The new policy just has one form: 'Parental Leave Request.' No gender marker needed. Luna: It's a small design change but it sends a huge message about who belongs. And I think that's the thread we've seen in a lot of the best policies we've covered — it's not just about the dollars, it's about the message. Lucas: If today was actually useful to you, the way these episodes stay ad-free is through listener support. You can help keep the conversation going by visiting buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to say this content matters to you. Luna: Yeah, and it really does make a difference. Even a small contribution helps us keep digging into stories like this one. Lucas: So back to PivotWorks — one more interesting detail. They also built in a flexibility option that allows employees to take the twenty weeks in two blocks within the first year, rather than all at once. So if someone wants to take twelve weeks right after the birth and then save eight weeks for later when their partner goes back to work, they can do that. That kind of flexibility is rare and it's something a lot of parents told us they wished they had. Luna: That is actually huge. Because a lot of people feel pressure to take all the leave upfront, but then they're exhausted when they return, or they realize later they need more time for doctor's appointments or bonding. Having the option to split it is a real innovation. Lucas: And it's not just about splitting time. They also allow employees to use the leave for the care of a child with a serious health condition, or for the placement of a new foster child, even if that child is older than infancy. So it's not just about newborns. It's about becoming a parent at any stage. Luna: That's a much more realistic definition of parenting. I think we sometimes imagine parental leave as this neat package for a newborn, but real families have a lot of different paths. Lucas: Exactly. And the question I'm left with after looking at this is: why aren't more companies doing this? The data seems clear — it improves retention, attracts diverse talent, reduces stigma, and it doesn't have to break the bank. So what's holding companies back? Luna: I suspect part of it is inertia. The binary system is what everyone knows, and changing HR policies requires coordination across legal, benefits, payroll, and management. But also, I think there's a fear that if you give everyone equal leave, you'll somehow lose the special protection for birth parents. But PivotWorks showed that you can have equal leave and still provide additional support for recovery from childbirth — they actually added a separate, short-term disability benefit for anyone who gives birth, which is medical, not parental. Lucas: That's a key distinction. The parental leave is about bonding and caregiving. The medical leave is about recovery. By separating the two, they avoid the trap of conflating them. So a birth parent gets six weeks of short-term disability plus twenty weeks of parental leave — twenty-six weeks total. A non-birth parent gets twenty weeks. Everyone gets what they need. Luna: That seems like a model that could be adapted by any employer with a disability insurance plan. It's really just a matter of re-labelling and re-communicating. Lucas: Yeah. And it's worth noting that PivotWorks didn't do this overnight. They spent about eight months in design, including focus groups with employees from all demographics. They tested the language, they ran cost scenarios, they got buy-in from the board. So it's not a quick fix — but it's a replicable process. Luna: I think that's the takeaway for any HR leader listening: you don't have to copy the exact policy, but you can borrow the principles. Gender neutrality. Flexibility. Transparency. And separating medical from caregiving leave. Lucas: Right. And I'd add one more: involve the people who will use the policy in designing it. PivotWorks's ERGs were instrumental. That's probably why the policy feels so tailored to actual needs rather than administrative convenience. Luna: So what's next for PivotWorks? Are they looking at other benefits through the same lens? Lucas: They are. The CEO mentioned that they're now reviewing their bereavement leave and sick leave policies to remove gendered assumptions. For example, they're considering a 'caregiver leave' that covers caring for any family member, not just a child or parent. So the same philosophy of 'everyone gets the same baseline' is being applied more broadly. Luna: It's a shift from a one-size-fits-all to a one-size-fits-one approach — but with a standardized floor that removes bias. I like it. Lucas: That's a good way to frame it. And I think it points to where benefits design is heading. The old model was about checking boxes for demographic groups. The new model is about designing systems that treat everyone as a whole person with caregiving responsibilities — because almost everyone has them at some point. Luna: And the data from PivotWorks suggests that approach isn't just fair, it's actually good business. That's a combination that's hard to argue with.