Blackstone Really Gets the Paid Maternity Leave Thing
The financial services giant will extend its paid maternity leave benefits from 12 weeks to 16 weeks, Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman announced on Wednesday!
A memo on the company’s website explicitly tied the policy shift to recruiting and retaining women: “By instituting robust policies that support working mothers and all employees as they integrate their work and family responsibilities, we hope to help make asset management a more attractive industry for women.”
Blackstone has the most women in executive roles among the 10 largest private equity firms, but women are still only 15.7% of all executives at the company. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cost of amending the maternity leave policy to help improve those numbers will be “pocket change.”
We give props to Blackstone’s leadership for demonstrating their support for female employees in a way that will make a real difference—and hope they’re rewarded with “improved productivity, higher morale and reduced turnover.”
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