Successful companies find that retaining employees means offering generous and fair initiatives. While all employees, regardless of marital or family status, want great benefits and support, those with children often face unique challenges.

For many working adults with children, finding a work/life balance is crucial. So, one way to help support your employees that have families and make a better workplace overall is to improve policies around things like parental leave in order to improve employee retention. Doing so is vital as you won't have to spend extra time and resources dealing with employee turnover.

If you want to make some changes to your HR policies to support families with children, these tips will help you make a more positive, healthy workplace.1. Take Advantage Of Existing Resources
 Suppose you're looking for the best initiatives and policies to support parents with children. Luckily, you don't have to figure it out alone. There are many resources out there, including existing organizations.

For example, The Lactation Network offers a Newborn Families Program. This program provides one-on-one lactation consultations with an IBCLC, breast pump, accessories, and replacement parts, and detailed care plans customized to each family in order to boost post-maternity leave retention from 59% to 92%. In addition, TLN’s Newborn Families program seamlessly integrates into existing benefits, so employees can receive care as soon as they need it.

You can reach out to organizations like these to incorporate some of their support and programs. This way, you don't have to develop all of these programs on your own, but your employees can still reap the benefits.

2. Think About Better PTO Policies

If your policies for time off are highly restrictive, people with young children aren't as likely to stick around. Generally, little time off or flexibility for emergencies is terrible for all employees. But this is even more accurate for families with kids. They may need to leave work for a health emergency, such as a sick child. So, you can consider more advanced options that appeal to many employees, such as outcome-based workplaces. This policy allows more adaptability as employees can take off work when needed, as long as they still get their workload done and get it done well.

3. Promote A Healthy Workplace Culture

Along with actual policies and initiatives the company implements, the overall culture needs to be positive. Cultivating open communication and understanding in your workplace is vital for supporting all of your employees, and it's just as crucial for supporting parents. It can be stressful for families with young children to handle a judgmental or harsh workplace when emergencies arise. Instead, help your employees feel safe to take care of their home and family life and to reach out if they need extra support.

4. Create Ways For Employees To Connect

Depending on the size of your company, it could be valuable to create a network or channel for parents with children to connect. This doesn't have to be a large, expensive project. You could even create a Slack channel that anyone can join if they want to. Keep in mind that this is also a good idea for other demographics who might need extra support. These groups allow employees with similar lives to connect to one another and provide help and community.

5. Allow Your Employees To Tell You What They Need

All the advice in the world won't help you support any of your employees if you don't know what they actually want and need. Find ways to talk to your working parents with children about what they are looking for in the workplace to feel more supported. You can create surveys or host meetings that foster communication and openness.

With these five tips, you'll be able to incorporate new policies to support your employees with children and make your workplace better for everyone.