Today we're diving into the significant return on investment (ROI) of implementing lactation support programs in the workplace. We’ll explore compelling statistics, such as how these programs can dramatically cut healthcare costs and reduce absenteeism, enhance employee morale and retention, and elevate your company's image. Join me as we uncover why supporting breastfeeding employees is not just the right thing to do, but also a smart business move. Learn how creating a family-friendly work environment can make your company more competitive and a place where people want to stay for the long haul.
Learn more about Leadership Training on lactation support at kortneyross.com/leadershiptraining
Note - This transcript is automatically generated and has not been checked for errors.
Welcome to the NextGen Work Culture podcast, where leaders learn to support working parents. Because being a family friendly business isn't just a nice to have anymore. It's essential for businesses that want to stay competitive, and it is critical for the next generation and those who are raising them. I'm your host, Courtney Ross, and I am so glad that you're here. Welcome back to the NextGen work culture. We've been talking about breastfeeding a lot on on here lately. We had an episode with the co founder of Mamava Lactation Pods, which are really sleek, beautiful and super functional pods that you can purchase for placing in public locations or at your office to make sure employees have a space to express breast milk. We've talked about the milk stork benefit available, and I spoke with their founder, Kate Torgensen about breastmilk shipping and why that's an important employee benefit and how it is such a struggle for working, pumping parents to travel away from baby and not be able to get breast milk back to them or have to carry breast milk through TSA or whatever.
So that's two really great benefits or options for your employees. And hopefully you also have a fabulous lactation room or lactation space and kind of understand the, the way that breastfeeding works. And I talked about that with lactation counselor Emily Stone in a previous episode. But today I want to talk to you about the return on investment of LaCtATiOn support. There is actually a really great business case for providing support for your employees to express breast milk at work or even to breastfeed directly if that's an option. And I have some stats I want to share with you about how much money it could save your organization or the improvement in employee morale that you might see by having those lactation support programs in place. So first, let's talk about healthcare costs. Breastfeeding significantly lowers healthcare costs.
A two year study was done by the health insurance company Cigna. They studied 343 employees who were all participating in a lactation support program. And during that study, they discovered an annual savings of $240,000 in healthcare expenses. So that's less health insurance claims that the companies were having to pay, and they also had 62% fewer prescriptions. That is pretty amazing. So it's SIgniFicantly improving the health of not only the baby, but also the mother. But let's talk about the babies for a minute. Mothers of breastfed babies miss work way less often than mothers of formula Fed babies.
So that same study from health insurance company Cigna discovered $60,000 in savings in reduced absenteeism rates. That's amazing. That's a lot of money you're saving on absenteeism problems just by supporting breastfeeding. They looked at one day absences to take care of sick children and they realized that they occurred more than twice as often for mothers of formula feeding infants. So that's a pretty significant difference. Providing a supportive environment for breastfeeding employees also really improves your company image and your ability to recruit some top notch staff. It makes you super competitive in the market where currently, you know, you have to have something to set yourself apart. And maybe just a little bit of paid parental leave isn't enough anymore.
Going above and beyond for breastfeeding employees can really give you an edge in recruiting and retention. In fact, companies with lactation support programs boast a post maternal retention rate of 94.2%. So this is looking at women after giving birth, coming back to work, hopefully after a good long maternity leave. That retention rate, if they have a breastfeeding support program is 94.2% compared to the national average of just 59% when a lactation support program is not in place or just the average. So that's a 35% difference in retaining the women after giving birth just because of lactation support. These statistics came from the US Department of Health and Human Services. By the way, if you're interested, you can check out the show notes and I will include the link for a really succinct but super helpful handout. In that handout, they also shared that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is almost 80% male employees.
So you might think that this company isn't really somewhere where lactation support is super important. It would only theoretically work or be something that is taken advantage of by about 20% of their employees who are women. Right? But no. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power actually implemented a lactation support program for all employees, including partners of breastfeeding parents. And they saw that 83% of employees after this was implemented had a more positive feeling about the company and 67% of them intended to stay long term. So this isn't just something that you need to be worried about if you're in, you know, nursing or education or some other business that is predominantly female, it really impacts everybody and everybody notices. It's really great for our economy, it's great for the overall health. It is the best thing to do for our next generation.
I have nothing against formula. I used formula for my son primarily because I didn't have a breastfeeding support system in place at work. I didn't really have a choice. So I don't have anything against formula. Fed is best, but breastfeeding has been shown to reduce stress and postpartum depression for the mom. It improves the baby's health. So if possible, it really is the best thing to do for that baby, especially for the first six months when they really are recommended to be exclusively breastfed. That is their only source of nutrition for the first six months of life.
And providing that support to your employees, whether that be, you know, very caring and understanding managers, a really nice lactation space, the time to go and express breast milk and supportive environment wherever you don't have employees that are feeling resentful that someone is getting to, quote unquote, take breaks to go express breastmilk or making them feel guilty for taking that time to go and make milk for their baby and also just growing the whole environment to support breastfeeding. It's not just the moms that are going to notice. It's not just the people who are currently breastfeeding who are going to notice. Everyone at that organization notices the culture change, notices that you care about the employees, that you're giving them those benefits like breast milk shipping or a really nice place to pump breast milk and that you're supporting them to do that. Maybe providing access to lactation counselors or consultants that could be offered as a on demand employee benefit through some benefits providers. Or maybe you just partner with somebody who comes in and does that lactation consulting locally. Anything you can do to help support that culture of we are here for you, we want you to provide your baby with the best nutrition available. How can we support you? Anything you can do to build that culture is going to be obviously great for the mom.
It's going to improve your retention rates of moms, but it's also going to improve your overall company culture, the overall way that your company is perceived by the public and by other employees. And that will make you much more competitive in the market and just look like a much nicer and better place to work. And don't we all want that? If you are interested in providing some training for your leaders on supporting breastfeeding and pregnant employees, I would love to help you with that. It's really great for the culture, but it's also a compliance issue. They have to understand the Pregnant Workers Fairness act and the Pump act. And if they have no idea what those things are, you are setting yourself up for failure and a lot of loss and headache. If someone decides to file a claim against you with the EEOC and a lawyer. So let's try to keep you away from the courts.
And I promise it will be much cheaper to invest in some leadership training now. So if you want to learn more about that, go check it out@courtneyross.com. leadership training and check it out@courtneyross.com. leadershiptraining and I'll catch you next time. If you enjoyed this episode, I know you'll love the future ready work culture framework. Head over to courtneyross.com framework to download your copy and start building a family friendly, future ready workplace today. Don't forget to subscribe to the nextgen work culture so you never miss an episode. I'd love it if you'd also take a moment to leave a review.
Kortney00:11:06 - 00:11:120:03 - 11:12
Until next time, take care of.