US-based retailer Target has enhanced the suite of family-friendly benefits offered to its 350,000 employees, including implementing a new paid family leave policy.
The organisation has introduced the benefit enhancements in order to support its multigenerational workforce with their caring responsibilities, whether this is for children, spouses and domestic partners or ageing parents. The policies are designed to exceed traditional parental leave arrangements.
As part of these changes, Target has introduced a new paid family leave benefit, effective from 30 June 2019. This will enable eligible employees to take up to four weeks of paid leave in order to care for an immediate family member; for example, this might mean caring for a new child after birth, adoption, surrogacy or a foster placement, or tending to a critically ill relative.
The family leave policy is separate from medical leave, which provides six to eight weeks for individuals who give birth, dependent on the type of delivery. Adding the family leave benefit to medical leave will enable new parents who give birth to take up to 12 weeks of paid time off.
Target has also extended its backup care benefit. Initially launched for staff at the headquarters in Minneapolis, the initiative is being rolled out to hourly-paid and salaried staff in autumn 2019, enabling all eligible employees to receive a total of 20 days in-centre childcare or in-home child or eldercare.
In addition, the business has doubled its adoption and surrogacy reimbursement benefit as at 1 April 2019. Previously, employees could receive $5,000 (£3,973) per child to help cover the costs of adoption or surrogacy, but this has been increased to $10,000 (£7,946) per child. Employees can use this funding to pay for fees around applications, filing, placement or agency costs, court costs, immigration and translation fees, attorney fees, transportation costs and surrogate parenting expenses.
The family-friendly benefits are available for all hourly-paid and salaried employees, including part-time staff, at Target’s stores, distribution centres and headquarters.
Melissa Kremer (pictured), chief HR officer at Target, said: “We’ve taken a strong position on minimum starting wages, but that’s just one facet of our team member experience. Our team finds so much support here to grow their skills and careers, make a difference in their communities and take care of themselves and their families, including benefits that we’re enhancing to be more relevant across a breadth of life stages.”