City of Fayetteville employees are now eligible for a new benefit program. Ozarks at Large's Daniel Caruth reports.
On Monday afternoon, City of Fayetteville staff and elected officials gathered at City Hall as Mayor Molly Rawn signed a new benefit policy for city employees.
"I am really proud to make this announcement," Rawn said. "This is something that I have been wanting to do since I ran for mayor and announced my run. And it is that in collaboration with our city's HR department, today, effective today, we are implementing paid parental leave for city staff."
She says the new benefit policy provides six weeks of paid parental leave after the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child, and applies to any full-time city employee who has been on the job for at least a year.
"So the goal was to be as inclusive as possible, to be supportive of the people that do the work of the city and that make it possible for us to do all that we do, to really show up for them and support them at what is a critical time," Rawn said. "So I'm a mother of three and have been a working mom that entire time, and I've had the benefit of working for employers that did provide robust parental leave and were very understanding, and at times worked for in places where they weren't as understanding. And so I know firsthand the difference that that can make in your own recovery and in that bonding time with your child."
Human Resources Director for the City of Fayetteville Missy Hutcheson says the city did not have a paid parental leave benefit before this, and the effort to change that has been underway since at least 2022, when staff began voicing their concerns about the policy to her.
"They wanted to be able to spend more time at home and it not come out of their banks that they have, whether it be sick banks or vacation banks or whatever," Hutcheson said. "So what this does is it allows them to use this to help support the first six weeks. And then if they want to stay out longer, they still have their banks that they can use to stay home."
She says the new policy was recommended by the city's Staff Senate and driven by employees who researched options, shared their own experiences with family leave and advocated for this change.
"As an HR professional, you always want to work for someplace that values employees and their benefits," Hutcheson said. "And so when employees are coming to us asking for something, we want to figure out how we can impact them the most. And the things that keep coming up are the things we try to bring forward to the administration and then try to plan and budget for. So that's why, I mean, just supporting people in their life and, as a mom, you know, just to be supportive of our staff that work very hard for us and for the whole city."
Rawn says the policy change is an important step in making the City of Fayetteville an employer of choice, as competition for skilled public servants is increasing.
"This is so important, I think, in many ways. One, taking care of the employees that we have now, making sure that they know that they are valued and that we care about them, and we care about the time that they're able to spend with their families," Rawn said. "In addition, it's also a recruitment tool. We recognize that when the city is competing against other cities, against private enterprise, that these types of benefits are what new employees and prospective employees are going to look for. So it also helps us remain competitive."
The new policy is effective immediately for the city's more than 900 employees.
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