Working Mother names Grant Thornton one of its ‘Best Companies for Dads’ two years in a row

CHICAGO — Grant Thornton LLP is one of Working Mother magazine’s “Best Companies for Dads” for the second year in a row. The third annual list celebrates 85 organizations that lead in the areas of paternity leave, childcare, flexible schedules and more.

“We’re once again honored that Working Mother has recognized Grant Thornton’s commitment to our working parents, including working dads,” says Renato Zanichelli, national managing partner of Tax Services at Grant Thornton and a national champion for the firm’s Working Parents & Allies business resource group. “Being a working parent is never easy, and those challenges have been amplified this year. Grant Thornton is proud to offer solutions and a workplace that helps our professionals balance their lives at work and at home — and to honor the important role many of us play as dads.”

Zanichelli further explains how Grant Thornton recognizes the importance of flexibility as a working parent and continually strives to advance parent-focused benefits: “As a young father, one of the main reasons I returned to public accounting in the late ’90s was to have more flexibility in my schedule — and Grant Thornton allowed me to do just that. We have come a long way over the years, but our work in this area, like the job of a parent, is far from over.”

Grant Thornton was also named one of Working Mother magazine’s 2020 “100 Best Companies.” The firm offers a range of benefits that helped secure its spot on both lists — including several new initiatives specifically designed to help working parents manage the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Grant Thornton’s parent-friendly initiatives include:

• Grant Thornton provides paid maternity and paternity leave, telecommuting, and flexible work arrangements, including reduced work schedules, compressed work weeks and flexible days. The firm also offers flexible time off, an industry-leading benefit enhancement that allows employees to take time off as needed to meet their individual needs instead of a predetermined set of paid time off (PTO) days.
• Grant Thornton offers a voluntary “Mentor Parents” program to help guide new parents through their transition back to work from parental leave.
• Grant Thornton offers 30 days of paid backup childcare — the firm provided an additional 15 days to help working parents balance work and childcare obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Every Grant Thornton colleague has free access to Care@Work’s premium membership through Care.com, which provides Grant Thornton professionals with access to a network of caregivers and other services — including childcare, eldercare, pet care, housekeeping and other resources to support quality of life.
• Grant Thornton offers a Working Parents & Allies business resource group, which focuses on aligning parenting values to workplace expectations, including best practices for successful work-life integration.
• Grant Thornton is piloting a food-delivery and meal-planning offering to lessen the burden the pandemic is placing on its workforce.

“Millennial dads continue to be outspoken about wanting to be involved parents and needing the support of their companies in order to do so,” says Subha Barry, president of Working Mother Media. “These trendsetting organizations strive to create an inclusive environment for all working parents, and we applaud their efforts in helping to erase the stigma attached to men taking full parental leave and utilizing flexible schedules to be more involved on the homefront. By doing so, it helps moms succeed both at home and at work, and puts them on more equal footing in the process.”

About the methodology

This year, for the first time, the Best Companies for Dads was offered to companies as a separate initiative for which they had to apply. The previous two years, Working Mother Research Institute had pulled out responses pertaining to dads from the 100 Best Companies application. The organizations listed here received the highest numbers of points in the survey about dads, which included questions on parental leave, childcare, adoption leave, fertility benefits and employee-resource groups for men and working parents.

About Working Mother Media

Working Mother Media (WMM), a division of Bonnier Corp., publishes Working Mother magazine and its companion website, workingmother.com. The Working Mother Research Institute, the National Association for Female Executives, Diversity Best Practices and Culture@Work are also units within WMM. WMM’s mission is to serve as a champion of culture change, and Working Mother magazine is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

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