Nelnet’s Parental Leave Policy Updates: Change in Action

One of Nelnet’s core values is creating an awesome work environment. Executive leadership also encourages innovation at all levels—and urges associates to bring their ideas forward to help effectively drive innovation.

This call for innovative ideas applies not only to those that relate to business solutions and meeting customer needs but to all ideas—including those that improve our company culture. This was evident when Nelnet Diversified Services IT Manager Alex Ricaurte successfully campaigned for better parental leave benefits during her second and third trimesters of pregnancy.

When she was 12 weeks pregnant and with a toddler at home, Ricaurte told her colleague, Jill Duell, how stressed she was about having to bank all her earned time off (ETO) for doctor’s appointments and additional time off after the baby came. Ricaurte said she wanted to advocate for Nelnet to provide more than seven weeks’ maternity leave. At the time, Nelnet offered paid leave after a one-week elimination period, followed by two weeks paid parental leave and additional time available via short-term disability concurrent with Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Duell noted that she had already submitted the idea to the Nelnet Diversified Services Associate Engagement and Experience Committee and would check the status. When the two found that the idea needed to go next to the division’s Culture Office, Ricaurte and Duell invited Nelnet Diversified Services Director of Culture Jessica Schumacher to lunch. Schumacher was interested in helping them pursue enhanced leave. Soon after, the Parental Leave Committee was formed, consisting of Ricaurte and a group of three other women at various times: Duell, Nicole Francavilla, and Danielle Paolini.

The Parental Leave Committee began meeting anywhere from zero to 1.5 hours per week. The division’s Culture Office invited them to lean on them for questions as they progressed with their plans. They also connected with Nelnet Diversified Services Chief Information Officer John Turner, who invited the group to run things by him. As Ricaurte noted, “He was the closest I could get to the executives and could help us understand what would be important to them.”

The Culture Office suggested the committee would need to research and present, among other things:

• A clear ask—and be able to justify it.
• A projected investment from Nelnet.
• A chart showing Nelnet’s current and proposed policies versus competitors.

The Parental Leave Committee looked not only at the parental policies of other large premier employers, but also those of other companies that compete with Nelnet for associates based on their location, size, market strategy, workforce demographic, and reputation.

They began asking questions internally, using ServiceNow and Data Analytics to find the attrition rate of associates using maternity and parental leave versus the organization’s general attrition rate; the population of child-bearing age at Nelnet; the number of men vs. women in Nelnet’s workforce; and more. All of this information was essential in providing a projected investment and cost.

To form their detailed ask, the Parental Leave Committee used recommendations from the American Public Health Association, which endorses no less than 12 weeks of maternity leave for women. They also relied on their own pregnancy experiences and reached out to many other associates at Nelnet, both female and male.

A major part of the committee’s ask was eliminating the need for associates to use a week of ETO to qualify for paid medical leave (PML). Making a change to eliminate the qualifying week for PML for maternity leave meant eliminating the qualifying week for any PML—for any associate.

Executives appreciated several things about the way the Parental Leave Committee pitched their idea. First, they appreciated having this concern brought to their attention. As Schumacher pointed out, “As the execs said, ‘This is the right thing to do, but we just didn’t even think about it.’”