Approximately 100,000 children are adopted by parents in the United States each year. While there are less-expensive options for adopting a child, namely adoption through foster care, some adoptions can cost up to $58,000. In addition to the financial burden, people opting to build their families through adoption are faced with the unique challenges that come with the adoption process, such as making life-changing decisions, filling out seemingly endless paperwork, going through the home-study process, and enduring the emotional roller coaster of waiting to be matched with their child and finalizing the adoption. And when one or both adoptive parents are working, they’re faced with balancing all of those challenges with the demands of their work.
5 Ways Leaders Can Support Adoptive Parents
Working parents building their families by adopting a child face many challenges, including financial (adoptions in the U.S. can cost up to $58,000), logistical (the paperwork can feel endless), and emotional. When employees perceive their organization to be supportive of their family in general, they’re more satisfied with their jobs, more committed to their organizations, and less likely to leave. The authors sought to discover how organizations can support adoptive parents in particular by surveying married couples who had adopted a child in the last few years. They found a variety of types of support, some more costly than others, that adoptive parent employees see as meaningful and present five ways leaders can better support adoptive parents in their organizations.