Taking Care of the Planful Family: Expanding Benefits for a Happier, Healthier Team

March combines two important annual reminders of why Planful puts so much effort into building a culture that inspires, elevates, and motivates our entire Planful team: Employee Appreciation Day and Women’s History Month. For 2022, we used these March events to amplify and expand the benefits we provide and double down on our people-first culture.

Culture, however, only works when every employee takes part in nurturing it and when it’s practiced every day throughout the year. We’ve made a concerted effort to build a global Planful team where everyone works to shape our culture. And it shines, especially because our CEO, Grant Halloran, is passionate about ensuring we all live and perpetuate our culture daily.

Employee Appreciation Day was created in the 90s to encourage managers and executives to put a conscious effort into appreciating their employees. Of course, that shouldn’t be just an annual occurrence. At the best companies, it starts at the top and it happens continuously throughout the year. Across emails, Slack messages, project management tools, and video meetings, I’m heartened to see frequent displays of appreciation between our team members. Quick comments like “I appreciate you” and “Thank YOU” and others, no matter how small, mean a lot to the recipient, between peers, and especially from managers and leaders.

“In celebration of Employee Appreciation Day, I’d like to recognize each and every one of you,” Grant wrote in a Slack message. “I see examples of our company values and The Planful Way embodied in all of you every day. I’m proud to be your teammate and it’s a privilege to lead this team.”

Our leadership team also works intently behind the scenes to ensure Planful puts weight to those words. One area we have all been hoping will continue to open up in 2022 is travel, both for work and pleasure. All signs look promising (fingers crossed!), but more than two years of very little business travel have changed many of our lives in countless ways. To help those on the Planful team who will again travel for work this year, we used Employee Appreciation Day to announce an expansion to Planful’s bounty of benefits.

We partnered with Vivvi for a program that provides support to Planful parents during extended work trips. It allows them to expense supplemental child care and meals for families left behind while they travel for work. In addition to child care, pet-sitting costs are also covered. 🐶 As travel starts to pick up, we hope that this initiative helps, even in a small way, to make traveling (for those who choose to) an enjoyable and stress-free experience.

Women’s History Month reminds us to appreciate the courage of women who pioneered our collective path, remember their bravery, and be thankful for the opportunities we have today because of their combined efforts.

As we continue to make progress to provide more inclusive benefits to our team, we partnered with FOLX Health and added their benefits to our offerings. FOLX is a telehealth company that gives the LGBTQIA+ community access to quality care from specialized clinicians who offer an array of services such as virtual primary care, gender-affirming services, mail order prescriptions, and more.

Planful also used Women’s History Month this year to bring more attention to our important paternity and maternity leave benefits. I wrote an article about the need for more and better benefits for new parents. The inequities imposed on working women are clear, but they can sometimes be impossible to overcome for pregnant women or those with small children. We have a lot of Planful employees who are starting or expanding their families, so we want to be as supportive as we can.

Planful’s maternity leave includes a three-month leave for moms and a six-week leave for dads, both paid at 100%. It also gives new parents a food stipend along with a three-month supply of diapers. Upon their return to work, parents are also eligible for an “Ease Back” program that offers an option for reduced work hours for the first three months back on the job.

A big part of my role as Chief People Officer is guiding our recruiting process (We’re hiring!— Take a look at our openings). It is truly inspiring to see so many bright, experienced, passionate individuals seeking to join the Planful team. But, it’s equally disheartening to hear how other companies take such little responsibility for their employees’ health, wellness, and growth. We don’t simply want to be better than that low bar; Planful wants to be a leader and a model for building an exceptional team.

Women’s History Month and Employee Appreciation Day might be annual reminders for most companies to pay some lip service to employees. Not here. Not at Planful. Our People team works hard every day to make Planful a genuinely fantastic place to work. That’s our job. But, without the support of our leaders and the commitment and inspiration from Grant Halloran and his continuous pursuit of building a stellar culture, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

Our company’s success is powered by the entire Planful team. We know it, and we appreciate each other immensely. We are committed to making progress every day as we continue to build on our record-breaking company success.

Why don’t you join us?