Stipends, family grants, and flexibility motivate Kickstand employees
Molly George is CEO and co-founder of Kickstand and has led communication programs from scaling startups to guiding B2B tech brands through successful IPOs. Her two young boys have made her great at being flexible, cheering obnoxiously at sporting events, and tolerating noises of unacceptable decibel levels.
“I’m pregnant…again.” It was 2018, I was four months back from my own maternity leave, and my co-founder, Kristina Kennedy, who had returned from her first maternity leave three weeks before, was planning for another leave. And that wasn’t all. Over two years, we navigated four maternity leaves and the addition of six children, where we doubled the size of our business and our families. Guiding the growth of our fast-growing public relations agency, Kickstand, at the height of our hustle years (and on a startup founder’s salary) required many serenity now moments.
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Our kids are now the best of buds, and we’re left with a strong perspective on the support and resources working mothers need. We felt the pain of the many challenges it comes with, and knew we wanted to be part of the solution.
While today many U.S. companies focus on parental leave as the primary solution, we believe working mothers, truly all caregivers, need resources, flexibility, the ability to pace their own careers, and more money. Here are four ways Kickstand is working to give our employees what they deserve:
We provide 18 weeks of parental leave to be taken anytime during the first year following birth or adoption.
The reality is parents’ needs are so individual–and they change over time.
Often, the costs and challenges of being a parent start before a child enters the picture. We believe that everyone should have the ability to start a family when and how they choose.
Career growth ebbs and flows, and the early parenting years can have a particular impact on career trajectory.
We have to move beyond basics like parental leave and calendar-blocking hacks to support bringing our whole selves not just to work but to life. I may be unable to do anything about your baby waking up during the night or your teenager’s attitude problem. But if we can help our employees feel supported as a colleague and as a parent, I’ll take that as a step in the right direction.
