November is recognized as Adoption Awareness Month in the United States. In this episode, we speak with BenefitBump’s founding Adoption Specialist – Rachel Steele. She walks us through the long and complex process that adoptive families face, and provides rich discussion and actionable tips for employers seeking to better support adoptive parents in their workplaces.

October is Perinatal & Infant Loss Awareness Month. To honor these families, we are speaking with Stefani Huey, a mental health practitioner and specialized coordinator for perinatal and infant loss with Postpartum Support International. Stefani digs into the unique type of grief and isolation that impacts families who have experienced perinatal or infant loss. She provides actionable considerations and changes that managers and workplace leaders can take to be sensitive and inclusive to grieving parents.

This month, we speak with Lori Michalich-Levin, the founder and CEO of Mindful Return, author of Back to Work After Baby: How to Plan and Navigate a Mindful Return from Maternity Leave, and co-host of the Parents at Work Podcast. We discuss what workplace leaders can do to support new or expecting parents in the workplace, the unexpected and unique ways that parents can enhance your company's value, and the mindset shifts that all of us (not just parents!) should adopt as we re-enter the workplace following COVID shutdowns.

This month we are emphasizing and celebrating the LGBTQ population in the workplace. We are joined today by Dan Merkan from JASMYN, a Florida-based organization that supports and empowers LGBTQ young people by creating safe space, providing health and wholeness services, and offering youth development opportunities, while bringing people and resources together to promote equity and human rights. Dan speaks with us about how policy impacts workplace culture and creates inclusivity and safety for LGBTQ employees.

In this episode, we spotlight Plante Moran, a public accounting, tax, consulting and wealth management firm that has gone above and beyond is supporting the emotional wellbeing of new parents, working parents, and all employees. Wendy Morga, HR Director of Client Delivery at Plante Moran, joins us to discuss how family-friendly benefits and self-care for all employees are intertwined in the culture and daily operations of the firm. She outlines some larger, systemic changes that companies can make to support employees’ mental health, as well as small, free changes that make a big impact.

In our debut episode, we discuss the personal and professional experiences that led Suzy Clausen and her co-founders to start BenefitBump. We also talk about what helps (or hurts) new parents in the workforce and the importance of supporting initiatives around working parents and mental health in the workplace. Finally, Suzy outlines some actionable strategies to help leaders build a case for supporting working parents’ emotional health in the workplace.