Articles

HCC once again designated as Best Place for Working Parents employer

Feb 15, 2023

For the second straight year, Houston Community College has received Best Place for Working Parents Designation.

The honor comes from Best Place for Working Parents, a national collaborative and network of businesses across the U.S. dedicated to providing support for working parents through evidence-based strategies. To earn the distinction, employers must respond to an online assessment that details their support of family-friendly policies.

"We are delighted to once again be listed as one of the Best Place for Working Parents among Houston businesses,” said Izzy Anderson, J.D., vice chancellor, Talent Engagement and chief human resources officer for the HCC system. “We strive to support the needs of working parents through instituting family-friendly policies and practices to ensure our faculty and staff have the flexibility they need to thrive.”

Anderson cited HCC’s additional pluses, including recently increasing maximum vacation rollover hours from 80 to 200 hours, the creation of a remote work regulation accessible to employees and multiple extensions beyond expiration of the federal regulations to an HCC-specific COVID leave policy. This has reduced negative impacts to employee sick and vacation leave banks. HCC also has onsite, subsidized day care available to faculty and staff.

In general, HCC also provides generous paid time off and sick leave. Each year, the college has up to 27 paid holidays for its fulltime, benefits-eligible employees. Included in that number is a winter break of 10 days and a Spring break of five days for its approximately 5,400 employees. The college recently increased its Thanksgiving holiday period from two days to a full week.

Policies such as these help the economy thrive at a time when the U.S. has seen a huge decline in workplace participation. The consulting firm McKinsey reported that more than 15 million U.S. workers have quit their jobs since April 2021. About 45 percent of workers surveyed said the main cause for leaving was the need to take care of their families.