Twice as many Canadian companies are expected to provide adoption benefits to their employees over the next three years, according to a global human resources company.
In a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, only seven per cent of Canadian companies currently offer adoption benefits to employees. However the global human resources company projects that this number will have doubled to a figure of 14 per cent by 2009.
"The trend is that these benefits are becoming more common and increasing. We see a lot more companies in the U.S. offering these kinds of benefits," Tim Clarke of Hewitt Associates told CTV's Canada AM. "We see in Canada...(adoption benefits) will double over the next three years. It's certainly a trend for more companies to do this."
Hewitt said companies are becoming increasingly willing to implement in their effort to please their employees.
"Companies are looking at a whole range of programs that can help to make work-life balance a little easier for people, " Hewitt said. "Be it on-site daycares, be it elder care support, be it the adoption benefits at KPMG. Companies are looking for ways to keep the key employers happy at work."
One employee who benefited from the increase in adoption benefits is David Downie. Downie, an employee of the large multinational accounting firm, KPMG Canada, and his wife, adopted their two-year old daughter Adele Feng Downie from the Guangdong Province of China when she was 10 months old.
After Downie and his wife decided they wanted to adopt a child, he discovered his employer could cover the cost of an adoption. Downie's overall cost totalled around $18,500.
Given the fact KPMG's adoption benefits policy earmarks $20,000 for the process, the company reimbursed all of his expenses and also gave him four-weeks of fully paid paternal leave.
For Downie, the assistance of his company helped to make the long and costly adoption process easier.
"Typically it's kind of a hard process and it's a tough climb. People get really, really frustrated," Downie told Canada AM. "You hit the end and they hand you your daughter -- so they handed us Adele -- you kinda forget about that climb when it happens. But I think what the firm did was just -- they made it easier. You didn't feel as isolated -- your employer was behind you."
KPMG is not the only company offering adoption benefits in Canada. While 30 of its employees have taken advantage of the KPMG's policy, it is also available for employees of other companies. PriceWaterhouse Coopers offers up to $10,000, IBM gives up to $1,500 a child and Ernst and Young will pay up to $5,000.
"If you look more specifically to the financial services industry and the accounting industry it is a lot more common," Clarke said. "But David's very fortunate to have the kind of support that he did."
While adoption benefits are a relatively new trend in Canadian companies, it has been on the rise in the United States for a number of years.
From 1990 to 2006, the percentage of American firms with adoption benefits climbed to 45 per cent from 12 per cent.
