Why employee-led groups are ‘crucial’ for recruitment and retention at Indeed

Priya Rathod was drawn to work at Indeed in 2016 because of the benefits and flexibility the company was offering. But after working there for a few years, the mom of two young kids, at the time, felt something was missing.

In 2020, while commiserating with a colleague about the trials of being a working parent, she wondered why Indeed’s nine inclusion business resource groups (IBRGs), which included those for members of the LGBTQ community and Black and Asian employees, didn’t include one for parents or caregivers.

Once Indeed created the new parent and caregiver IBRG in late 2020, Rathod said she joined as a member, later taking the helm as co-lead in 2022, a position she’s held since.

“Our job at the parents and caregivers IBRG is not only to normalize being a parent and create safe spaces where people can talk about what it’s like to be a parent, but also to create opportunities and advocate for policy at the company,” she told HR Brew.

Big parents and caregivers vibe. The parents and caregivers IBRG counts 2,000 of Indeed’s 11,000 employees among its members, making it one of the largest groups in the program, Rathod said. Since the group’s establishment, members have advocated for change at Indeed, including for its parental leave policy to be non-gendered and expanded from four to six months; these changes went into effect in November 2022.

“If you think about it, in your life at some point, we’re all going to be, if not parents, we’re likely going to be caregivers,” Rathod said.

Rathod, a workplace trends editor who has worked in various departments at the company, said she’s stayed for over a decade because of the remote work flexibility and benefits. She said she’s particularly grateful for the virtual healthcare with Maven and backup childcare through Bright Horizons, especially as she’s grown her family to three children.

“Things like that create an environment in which you have some support from your company to deal with everything you’re dealing with as a parent and an employee,” she said. “Particularly at Indeed, where the demographics show that we have quite a few parents, it’s great to see that they’re backing it up with benefits.”

Supporting IBRGs is good for R&R…recruitment and retention, that is. Jessica Hardeman, Indeed’s global head of attraction and engagement, who oversees the IBRG program, told HR Brew that these groups are “crucial and paramount” to the company’s recruitment and retention strategy.

Parents and caregivers often face a higher risk of burnout and higher rates of stress, and are caring for loved ones before themselves, which can impact how they show up to work, she said. And, when companies don’t support these workers through benefits and flexibility, they can be at risk of leaving the workforce at higher rates than their non-caregiver counterparts.

“We see all these things that are happening outside of Indeed…come into Indeed because [its] impacting their ability to give,” Hardeman said. “With women, we see that remote work, flexible hours, parental leave, childcare support, dependent care support, like all of those things, are critical to enabling women to work in the workforce.”

IBRGs can help keep these employees engaged, Hardeman said. As a job-search platform, she said Indeed’s marketing and product development teams often tap IBRG co-leads and group members to provide insights and feedback on what is and isn’t working.

Involving these groups in the decision-making process can help connect them to the company’s mission, she said. Whether it’s giving feedback on a marketing campaign or the accessibility and branding of Indeed’s website, Hardeman said these opportunities help improve Indeed’s product, while connecting IBRG members to new opportunities and connections across the company.

“When we do things designed with these populations in mind…we create an opportunity and an environment for employees to be more resilient, to feel safe, and to have that psychological safety, and we know that impacts wellbeing fundamentally,” she said.