Plante & Moran’s Grand Rapids, Mich., office was honored with a Huntington Pillar Award from the Women’s Resource Center yesterday for their progressive workplace policies and practices.
Annually bestowed to West Michigan employers who empower women on the job, Plante & Moran was chosen for its emphasis on work-life balance and “intentionally creating policies and a culture that keeps their staff happy.”
“We are extremely pleased to receive a Pillar Award from the Women’s Resource Center in recognition of our workplace policies,” said Rich Antonini, office managing partner, in a statement. “As our firm co-founder Frank Moran was fond of saying, ‘the whole person comes to work.’ In the 1980s, as more women began entering the accounting profession – and then leaving as they started families – we began to develop initiatives that would address their needs.”
According to Plante & Moran, the firm’s Personal Tightrope Action Committee (PTA) offers family-friendly tools, policies and programs, including:
• generous parental leave of absence policy • liberal paid time off
• free seasonal on-site childcare
• expanded part-time work opportunities
• non-traditional careers policy that allows staff with nontraditional schedule to remain on promotion and partnership track
• PTA buddy program between expectant mothers and parents
• PTA handbook for expectant parents navigating firm policy
• adoption benefits
• partner sabbaticals
“Today, half of our team in Grand Rapids are women – the majority of them women with families,” Antonini continued. “We recognize the importance of programs that allow all our staff to achieve a true balance between work and home, and very much appreciate this recognition from the Women’s Resource Center.”
The Women’s Resource Center is a Grand Rapids nonprofit working to improve economic opportunities for women through mentoring, resume-building and career-planning services.