For the third consecutive year, the nonprofit initiative Family Friendly New Mexico has awarded Sandia a New Mexico Family Friendly Business Award, Platinum Level (Distinguished Leader). This is the highest level of recognition for businesses that have policies in the categories of paid leave, health support, work schedules and economic support. Platinum recipients must also offer a minimum leave benefit, comply with the New Mexico Fair Pay for Women Act and have at least one policy in each of the new categories: pay equity, diversity and inclusion, and community investment.
“We are honored to receive this top-level recognition from Family Friendly New Mexico for our workplace policies,” Mary Romero Hart, senior manager of Benefits, said. “This award highlights Sandia’s ongoing and renewed commitment to these principles with our focus on expanded work-from-home and paid-leave options offered to employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Sandia offers competitive and generous paid-leave options that employees can use for their own health, to care for family members, enjoy vacations and holidays — including a weeklong energy-saving shutdown at the end of the year — and give back to the community. During the pandemic, Sandia temporarily expanded paid leave ordinarily taken to care for ill family members to also include taking care of children when schools or day cares closed. Later, Sandia implemented a special vacation donation program to provide financial relief for those who needed additional time off to care for dependents, military members with extended obligations or employees who exhausted their sickness absence due to COVID-19.
Sandia also has on-site and virtual health services that support physical and emotional well-being through coaching, incentive programs, fitness classes and health care benefits. Flexible work options, such as the 9/80 or 4/10 work schedules, telecommuting and virtual work, provide employees the flexibility to balance life outside of work. Financial wellness resources include retirement benefits, pretax spending accounts and a month-long financial wellness fair to help with financial planning. Sandia also has a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion and offers a variety of employee resource groups for the workforce to participate in, such as the Sandia Parents Group that aims to foster a culture of work-life balance, build personal and professional relationships and give back to Sandia and local communities.
The New Mexico Family Friendly Business Award was formed by the Task Force on Work-Life Balance. The program recognizes New Mexico employers that offer family-friendly employee benefits and works to increase the number of businesses with family centered policies available to the workforce.