I wrote a blog about the businesses that were nationally recognized as being adoption friendly. If your business is not adoption friendly you can talk with your supervisor or human resources department about making changes to company policy.

How do you find out if your company is adoption friendly? Start with your human resources department. If you are a large enough company, you should have an employee manual that will outline all employee benefits, paid leave, and other things you will want to know.

Keep in mind that companies may not be ready to make a radical change in their policies, and depending on what the financial position of the company is, it may not be feasible. You may want to start with a small request.

Host an adoption education night – This is something your company can do for little or no money, and without much commitment from them. If your company has no adoption benefits or policy right now, this might be a easy way to start and get a feel for the atmosphere from fellow employees and your employers.

Adoption grants or funding – The nationally recognized companies offer some kind of adoption grants, funding for employees, or reimbursement. The amount varies from company to company. One of the rules is to ask high and negotiate down. This will, again, depend on the level your company is at. If you don’t have benefits in place right now, asking for a $20,000 grant may be a bit high. See what kind of feel you can get for where the company is at financially, if there is a large interest in adoption from other employees, and quickly that money might be gone through. This may also depend on the size of your company.

Paid leave – The top nationally recognized company offers sixteen weeks of paid leave. They are a very rare exception. You can start negotiating at sixteen and be prepared to accept four to eight weeks, which is more along the average.

Day care – Does your company currently offer any day care services on site? This may be something that they are more willing to do rather than something that is strictly adoption based. This can benefit virtually any employee. It can end up saving them money when employees don’t have to miss work because a day care provider or babysitter is sick.

Advocate for what you can get. Remember that everyone has to start somewhere. You’re probably not going to go from no benefits to being one of the top rated companies, but at least get the information out there and get people thinking.

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