One on One with Deloitte's Deepa Purushothaman

Traditional workplace and family dynamic norms are changing rapidly. More men are looking to take a hands-on role at home after the birth of a child than ever before, and the generational shift in the workplace means more younger workers will be taking care of their aging parents. In response to these changes, Deloitte has announced a sweeping new Family Leave Program that gives workers up to 16 weeks of paid leave for everything ranging from childbirth to caring for aging parents or grandparents to taking care of a sick spouse or child. It's a dramatic shift in longstanding paid leave policies and the first of its kind for professional services. Consulting caught up with Deepa Purushothaman, National Managing Director of WIN, Deloitte's Women's Initiative to discuss the new program.

Consulting: How did the new family leave program come to be and why did Deloitte take the lead?

Purushothaman: It came about in a number of ways. We don't have a product in consulting—our product is our people—so we're making sure they're well taken care of and that we're hearing about their needs. From a business perspective, we believe this is a business issue we have to solve, because when we solve for it we're going to be able to attract and retain the best people. In June, around Father's Day, we did a parental survey. A lot of the feedback that came through that research suggested strongly that leave and caregiving were huge issues that affected a lot of people. Those two things happening together led us to want to really make a difference in the space, so people could be their best selves at home, which allows them to be their best selves at work, and that this was a growing issue not just for our women but for our men, too.  The need to take care of not only our children but our parents, those issues are increasing for our generation, and so we really thought it was important to put something out there that was in the best interest of our people.