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Microsoft announced that it will be requiring its suppliers to provide their employees with paid parental leave. Expanding on a 2015 initiative to only work with companies offering paid time off, this new effort will see Microsoft help their suppliers implement parental leave policies over the course of the next year. Microsoft’s partners will be required to grant employees at least 12 weeks of paid parental leave, after they give birth to or adopt a child. The electronics behemoth cited Washington state’s recently-announced parental leave policies, as well as increased morale and productivity among both men and women, as inspiring the requirement.

Your internal culture is now both a core part of your external brand and the new frontier in ethical business. Two powerful yet challenging truths for any organization. We’ve looked at length in GLASS BOX BRANDS at why these shifts are happening: radical transparency, the quest for meaningful consumerism, and most urgently the rising fear of automation (the robots are coming for affluent professionals next).

Three areas to discuss with your team:

- This isn’t a trend you can sit out. Edelman reports that a company’s stance on social issues will make or break the decision to purchase for 57% of global consumers, with 30% buying or boycotting more than three years ago. Consumers expect brands to be proactive. If not parental leave, is there another social issue that your brand can set expectations around?

- Dev Stahlkopf, Microsoft’s general counsel, said, “we understand this may increase our costs, and we think that’s well worth the price.” Which causes are you prepared to take a short-term hit on in your pursuit of long-term value?   

- Boosting benefits for those you employ is a start. But why stop at the walls of your organization? Truly progressive companies will look to have a positive impact even beyond their own employees. Regular readers will remember startup Allbirds open-sourcing its sustainable soles. How can your brand do the same, regardless of your size?