Citizens Bank has been named America’s most adoption-friendly workplace by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The adopted children of Gary Cuccia, who works for a financial advisor subsidiary of Citizens, are (from left): Michael, Sarah and Bridget. At far right is Cuccia’s biological son, Kyle, and at far left is Simba, the family dog. Michael was adopted last year with help from the Citizens Adoption Assistance Program.
Its wish to be known as “the best place to work in the world” was behind Citizens Financial Group’s decision to offer $21,000 and paid time off to every employee who adopts a child.
And according to one expert, the Providence, R.I.-based bank holding company – which has $161 billion in assets and oversees more than 1,500 branches, including 260 in Massachusetts – is probably also reaching out to the under-40 workforce: It is seeking to attract both those who value the “social statement” made by adoption and those who actually would like to adopt a child, as well as compete with the nation’s other largest companies by offering a benefit that’s becoming more common in the Fortune 500 set.
“Citizens Bank has more than 26,000 employees, which means they don’t just compete with other banks, but with other industries,” explained Wellesley bank strategist Jim Jones, owner of First Wellesley Consulting.
Whatever the reasons, the 10-year-old benefit hasn’t only helped 100 Citizens employees in 13 states to adopt more than 100 children since it was instituted. In April, it earned the bank top honors from the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption as America’s most adoption-friendly workplace.
Citizens offers more financial reimbursement to employees who adopt than any other employer on the list (most offer $10,000). One week of paid leave, compared to most employers’ two, also is included.
Wendy’s Old-Fashioned Hamburgers founder Dave Thomas, who was adopted, formed the foundation in 1992. The Adoption-Friendly Workplace campaign, which encourages employers to add the benefit, is one of its signature programs, meant to aid in its mission “to assure that every child has a permanent home and a loving family.”
Gary Cuccia, a senior vice president and chief financial officer of CCO Investment Services Corp., a financial advisor subsidiary of Citizens, only started working for Citizens a year ago but already has adopted a 12-year-old son, Michael, from China with the company’s assistance.
“It was kind of a surprising benefit to me,” confessed Cuccia, 53, who with his wife – a nursing instructor presently on leave from work – has four children, three of them adopted. Michael’s adoption had been in process since 2005.
The Cuccias’ two younger daughters, Sarah and Bridget, were adopted when he worked for two other financial services companies, in New York and San Francisco, which did not offer a benefit. The couple also has a 12-year-old biological son, Kyle.
Cuccia said he considers himself lucky, financially – as a senior-level employee, he explains, he didn’t need the cash portion of Citizens’ benefit for the immediate costs of executing the international adoption, which cost $22,000. Instead, he started a college fund for his newest child. He used the paid leave to travel overseas with his wife to bring Michael home.
For someone in a more entry-level job, he suggested, the benefit could make the difference between being able to adopt or not.
And while getting adjusted to each time a new child joins the family, whether by birth or adoption, is a big deal, Cuccia added, all of their children have taught the family something new and added joy at unexpected moments.
Cuccia and his wife also know they’ve helped three children who otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance. For example, Michael, who had lived in an orphanage for most of his life before moving in with the Cuccias, never had anyone who cared how well he did in school before his new parents did.
Since his wife is taking a year off from her job to help the family settle in at their home in Medfield – where moved last year – Cuccia said he hasn’t needed much extra or flexible time off to care for Michael or the other children.
But the bank tries to be “reasonable” with all staff requests for time with family, he said.
Joan Clark, executive director of the Adoption Community of New England, a 40-year-old nonprofit organization based in Westborough, said the Dave Thomas Foundation is known as the entity that “really got the workplace adoption benefits idea going.”
Clark said the fact that Citizens, a regional bank, earned the award from the national foundation is significant.
Arthur Warren, a bank compensation and benefits consultant based in Walpole, added that an adoption benefit is still a relatively rare find, but said Citizens is seen as “extremely competitive” and “tough in the marketplace” in terms of its effort to attract and retain employees.
ACNE hopes more businesses will consider offering an adoption benefit because, Clark said, it helps equalize costs for all employees who want to have children.
“What many people don’t realize is that any company that has health insurance is helping families to be formed by birth,” she explained.
Jones said larger companies in all industries are, in fact, starting to “consider the idea of parity” between birth and adoptive families, but said he didn’t see any cost-benefit reason for smaller companies to jump on the bandwagon yet.
Citizens, on the other hand, has made a benefits decision that probably hasn’t cost the bank much – given the number of employees who have used it – but has earned it plenty in goodwill, he said.
Other financial services companies among the top 10 firms honored by the Dave Thomas Adoption-Friendly Workplace were New York City-based JPMorgan Chase (No. 4), Kansas City, Mo.-based American Century Investments (No. 6) and mortgage loan guarantor Fannie Mae (No. 7). One other Massachusetts business, South Mountain Co., a 30-employee architectural design and building company based on Martha’s Vineyard, was No. 8 on the list.
