Four Virginia-based employers named to Working Mother’s Best Companies

Working Mother magazine has named four Virginia-based employers to its latest 100 Best Companies list, which it has published since 1986.

The Virginia companies on the 2015 list were Richmond-based Bon Secours Virginia Health System and Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One Financial and Freddie Mac, which are all based in McLean.

The 2015 Working Mother 100 Best Companies application included more than 450 questions on leave policies, workforce representation, benefits, child care, advancement programs and flexibility policies. The magazine says it gave particular weight to representation of women, advancement programs and flextime.

Bon Secours Health System, a hospital and health-care company, was highlighted for having three on-site day care centers; local child-care discounts, and subsidized sick-child and backup care.

Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton was lauded for its initiative, Women’s Agenda, which helped women at the company earn 51 percent of available principal promotions in 2014.

Banking company Capital One offers associates flex-options, work-from-home positions and subsidized backup care.

Mortgage firm Freddie Mac has three weeks of paid paternity leave and recently launched a Working Parents resource group, which has over 270 members.

The magazine notes that in 1986, women represented an average of 33 percent of the total workforce and 26 percent of managers. Today, women make up 46 percent of the workforce and 43 percent of managers, on average.

“The 30th class of winning companies has raised the bar higher than ever when it comes to supporting parents,” Working Mother said in its introduction to its 2015 list. “New moms get an average of eight weeks of fully paid maternity leave, three quarters of employees use flextime, and almost half of all new hires last year were women.”