PenguinSmart joins HR Management Expo in Las Vegas to advocate for broader employee support

On the sidelines of the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) Annual Conference and Expo in Las Vegas, PenguinSmart met with insurers, brokers, and benefits providers to explore ways to include children with special needs in employee assistance and wellness programs.

Alex Chang, PenguinSmart VP of Product and Services said the discussions are taking place as significantly more employers offer various family support and leave benefits, based on the latest SHRM Employee Benefits Survey results released at the conference, attended by over 25,000 HR managers from around the world.

“A big theme on the expo floor is the EAP (Employee Assistance Programs) and wellness programs where many companies are finding a competitive advantage in presenting a broader EAP to their employees. Potential partners were eager to learn about PenguinSmart's role in this narrative, which includes parental wellness, pediatric health, and family wellness,” Chang said.

“Part of the overall wellness of workers can be traced to their families. For example, parents caring for their children with special needs often experience higher levels of anxiety and depression, along with an increase in absenteeism. This is where PenguinSmart comes in, offering tailor-fitted support for the development of their children using data analytics,” Chang noted.

Meanwhile, Alex Alonso, SHRM chief knowledge officer said in a press release said that in today’s job market, employer-sponsored benefits act as a key recruitment tool, but they’re also pivotal to the employee experience, and thus to retention, satisfaction, and engagement.

“Employers are listening to their employees about their wants and needs, but also the needs of their families, as shown by the increase in family support benefits and the emergence of paid travel expenses for medical care,” Alonzo said.

Former President Bill Clinton headlined the conference’s main stage where he touched on the Family and Medical Leave Act, which he signed into law in 1993. The law allows workers for companies with more than 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to bond with a new child, address a serious health condition, or care for an ailing relative, without the risk of job loss. Washington celebrated the measure’s 30th anniversary earlier this year.

About PenguinSmartPenguinSmart, founded by a Harvard-MIT couple, brings together HealthTech and a social mission. Our team combines cutting-edge data sciences with expert insights to empower parents as active participants in their children's development journey. By integrating effective communication techniques into daily life, we have witnessed accelerated and sustained improvement in children, surpassing the progress achieved through weekly speech therapy alone (in some cases 2-3 times faster). As an Alchemist Accelerator-backed social enterprise, PenguinSmart was nominated for the global "Top 100 Healthcare Visionaries" award in 2021. However, our greatest reward comes from our clients, who consistently rate us highly (4.8 out of 5 stars), driving our unwavering commitment to helping every child and family reach their life potential, regardless of their starting point.