SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Bobbie, the only infant formula company in the U.S. founded and led by moms, is proud to be recognized by FastCompany as one of the Best Workplaces for Innovators, as a standout in the Women Innovators category; and chosen by Fortune Magazine as one of the Best Small & Medium Workplaces. Bobbie is also proud to be Certified™ by Great Place to Work® for the second year in a row. 98% of employees at Bobbie say it is a great place to work compared to 57% of employees at a typical U.S.-based company.
Fast Company's fourth annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list honors organizations and businesses that demonstrate a steadfast commitment to encouraging innovation at all levels. Bobbie was named an honoree on the Women Innovators list for its dedication to creating a best-in-class workplace for women, going above and beyond performative activism to achieve gender equity through a culture of innovation.
“There's a myth that startups can't possibly create meaningful support structures for parents – we’ve set out to disprove that from day one with initiatives like our 12 month leave policy for birthing and non-birthing parents, balance coordinator, remote work culture, and unique mom-founded and parent-led team,” said Sarah Hardy, Bobbie Co-Founder and COO. “Creating a new type of workplace for working parents is in our DNA–we’re nearly 90% women and 78% parents (half of which had a pandemic baby)–and it’s something we’re constantly building upon and expanding. As a company that launched during the pandemic, we’re committed to creating an environment where parents of young children can thrive professionally, even in the hardest of times.”
Among other first-of-their-kind benefits, Bobbie’s parental leave policy, also known as TakeOurLeave, offers birthing and non-birthing parents up to 12 months of leave to bond with their baby. As a 70-person startup, Bobbie’s policy is setting a new standard for parental leave in the U.S. for a company of their size. Knowing that just 15% of companies with 99 or fewer employees have access to employer-provided paid leave (Source: Department of Labor), Bobbie open sourced the policy to challenge other startups to follow suit in April 2022, and since, has been downloaded more than 600 times. Since establishing TakeOurLeave, the average parental leave among Bobbie employees has increased by two months – from four months to six months.
"This year's list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators recognizes organizations that have demonstrated a deep commitment to cultivating creativity across the board," says Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. "In the face of powerful headwinds, these leaders and teams continue to spur innovation."
Bobbie understands that all employees – working parents or not – carry the invisible weight of a mental load and neverending to-do list. In an effort to alleviate that load, the company offers a unique, dedicated Balance Coordinator to support all team members with tasks completely unrelated to work, like finding a weekend babysitter or dog walker. Bobbie also celebrates all pregnancy announcements, empathizes with pregnancy loss with a miscarriage leave, and has embraced being 100% remote with schedule flexibility for parents.
“It’s not the size of an organization that makes it great, but how the organization treats its people,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “And these small workplaces have proven that the inspiring cultures they’ve created go head-to-head with those of any large corporation. Leaders at these companies put their people first, and in return, achieve stronger business results than the average workplace.”
To see the complete lists, go to: https://www.fastcompany.com/best-workplaces-for-innovators/list and https://www.greatplacetowork.com/best-workplaces/small/2022.
About Bobbie
Bobbie is a USDA Organic Infant Formula company that exists to build a parenting culture of confidence, not comparison, where every parent is supported in the feeding choice that is right for them and their baby. Bobbie launched in 2021 as the first direct-to-consumer, subscription-based infant formula in the U.S. Founded by Laura Modi and Sarah Hardy, Bobbie is the only mom-founded and led infant formula in the country and the fastest growing infant formula to enter the U.S. market since the 1980’s. Bobbie’s recipe is modeled after breastmilk and designed to meet the most recent EU nutritional standards for critical ingredients like DHA and iron, while also complying with all FDA nutritional standards for infant formula. Bobbie is focused on providing a purposefully sourced, USDA Organic infant formula with Organic Valley milk from pasture raised cows. It was the first-ever infant formula to receive the Clean Label Project Purity Award and certification as a Pesticide-Free Product. Bobbie was founded in 2018, is based in San Francisco, and is venture-backed. For more information on Bobbie, visit www.hibobbie.com, and follow Bobbie on Instagram @bobbie.
