NAB, ANZ and Vodafone have all announced groundbreaking policies this week around paid parental leave and flexible work.
NAB has extended paid parental leave to fathers and adoptive parents. Vodafone announced a complete overhaul of its paid parental leave policy as well as announcing new domestic violence leave policies. ANZ also announced that 30,000 of its roles will now be made flexible.
NAB will now offer 12 weeks paid leave or 24 weeks at half pay to fathers and any non-birth parents and carers. Previously, NAB offered 12 weeks paid leave, but only to primary carers; predominantly mothers.
This was extended from 6 weeks to 12 weeks in 2006. Until last week, this primary carers leave was only available for the very first 12 weeks of a child’s life. Now, however, the bank has changed its policy to allow both carers to take paid parental leave any time in 12 months after the child is born.
Importantly, this means parents can take consecutive leave, thereby extending the time a child can be cared for at home by a parent before requiring external childcare.
Mike Seymour, a lawyer for NAB, told Fairfax Media he plans to take his newly afforded primary carer’s leave when his wife returns to work after having their son.
“Yas’ parental leave will expire when Artie is just over 10 months old,” he said.
“By staying home, I can share more of the parenting load and we won’t have to put him into childcare until he turns one.”
NAB is the first major bank to introduce such a policy. The majority of other big banks offer paid leave to primary carers and a very short amount of paid leave to co-parents.
NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn said the new policy was introduced in order to reflect changing parenting roles and better engage women in the workforce.
“We recognise the benefit of tapping into the full range of talent that exists in our society,” he said.
“There’s a competitive differentiation for those organisations that do improve in diversity.”
The policy change comes out of a three-part research series developed by NAB’s economic team that looks into how employees balance work and family life.
The team’s research thus far has shown that 60% of fathers surveyed wanted to spend more time with their young children, and 45% wanted the chance to play a bigger role in their child’s upbringing.
The research also found that 25% of couples are sharing domestic duties 50/50 – including caring for young children.
NAB Group Executive Michaela Healey said the research and the policy reflect changing attitudes to gender-based family roles.
“Every family is different, but the presumption that mothers are exclusively looking after the children and running the household is clearly outdated in the modern family,” she said.
“Parenting is not a women’s issue, it is a parenting issue. Everyone has the right to a challenging and rewarding career — and a key part of supporting women to realise their potential lies in enabling men on the domestic front.”
Vodafone’s sweeping new leave policies include allowing employees to return to work after having a child four days a week and be paid for five, increasing the paid parental leave period from 14 weeks to 16 weeks for primary caregivers, and offering 10 extra days leave for employees who are victims of domestic violence.
“Returning to work after a period of parental leave can be challenging. To help parents with this transition we’re allowing primary caregivers to work four days per week, but still receive five days’ pay for six months,” said CEO Inaki Berroeta.
“By extending the level of support available to employees both on paid parental leave and on their return to work, we hope parents will be able to better balance their work, family and financial commitments.”
In regards to the new domestic violence leave policy, Berroeta said: “It is important employees experiencing assault or abuse know they’re being supported by Vodafone.”
“These additional days of leave will give employees the flexibility to attend medical, counselling and legal appointments and make arrangements to ensure their safety.”
Vodafone has also made its new paidparental leave a group policy, meaning the company is now among the first companies to introduce a global minimum standard for parental leave.
ANZ’s Mike Smith said he is committed to making his new flexible work policy work at all levels.
“We will all adopt a ‘can-do’ attitude to making this work wherever possible and at all levels,” he said in an email to staff.
“We will actively dismantle any perceived career barrier linked to working flexibly.”
Smith, a Male Champion of Change, says he wants flexible work to become the “norm” at ANZ.