The world of work has been transformed by digitalisation, remote working and flexibility, but is there more work to be done in modernising family leave policies?
Every country takes a different approach to family leave, with some regions recognising a wide spectrum of parents that include fathers, adoptees, foster carers and cases in which a child has been lost, whereas others may only acknowledge the rights of the birth mother.
The length of leave also varies from country to country, with Ireland offering 26 paid weeks of maternity leave plus the option of 16 further weeks unpaid, compared to the US which has no national maternal leave policy, though the Family and Medical Leave Act directs 12 weeks of unpaid leave for federal, state and certain private company employees. The World Health Organization recommends that maternity leave be at least 18 weeks and that the payment should match the person’s previous earnings.
There are many benefits for a business in enacting a robust family leave policy that transcend company and country.
For example, time off prior to the birth of a child, as well as the post-birth period is important for the mother’s physical and mental health. It also allows parents time to bond with their newborn and acclimate to the immense changes in their lives. Employers may find it builds trust, creating a happy company culture and even positively contributing to employee retention.
For Deborah Hanus, the CEO and co-founder of Sparrow, an end-to-end leave management provider, companies need to accept the modernisation of the workplace and adopt parental leave policies that reflect changing attitudes and hierarchies.
“Companies with outdated leave policies, particularly those that use gendered language like ‘maternity’ and ‘paternity’ risk employee attrition, due to the difficult situations that arise from the inflexible policy and even claims of discrimination,” Hanus told SiliconRepublic.com.
“For example, if a company offers a longer maternity leave than a paternity leave, what happens if two men have a child together? Will they have less leave than two women who have a child together? An inflexible and outdated policy can create very complicated situations very quickly.”
It takes a village
Earlier this week Ireland issued Budget 2025, which included an increase in maternity, paternity, adoptive and parents’ payments.
According to Hanus, while inadequate and underfunded childcare is often regarded as a problem that solely affects parents or guardians, at its core it is far more complex. She finds it to be an economic issue that often forces people, particularly single parents, who may be skilled and competent employees, to leave the workforce.
As noted by Hanus, families and the resources available to them differ, however, global research has indicated that childcare costs in many regions, for example, the US, Switzerland and the UK, are becoming increasingly more costly.
“Childcare needs to be thought of as an economic issue first and foremost. In the US, most economic issues get the attention of federal policymakers and I think this is actually the level on which America’s childcare issues should be addressed.
“Certainly, if political leaders do not acknowledge childcare as an economic issue, others will need to. This likely means that employers pick up the slack first, and anything that the employer cannot pick up, the individual is left to manage for themselves, given their personal resources and community.”
A path forward
“If an employer wants to take a lead in supporting their employees and caregivers, there are several things that they can do,” explains Hanus.
The most obvious is the financial support of parents and caregivers through robust parental leave policies. Additionally, employers should collect data on their employees to identify demographics in the workplace and apply the most appropriate initiatives and benefit programmes.
Employers should be flexible when possible. Businesses that claim to support DEI programmes and who seek to retain employees for years should recognise the importance of trust and understand that people’s personal lives sometimes coincide with their working lives.
Lastly, Hanus urges employers not to fill in the gaps for themselves by basing decisions solely on reports or seemingly obvious working conditions.
“For example, a manager might not invite a new parent to work on a project that involves travel. Generally, when a manager does this, they have the best of intentions – they’re trying to support their report, but if [the employee] is passed over for too many projects, eventually, that will impact the new parent’s career trajectory.”
Modernising parental leave, though tricky, is a step in the right direction. As noted by Hanus, while locking down language and limiting exceptions is crucial to avoiding discrimination, it is vital that up-to-date policies plan for everything, from traumatic miscarriages and extended hospital stays, to bonding leave for foster and surrogate parents.
“By defining policies for every situation, you can actually build a policy that is supportive of all types of families.”
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