Working Parent Support

The rise of hybrid work means that work-life lines are blurred, and businesses must consider how they make their workplaces inclusive for employees with care responsibilities. Promisingly, some of Australia's most significant companies strive to support their employees' professional and personal obligations and set standards for flexible work, parental leave, family care and well-being. 

It's clear that a compelling paid parental leave policy is a must for employers looking to attract and retain great people amid such a tight talent market. Parental leave must be available to new parents without outdated primary and secondary care stigma and accessed irrespective of gender. It's also essential for employers to have compassion for employees who experience pregnancy loss, perinatal and postnatal anxiety and depression. It's no longer acceptable to offer slapdash support to parents.

Best-practice minimum parental leave requirements for employers

• Guaranteeing a parental leave policy that considers gender, pregnancy loss, perinatal and postnatal anxiety and depression
• Making sure that support exists to support employees throughout parental and care leave
• Ensuring that leaders can manage leave requests and make an easy and empathetically return to work 

Already QBE Insurance, KPMG, Deloitte, ING Australia, Novartis and Medibank are leading the change by offering flexible, gender-neutral, label-free policies and return-to-work support for their employees. 

Deloitte Australia removed primary and secondary carer labels. It offered 18 weeks' paid leave, including superannuation, that can be taken flexibly over 36 months, with partners being able to take the leave simultaneously. It also offers transitional support and coaching sessions for those leaving and returning to work. Additionally, Deloitte announced auxiliary enhancements to its parental leave policy by offering 12 months' support payment and revised performance targets for parents returning to work.

QBE Insurance offers a wide-ranging paid leave option for parental leave. Interestingly, it reported a 300 per cent rise in men taking the leave. It's clear that employees feel supported and confident in sharing their needs with the family-friendly organisation. Having gender-equal policies, QBE drives positive change at an individual and company level. 

Support 

Until recently, support for carers has been severely lacking. One in 11 people in Australia are carers; that's 2.65 million people. They must be supported in the workplace. 55 per cent of Australia's HR Institute's partner companies have committed to formalising a carer's policy or extending their current provisions as part of their ongoing commitment to supporting their workforce. KPMG, PEXA, Workday and Endeavour Energy already have essential policies in place, including:

• Having a comprehensive carers policy in place 
• Ensuring provisions are promoted
• Supporting employees in an emergency
• Communicating and ensuring breastfeeding support is in place
• Empathetically supporting employees 

PEXA, the electronic conveyancing firm, provides benefits programmes for parents, including AU$1,000 each month supporting the cost of childcare. It also offers various school holiday activity programmes run by teachers in the training room for children. KPMG runs a virtual holiday programme to support its working parents and carers during the holiday period.

Workday stands out from the crowd with its policies. Workday provides its carers with half of their pay for 12 weeks in case of an emergency and family-wide health insurance to all its employees. It also offers onsite childcare and mental and well-being support. 

Flexible work strategies

In 2019, the Australia HR Institute released the National Working Families Report that revealed over half of 6,300 participants said they felt their employer questioned their commitment to their job if they used family-friendly work arrangements. It's clear that there is a need for greater flexibility and support for employees with care commitments with the minimum requirements, including:

• Flexible work policies and frameworks
• Adaptable work is supported
• Provision of technology tools to enable flexible work
• Leaders can manage flexible workplaces and forces 

Post-pandemic flexibility is paramount. ING Australia has a progressive, flexible work policy called 'FlexING', which accommodates flexible start and finish times to manage nursery or school pick-ups. Recently, Randstad RiseSmart introduced its 'flex from anywhere' policy that allows its employees to work remotely globally for up to eight weeks per year.

Well-being support

It’s time for organisations to understand the pervasiveness of violence within Australian homes and provide necessary leave and support services when needed. 34 per cent of the Australia HR Institute partner companies are already working on updating their policies to recognise family mental health needs. Minimum requirements necessary include:

• Offering support to employees and their families
• Promoting positive physical and mental health and financial well-being
• A responsive plan in place for family and domestic abuse and violence 
• Provide education to leaders to support family policies and practices

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has strong policies regarding stillbirth, infant loss, parenting-related anxiety and depression, and domestic and family violence. HESTA invests in programmes to support families, gender equality, parents and carers throughout the various stages. Microsoft offers neurodiversity support to its practices, including counselling for parents with neurodiverse children.

Care

People want to work for organisations that care about them and their family responsibilities outside of work. Genuine care has an impact on employees’ health and well-being and, therefore, the well-being of all manner of businesses.