Parental Leave – An Overdue Review

As we enter a new decade where same sex marriage is finally enshrined in law, IVF contributes to 25% of births, and it’s been almost ten years since the Gillard Government introduced paid parental leave, employers must review their parental leave policies. It’s time to confront and tackle stigma, discrimination and gender bias associated with caring for children and working part-time or flexibly. To ensure businesses, families and the economy thrive, there needs to be a radical response to the changing nature of modern family life and increasing care demands.

Planning a family, expecting a child, and becoming a new parent is one of life’s most challenging and stressful times. Construction is already a high risk, high pressure industry – couple that with the research that shows that 36% of fathers of newborns are more likely to have a near miss at work.

Construction industry employers must adapt to modern family life by providing entitlement options for diverse families and situations - single parents, same sex families, adoptive families and families that experience a stillbirth.

Let’s explore some ideas that go beyond providing financial entitlements for the primary care giver and cater for all family types.

Equality 

Traditionally, parental leave policies were designed for females who were typically the primary caregiver. Over time we have seen policies updated and language mature, moving from maternity leave to parental leave, introducing phrases such as primary and secondary care giver. However, the world continues to evolve and employers need to think beyond the traditional, female primary care giver.

Policies need to consider and provide options and support for:

  • Those trying to conceive and requiring medical intervention;

  • Single parents who may have conceived through donor IVF;

  • All parents, regardless of gender, as the primary care giver;

  • Adoption and surrogacy; and

  • Parents who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth and infant death.

A recent example of an employer removing this barrier and creating equality is Telstra. Telstra updated their Parental Leave Policy, removing the distinction between primary and secondary carers, which are often linked to traditional gendered roles. Their Policy now allows any parent to take 16 weeks’ paid parental leave within the first 12 months following their child’s birth.

Telstra's policy is a dream for many, particularly the construction industry. Realistically this type of policy in construction is financially and operationally unsustainable due to gender imbalance. How can employers create an environment that is inclusive and respectful of the fact employees have both work and family commitments?

Getting Creative with Policies

Seventy seven percent of working parents have reported that the amount of paid parental leave influences their choice of employer. Through my networks, I undertook some research on current policies across the construction industry. The majority of policies are one dimensional, providing paid leave to both the primary and secondary care giver, with the number of weeks varying in each organisation. Some companies are currently in the process of exploring advancements to their policies and others acknowledged that they had more work to do to diversify their policy.

Parental leave policies are not one size fits all. From an employee perspective and someone who has recently started a family, I think it would be great if employees had entitlement options to select from, rather than the traditional “paid leave”. Some specific scenarios/options that could be introduced to the construction industry include:

Option 1
Care giver entitled to a defined period of paid leave (14 weeks is typical with Tier 1 companies). This can be taken in varying ways as agreed between the employee and employer. Some examples of this include:

  • Employee receives a defined period of  paid leave and is absent from the workplace, with additional option of taking unpaid leave;

  • Employee enters into flexible working arrangements for a defined period of time for the first 12 months of their child’s life. For example, a care giver may negotiate to work half days for 3 months at full pay. How would this work? Given that work starts early in the industry, the care giver could work from 7:30am until lunch time and then head home to spend the afternoon and evening with the family.

Option 2
Care giver entitled to 12 extra carer’s leave days in the first year of their child's life. This would enable them to attend doctors' appointments, check-ups and provide support without diminishing annual leave and standard carer’s leave.
Option 3
Care giver not required to work on weekends and entitled to all RDOs in the first year of their child's life.
Option 4
Five emergency in-home back up care days per year provided to families, to be utilised when their child is sick and cannot attend childcare. This allows care givers to resume normal work duties from home or in the office while their child is cared for at home. Read more about this service here.
Option 5
Employees with a significant amount of sick leave and carer’s leave accrued able to convert 50% of this to parental leave in the first five years of their child’s life.
Option 6
A childcare subsidy and/or salary sacrifice option provided to care givers of children under five to help promote and encourage a sustainable return to work.
Option 7
Where a care giver has flexible work arrangement in place, e.g. three days per week, and is requested to attend work on a non-working day, the cost of childcare is provided (up to maximum of 12 days per year).
Option 8
A school holiday program at the workplace introduced free of charge to the children of employees. Pick one school term of the year where a school holiday program is provided at the workplace. Remove the stress and juggle for care givers. Read more about this service here.
Option 9
Unlimited EAP provided to employees and their partner who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth and infant death, plus 18 weeks paid leave, additional sick leave and flexible work arrangements over two years.
Option 10
Twelve additional sick leave/carer’s leave days for employees undergoing IVF/similar treatments and unlimited access to EAP services.
Option 11
Subsidies for cleaning and meal services provided to families when one of the care givers is required to work extraordinary hours (e.g. a request to work afternoon or night shift or conduct a regional, interstate or overseas trip).
Option 12
Twelve additional carers leave days for employees undertaking an adoption or surrogacy process.

These options are not necessarily cost significant or difficult to implement Most are extensions of offerings and entitlements already in place or offered to employees. Rather than looking at this from a cost perspective, the return on investment should be viewed from the impact such policies have on the workplace – a more engaged workforce, with employees enriched in both their home and work lives.

Raising Awareness about Perinatal Health and Wellbeing

With one in five mums and one in ten dads suffering from post-natal depression and 74% of people not seeking help until they have reached crisis point, plus 62% of parents reporting that their most challenging issue is looking after their personal, physical and mental wellbeing, it’s clear that greater emphasis and education is required around perinatal health and wellbeing.

Beyond providing entitlement options, employers need to have structured communication channels and programs in place for employees in the lead up to taking parental leave, during parental leave and once they have returned from parental leave. Some examples of this can include:

  • Formally training all people leaders in the paternal leave policy, and how to have effective, impactful conversations with employees about this. Some people may find these types of conversations uncomfortable and many may not have had to have them before. 

  • Employers could look to provide expectant parents with training and then one-on-one coaching on transitioning out of the business, remaining in contact with the business and how to return to work. The purpose of the coaching is to provide specific support to the individual as each employee’s journey is different.

  • To supplement coaching, similar to treating an injured worker, a formal return to work plan should be in place for parents returning from parental leave. The plan should be implemented regardless of the amount of time off the parent has taken. The plan should consider the age of the child, the type of work and hours the employee is conducting, and any other perinatal health considerations. People leaders should be empowered to initiate these plans, in place of the traditional HR process.

  • Create a portal, Slack channel, or Microsoft teams group for parents who have children of similar ages. This can provide an opportunity for parents to connect and discuss challenges and solutions, and to share experiences.

To tackle perinatal health and to provide employers and employees with tools to better understand and manage the issues around it, as part of my role as Group HSE Manager at Probuild, I have been involved with the Transitioning Well organisation. Probuild is one of the first construction companies to participate in a  Perinatal Workplace Wellbeing Program, which is part of the WorkWell Mental Health Improvement Fund.

A WorkSafe Victoria initiative, the Fund targets Victorian workers identified at greatest risk of mental injury including younger workers, ageing workers, frontline workers and workers in industries in transition. The aim of the Program is to understand the challenges employees planning a family, expecting a child and having become new parents encounter. Outcomes of the Program are based on building individual and organisational capacity to understand the nature of the perinatal transition for workers in relation to unique risks during this period and critical transition points for returning to work and supporting workers during the first 12 months of their child's life.

While the program is still under development, various guidance documents and support tools have been developed and implemented along the way, which are available here and here.

With programs such as this, and more diverse parental leave policies, hopefully we can promote and support a decline in mental health and wellbeing issues associated with perinatal health, safer and more productive workplaces, and most importantly, happy and healthy parents with families who flourish and thrive.

Reviewing parental leave polices is a huge opportunity for the industry to push the diversity agenda. Dynamic policies are an investment in attracting and retaining talent, creating truly equitable and diverse workplaces and provide a framework for a physically and mentally healthier workforce.