How Parental Leave can be the ultimate PR opportunity.

It's been a busy week in my part of SE London, not least because we managed to get our Party Wall award sorted out before the builders ran out of things to do / smash inside the house. 'Excitingly' (as anyone I've spoken to this week will know lol) we discovered that the base of the foundations on one side of our house are 3m down - creating a literal money pit to pour concrete into! Fortuntately it's the other side from the party wall stuff - the joys of living on a hill!

Building delights aside it's been a really interesting week for Parental Leave announcements (if you are into that sort of thing, which I am.)

Like all good Marvel films, there's a couple of PS footnotes that I hope you'll stay for!

Let's dive into the detail of the offers from Marks and Spencer, Severn Trent Water and Molson Coors. Three very different offers - one is gold standard and at the other end of the scale - looking at my database it's the biggest gap between Paternity and Maternity Leave provision in the UK....

Marks and Spencer are first up.

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"As of 1 April, Marks and Spencer will introduce six weeks of paternity leave at full pay and double its maternity and adoption leave to 26 weeks at full pay, equating to a £5 million investment."

Of course I'm greedy, I want 26 weeks full pay parental leave - treating all parents the same, regardless of how they become parents. But, that said, kudos to M&S for making changes in the right direction - every little helps as they say in some retail circles.

Positive that they describe it as an investment!

Severn Trent then lowered the tone a bit...

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"We're super proud that we've made a big boost to our maternity and adoption leave, giving colleagues a whole year off fully paid, providing one of the leading maternity and adoption policies in the industry, FTSE 100 and UK."

So far so good...

In fact amazing, if you are taking Maternity or Adoption Leave at Severn Trent - They are offering an astounding 46 weeks full pay Maternity and Adoption leave.

But, when the direction of travel is companies equalising parental leave, I’m afraid Severn Trent have inadvertently created what I think it the most unequal parental leave policy in the country, because drumroll...

2 weeks full pay Paternity.

That's it. It's better than 2 week statutory but it's a bad bad thing for gender equality.

At Severn Trent Mums and Adopters take leave, most Dads won't be. I don't know what their Shared Parental Leave offer is but given they don't mention it in the article I'm not expecting much.

More to do for Dads at Severn Trent and I'll watching out for more news

Then boom... welcome to the party, Molson Coors...

Molson Coors

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"Molson Coors Beverage Company has introduced an equal parental leave policy for its more than 2,200 employees across the UK. All new parents at the brewer of beer brands such as Carling, Coors and Madrí Excepcional will be entitled to up to 52 weeks’ leave regardless of gender or their path to parenthood, 26 weeks of which are fully paid."

Make no mistake this is gold standard.

There are approximately 80 companies offering equal parental leave - about 50 of them are offering 26 weeks plus - which gets you entry to this important club.

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Well paid, extended parental leave, really really matters for gender equality - as is so perfectly illustrated but this comment I saw this week

"... women work part time because taking long periods of parental leave and acting as the primary caregiver, means that their partners go on to win leadership roles and increased salaries."

Unequal parental leave within families AND business is a killer for gender equality at home and work.

Equalised parental leave is a vital foundation for parenting choice, creating equality at home and reframing our gendered associations about care giving. Equality at work is driven by equality at home, knowing my audience you know that's true too.

Happy Friday!

Ian

PS

If your business has great policies but a cultural challenge when it comes to Men taking up the opportunity, then can drop me message, like this firm did this week:

Q. "We've recently switched to a gender neutral parental leave, do you run any in-person/virtual one hour sessions for corporates? We want to encourage as many of our male colleagues to take their full parental leave."

A. This one might be exactly what you need "The Benefits of Extended Parental leave for Fathers and Families."

PPS

I mentioned the PR opportunity. I'm just the messenger and this is what the M&S post stats look like....

Unsplash image by Kelly Sikkema @kellysikkema@kellysikkema