he UK, like many countries globally, has a breadwinner culture and low remuneration for parental leave, particularly for fathers, which is why uptake for policies like Shared Parental Leave has been very low. Despite a desire by successive UK governments to create change, it has been challenging to create a significant shift in caring behavior through policy developments alone. As such, change in the UK has been led by employers, particularly in the professional services sector, who are realizing the benefits in terms of recruitment, retention, and wellbeing and are starting to tackle the assumption that mothers will always be primary caregivers directly by offering benefits such as non-transferable leave specifically offered to fathers and improved remuneration (pay for leave).
Below we offer three great examples in this area by several employers, all of which won awards at the 2022 Working Dad Employer Awards, run by the Equal Parenting Project and Music Football Fatherhood. Two of the examples are from large multinationals and the third is a smaller local council that has been able to support fathers’ care despite much more limited resources.
What does good practice look like?
Vodafone is a multinational telecom company that made a strategic decision to extend support to fathers/non-birthing parents to further enable gender equality and support families in all of their diverse forms. The decision contributes to Vodafone’s goal to improve 1 billion lives. The approach was informed by external research such as the Women and Families 2019-2020 UN Report. Vodafone offers all parents a first-day right to 16 weeks of paid parental leave at full pay and other policies such as adoption and pregnancy loss leave, which provides two weeks paid leave in the event of loss of a pregnancy. All Vodafone’s policies refer to primary/secondary care-providers, so they are inclusive of all genders. In addition, when fathers return to work after taking paternity leave, they are only required to work 80% of their contractual hours but receive 100% of their contractual pay and benefits for a period of six months. This is known as the “80/20 period.” Vodafone also uses internal research to find out more about the needs of parents and care-providers across its organization and continuously improve its policies. It also publicizes its policies.
Aviva is a multinational insurance company which provides a very generous 26 weeks of equal paternal leave with full pay. The company also offers many other policies aimed at parents, including first day of school leave, caring commitments paid leave, and paid fertility leave. There is clear buy-in from senior leadership, champions who advocate for carers, a well-resourced parenting community within the business, and extensive internal and external communications activities to promote the offer. Aviva also uses data to inform its understanding of the use of the policies it offers and has found that the average length of leave among fathers increased by three weeks across their company over the past four years since they began these new policies. In 2021-2022, 80% of new fathers at AVIVA spent at least five months on parental leave. What is particularly clear at AVIVA is the way the business has woven being a family-friendly employer into their culture and identity—it’s not just a bolt-on to their employee value proposition. The combination of a strong family-friendly policy offer, a thriving employee network, and structured and consistent internal and external communications has embedded this father-friendly approach throughout the business. Aviva also actively helps other organizations take strides towards introducing inclusive policies explaining their approach to other organizations and offering advice, as well as participating in panel discussions at large events.
Waltham Forest Council is a local council in the UK with fewer available resources than the large multinational organizations but that still manages to offer impressive support for fathers. Its approach has been driven by the experiences of fathers in the local community and a passionate desire to close its gender pay-gap and a related need to challenge assumptions about gendered caregiving. It set up a Championing Fatherhood scheme, which was supported by the Council’s management board, CEO and strategic directors. It was the first UK employer to endorse The Smallest Things campaign, taking proactive steps to assist their employees experiencing premature birth. All parents of babies born at or before 37 weeks are entitled to receive an extra week’s premature baby leave and premature baby pay (full pay) for every week until their baby’s original due date. As a result, Waltham Forest Council has advised the central government with its plans on implementing neonatal legislation as a statutory requirement. Waltham Forest Council has also recognized the vital role of managers in delivering on this agenda and has produced toolkits to support managers to ensure they feel well equipped to better support their staff. Guidance is also in place for employees to ensure they understand the benefits available to them. The council also supports staff through a series of “Lunch and Learns” that capture the experiences of Fathers who have taken shared parental leave. These one-hour sessions have created a forum for staff to engage and learn from the lived experiences of their colleagues.
All the organizations featured here have won prestigious awards in the 2022 Working Dads Employer Awards due to their excellent work supporting dads in the workplace. The awards continue to help drive best practices by encouraging continuous improvement from the participating organizations and providing examples for other organizations to follow, stimulating healthy competition between employers, including demonstrating what is possible on a tighter budget, with fewer resources for smaller organizations.
How can these lessons be scalable elsewhere?
- Large professional service firms are often low-hanging fruit in this area due to their desire to be seen as best-practice employers to attract and retain top talent. They often have the resources to develop programs of support and globally some of their competitors are already doing great work. If more professional services companies are vocal about what they are doing in this area, other sectors are likely to take note.
- Encouraging some companies to develop a first-mover advantage, adopt best practices and be vocal about them encourages competitors to follow suit and can stimulate sector-wide change.
- The most-effective government policy for encouraging shared care is well-remunerated, non-transferable leave for fathers and other parents.
- Smaller organizations should not think, “We cannot afford to support fathers as it is too expensive to enhance pay for parental leave.” Instead, they should consider how they can develop more inclusive policies and how they can support fathers in other ways, even if enhancing pay is not an option.
- Organizations that adopt best practices in this area are often keen to share their experiences with other employers. This can be a good way to promote change across different sectors of the economy or in different geographical areas.
Existing global research suggests that the best way to encourage fathers to do more care is to develop statutory policies that offer fathers well-remunerated non-transferable leave. However, this is not always possible and in these cases, employers can lead the way. They should be reflexive about the value of encouraging shared care and developing approaches that are context specific to break down barriers to care, while also encouraging other employers to reflect on how they also can improve their practice.
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Getting More Fathers to Take on Caring Responsibilities
Image via Unsplash.
March 12, 2023
Most countries still have a breadwinner culture and inadequate parental leave, which reinforces assumptions that women will and should be primary caregivers. Some UK companies are adopting better practices to encourage fathers to take on more caring responsibilities, writes Dr. Holly Birkett.
T
he UK, like many countries globally, has a breadwinner culture and low remuneration for parental leave, particularly for fathers, which is why uptake for policies like Shared Parental Leave has been very low. Despite a desire by successive UK governments to create change, it has been challenging to create a significant shift in caring behavior through policy developments alone. As such, change in the UK has been led by employers, particularly in the professional services sector, who are realizing the benefits in terms of recruitment, retention, and wellbeing and are starting to tackle the assumption that mothers will always be primary caregivers directly by offering benefits such as non-transferable leave specifically offered to fathers and improved remuneration (pay for leave).
Below we offer three great examples in this area by several employers, all of which won awards at the 2022 Working Dad Employer Awards, run by the Equal Parenting Project and Music Football Fatherhood. Two of the examples are from large multinationals and the third is a smaller local council that has been able to support fathers’ care despite much more limited resources.
What does good practice look like?
Vodafone is a multinational telecom company that made a strategic decision to extend support to fathers/non-birthing parents to further enable gender equality and support families in all of their diverse forms. The decision contributes to Vodafone’s goal to improve 1 billion lives. The approach was informed by external research such as the Women and Families 2019-2020 UN Report. Vodafone offers all parents a first-day right to 16 weeks of paid parental leave at full pay and other policies such as adoption and pregnancy loss leave, which provides two weeks paid leave in the event of loss of a pregnancy. All Vodafone’s policies refer to primary/secondary care-providers, so they are inclusive of all genders. In addition, when fathers return to work after taking paternity leave, they are only required to work 80% of their contractual hours but receive 100% of their contractual pay and benefits for a period of six months. This is known as the “80/20 period.” Vodafone also uses internal research to find out more about the needs of parents and care-providers across its organization and continuously improve its policies. It also publicizes its policies.
Aviva is a multinational insurance company which provides a very generous 26 weeks of equal paternal leave with full pay. The company also offers many other policies aimed at parents, including first day of school leave, caring commitments paid leave, and paid fertility leave. There is clear buy-in from senior leadership, champions who advocate for carers, a well-resourced parenting community within the business, and extensive internal and external communications activities to promote the offer. Aviva also uses data to inform its understanding of the use of the policies it offers and has found that the average length of leave among fathers increased by three weeks across their company over the past four years since they began these new policies. In 2021-2022, 80% of new fathers at AVIVA spent at least five months on parental leave. What is particularly clear at AVIVA is the way the business has woven being a family-friendly employer into their culture and identity—it’s not just a bolt-on to their employee value proposition. The combination of a strong family-friendly policy offer, a thriving employee network, and structured and consistent internal and external communications has embedded this father-friendly approach throughout the business. Aviva also actively helps other organizations take strides towards introducing inclusive policies explaining their approach to other organizations and offering advice, as well as participating in panel discussions at large events.
Waltham Forest Council is a local council in the UK with fewer available resources than the large multinational organizations but that still manages to offer impressive support for fathers. Its approach has been driven by the experiences of fathers in the local community and a passionate desire to close its gender pay-gap and a related need to challenge assumptions about gendered caregiving. It set up a Championing Fatherhood scheme, which was supported by the Council’s management board, CEO and strategic directors. It was the first UK employer to endorse The Smallest Things campaign, taking proactive steps to assist their employees experiencing premature birth. All parents of babies born at or before 37 weeks are entitled to receive an extra week’s premature baby leave and premature baby pay (full pay) for every week until their baby’s original due date. As a result, Waltham Forest Council has advised the central government with its plans on implementing neonatal legislation as a statutory requirement. Waltham Forest Council has also recognized the vital role of managers in delivering on this agenda and has produced toolkits to support managers to ensure they feel well equipped to better support their staff. Guidance is also in place for employees to ensure they understand the benefits available to them. The council also supports staff through a series of “Lunch and Learns” that capture the experiences of Fathers who have taken shared parental leave. These one-hour sessions have created a forum for staff to engage and learn from the lived experiences of their colleagues.
All the organizations featured here have won prestigious awards in the 2022 Working Dads Employer Awards due to their excellent work supporting dads in the workplace. The awards continue to help drive best practices by encouraging continuous improvement from the participating organizations and providing examples for other organizations to follow, stimulating healthy competition between employers, including demonstrating what is possible on a tighter budget, with fewer resources for smaller organizations.
How can these lessons be scalable elsewhere?
- Large professional service firms are often low-hanging fruit in this area due to their desire to be seen as best-practice employers to attract and retain top talent. They often have the resources to develop programs of support and globally some of their competitors are already doing great work. If more professional services companies are vocal about what they are doing in this area, other sectors are likely to take note.
- Encouraging some companies to develop a first-mover advantage, adopt best practices and be vocal about them encourages competitors to follow suit and can stimulate sector-wide change.
- The most-effective government policy for encouraging shared care is well-remunerated, non-transferable leave for fathers and other parents.
- Smaller organizations should not think, “We cannot afford to support fathers as it is too expensive to enhance pay for parental leave.” Instead, they should consider how they can develop more inclusive policies and how they can support fathers in other ways, even if enhancing pay is not an option.
- Organizations that adopt best practices in this area are often keen to share their experiences with other employers. This can be a good way to promote change across different sectors of the economy or in different geographical areas.
Existing global research suggests that the best way to encourage fathers to do more care is to develop statutory policies that offer fathers well-remunerated non-transferable leave. However, this is not always possible and in these cases, employers can lead the way. They should be reflexive about the value of encouraging shared care and developing approaches that are context specific to break down barriers to care, while also encouraging other employers to reflect on how they also can improve their practice.
