Parental leave - there’s no turning back

It is not that long ago that the concept of parental leave was virtually unknown. However, in 2005, parental leave is very clearly seen as a right for parents to take time off work to look after a child or make arrangements for a child's welfare.

Parents can use parental leave to spend more time with children and strike a better balance between their work and family commitments.

In Australia today, more than half the mums with children under five years, are working. For fathers the figure is far higher – around 90% with dependent children are in employment.

Many employers have introduced innovative polices on flexible hours and leave arrangements to make the work-life balance easier for parents to achieve. These companies recognise that such policies are in their self-interest. Business performance and staff motivation often improve as staff gain a better balance between the conflicting demands of work and family responsibilities.

But other employers are reluctant to take such steps and their policies and practices have not kept pace with changes in our modern society’s thinking. As a result, many parents struggle to successfully combine their work and parenting roles.

It is quite obvious that attitudes have changed. Repeatedly, surveys in Australia and overseas reveal striking differences of view by age group. Respondents aged below 45 tend to be more strongly in favour than older people of improved policies to help parents in the workplace. It is these younger generations who are the current and future parents of young children.

In particular, younger people favour a more active role for fathers. Respondents aged below 45 have more egalitarian attitudes than older people towards the involvement of fathers and the sharing of parental responsibilities. HR professionals are acutely aware that policies aimed to improve the work-life balance must include fathers as well as mothers.

Parental leave is no longer a new practice. Yet many small businesses run the risk of losing highly skilled employees. Workers tend to go to large corporations because so many small employers have not updated their HR thinking and are failing to adopt parental leave policies.

There is at least anecdotal evidence that women wait to get better jobs before they decide to have children. This trend can create a gap in best-practice human resources between large and small companies, because larger companies, with stronger HR input, generally have more progressive maternity leave provisions.

Apart from policy issues, questions arise about how an employer can best manage parental leave in the workplace.

In managing parental leave, employers need to take into account the concerns of their employees as well as any legal obligations they may have.

At a time such as the birth of a child, typical concerns of employees are:

• Having a reasonable amount of time off work to prepare for and recover from childbirth, and to settle the child and the family into a new regime;
• Being able to care for the child personally in the early months of life;
• Being able to meet financial commitments while on parental leave;
• Keeping in touch with the workplace while on parental leave;
• Continuing to be treated as a valued employee during parental leave; and
• Feeling welcome and confident to return to work after parental leave.

The obvious benefit to employers with parental leave is being able to hold on to valued employees who may otherwise be lost to the business.

The retention and return to work after parental leave of experienced and skilled employees, can also save employers the turnover costs that normally relate to resignations.

With suitable parental leave, employers do not have to pay recruitment and training expenses, or experience a negative impact on productivity, whilst a new employee gains expertise and knowledge.

In managing the return of employees to work after parental leave, employers should take into account the needs and concerns of employees at this time, as well as their legal obligations.

Some of the typical needs and concerns of employees on returning from parental leave include:

• Being able to return to his or her own job, or a job which is at least comparable in both pay and status to the one previously held before parental leave;
• Having options for part-time work and/or flexible work arrangements upon return to work; and
• Finding quality care for the child when the parent is ready to return to work.