Leave arrangements
By introducing different measures and supplying your employees with additional rights, your company can influence men’s use of parental leave or other forms of leave.
Give employees parental leave
In countries where there are no specific rights to paternity leave on the national level this can be introduced by companies.
Parental leave in addition to national regulations
Political regulations are far behind what is needed to support fathers in taking parental leave – they need much more time, which can be allowed by their employer.
Full compensation of pay
In most countries legislation on parental leave limits the maximum financial compensation of the employee’s wage in the leave period. Companies can offer to cover the gap between this maximum payment paid by the state and the employee’s regular wage in order to make parental leave more attractive.
Include the pay system
Measures or strategies to increase men’s use of parental leave should take into account the company’s pay system and how this acts as a driving force or an obstacle to the success of these strategies/measures.
Policy statement
The company can develop a policy statement which says that paternity leave is valued by the company. When the company publicly declares that it is desirable that men take parental leave, it is easier for male employees to use their rights in this field.
Executives as role models
Male executives are important role models in order to signal to employees that there is a cultural acceptance of male carers within the company and to show that prioritizing your family and private life will not affect your career in a negative way.
Communicating with employees on parental leave
If the employee wants to stay in touch with the company and be updated on what is going on at his workplace different strategies can be used. But this has to be voluntary and on the employee’s terms.
Some ideas:
- E-mail can be used as a good way to keep up this communication.
- The employees on leave can also be invited to company seminars and gatherings.
- Employees on leave can be encouraged to drop in at the office now and then.
- The company can organise special networks of fathers on leave in order for them to meet, join in common activities and be able to share experiences with each other.
Hire substitutes
Many men who have been on parental leave have experienced problems due to a lack of substitutes during their period of leave. First of all it is likely that his work has not been taken care of during his leave, so that he has a lot to do when he returns to work. Secondly many men feel that they have inflicted an extra burden upon their colleagues through their absence from work. If you make sure substitutes are hired when someone is on leave you prevent such experiences.
Prepare statistics
In order to analyse the effect of organisational measures related to parental leave the company can prepare statistics on male employees’ use of leave.
A gift
Promote care-leave for instance by giving fathers going on paternity leave a gift showing the appreciation of the company.
Days off
This measure involves specifying in the collective agreement the number of personal days off that employees can have.
Rights to leave connected to special periods
Some fathers want to spend more time with their children during special periods, like when they start school. This is already part of the national legislation in some countries. But if this is not the case, the company can offer leave as a right to parents in these specific periods.
Care for elderly
Enable employees to take care of sick parents or other elderly persons. Specific types of leave could be introduced as a benefit that the company offers to the employees.
Sabbatical periods
This measure allows employees to take a period of time off for different kinds of reasons. The company can offer to pay parts of the salary.
Icelandic parental leave - The best in the world?
For your inspiration, read about the Icelandic parental leave model.
Microsoft
The daddy package at Microsoft Norway is one example of how companies can influence men’s use of parental leave trough economic incentives and targeted initiatives. One of the important motives behind this strategy is to encourage women to take shorter parental leave.
The Daddy package consists of the following elements:
- male employees are requested to take longer parental leave (preferably 6 months)
- full compensation of pay
- use of executives as role models
IBM
IBM Spain allows employees to earn the right to a one-year sabbatical period during which they receive 25% of their monthly wage. During this period the company continues to pay social security and other compulsory pay systems.
The Finance Sector Union of Norway
This Norwegian union gives their employees 8 weeks additional leave with full pay. These weeks come in addition to the leave period regulated through national legislation.
FOCUS
The project Fostering Caring Masculinities is an EU-sponsored project with five partners; Germany, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain. The project has aimed to examine and improve men’s opportunities for balancing work and private/family life in order to encourage the preparedness of men to take over caring tasks. To reach this goal the project has focused on companies' framework conditions to perceive and include men as actors and target groups in equality policies.
Each partner has carried out studies in two different companies, one private and one public. The guidelines presented here are based on these work place studies and examples of existing practices from other companies.
