'We didn't want the policy to be about the employee having to solve this by themselves'
In a recent op-ed published in the Financial Times, The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, called on employers in the UK to support parents raising young children. The opinion piece corresponded with the launch of the Business Taskforce for Early Childhood, fronted by the Princess.
The Princess of Wales offered two solutions for businesses to support their employees with young children.
"The first is to prioritize creating working environments that provide the support people need to cultivate and maintain their own social and emotional well-being. The second, a more concentrated focus on the social and emotional development of our youngest children," she wrote.
It is “fantastic” to see the work Middleton is doing in highlighting the important role workplaces can play in supporting their people through their parenting journey, said Fiona Tribe, National manager, people and cuIture, at law firm Buddle Findlay.
“We hope that by shining a light on this important topic, more conversations will be had between parents and their employers on how to successfully balance a working life with a nurturing home life.”
New policy for caregivers
Buddle Findlay recently unveiled a new approach to parenting and whānau in the workplace, with a new gender-neutral policy where anyone who is a primary caregiver – mother, father, grandparent, or guardian – can benefit over a longer time period.
In a first for the legal industry, the new parental leave policy will additionally offer one-on-one coaching to not only parents, but the employees’ team leader, before, during, and on return from parental leave.
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Lucy Ryan, director of people and culture at Buddle Findlay, told HRD, “We didn’t want the policy to be about the employee having to solve this by themselves, we wanted to use the experience to develop the skills that our leaders have and help them to get better at this as well.”
In Aotearoa, the first public national parental leave register has just been launched and parental leave boosters are trending amongst employers, resulting in some unique new initiatives.
Research into well-meaning behaviour
After conducting workforce research around parental leave in partnership with Global Women, Buddle Findlay uncovered behaviours in its workforce that were coming from well-meaning places but landing in the wrong way and causing subtle issues beneath the surface.
“It wasn’t like we were going wildly off-piste with appalling issues, the majority of the time the issues were very subtle,” said Ryan. giving the example of a firm partner trying to protect a team member from being overworked by not giving them hard work. This resulted in that person missing out on an experience that could grow their career or leave them bored in their work.
The firm's coaching system is designed to stamp out those situations.
“It’s not all geared to the relationship, it’s whatever fears or concerns each party is taking into this and an opportunity to flesh them out and support them,” said Ryan.
Tribe currently has a team member using the leave and said she had seen real benefits from the coaching.
“If you look at my team member on parental leave now, she may be thinking she doesn’t want to return, so how does she have that conversation with me? And if she has that conversation with me, instead of me going, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s not what I expected,’ I’ve now got the tools to work through that with her.”