Getting maternity policy changed

[shazchip]

Hi MNers,

I was wondering if anyone (in HR or otherwise) has had experience of this in the past. Basically, getting a company's current maternity policy changed... and how to go about it.

It's a large multinational corporation, though each country has their own employee policies. The UK's maternity policy is just statutory leave & SMP. I personally feel like they could/should do much better by their female employees, to encourage professional women to stay with them and be loyal to them whilst knowing they will be looked after if they decide to have a family.

I have currently been with the company over 11 years, but part of me has been wondering in the last few years whether I should look around for other jobs with companies with better maternity policies.

Oh, I don't have a particular 'alternative package' in mind (yet) but hearing from friends/family recently who said things like "What, you don't get 6 months full pay?" etc, I am sure I could come up with something as a starter.

Aaaanywaaayy ......... I'm wondering if I put together a case to the relevant HR person/people and ask for a review of the policy, if any notice would be taken. Or whether I'd need to garner support from other UK female employees for strength in numbers (I don't currently know any as I'm the only female in my office). Or whether I'm just being completely unrealistic that anything would ever change at all??

Has anybody here ever done this before?

Thanks in advance for comments/advice!

It's possible, but it might be tough. It's impossible to say without more information.

What kind of business is it? How dependent on "talent" (ie people with particular skills/capabilities)? How easy do they find it to fill roles with good people? How is the business performing generally? Do they do anything currently to support diversity and inclusion?

You will probably need to get people in HR on board. Do you know any? How senior are you? You will need to benchmark the company against their major competitors - do they offer better parental leave pay?

Also, what do you mean by "the only female in my office" - what size is the "office"?

I would try and find other females in the company who might be able to add ideas / experiences.

Also worth looking at the chain of command - a high-ranking HR person would have a better idea of the process, or even a Director. Sounds very similar to the company I work for - who also have a pants maternity policy! Watching with interest!

Does the company have a problem retaining skilled women? They are not going to revise their maternity policy out of the kindness of their hearts, but they might if there is a compelling business case, which evidences that it would actually be cost effective. What happens in other parts of the company? Think about how this would affect men too wrt shared parental leave.

(Starting writing this reply to CmdrCressidaDuck, but looks like it applies to Imaysnapandfart and BikeRunSki too... )

It's an electronics engineering company. Very dependent on talent I'd say (need people with relevant degrees and experience etc). Business as a whole (as in the worldwide business) is extremely profitable. Current support for diversity etc.. hmm, not sure, I'd have to think about what else might be applicable here.

By 'only female in my office' I mean literally that. My office is only 12 people, and we work with other teams in different countries. So although I work with other females, they are not in the UK. The company is split into several different divisions, so although there are other much larger offices in other cities in the UK (e.g. 100s of people) where there are other females, I don't work with them or know them. So it's not possible for me right now to get a group together.

Getting HR on board - yup I agree, I've asked my manager to talk to our main HR contact as a first step. I suppose I'll see how that goes / what she says. Seniority-wise, I'm probably middle-of-the-road? Senior in my team technically, but not necessarily managerially.

Wrt major competitors, I have no clue really, I don't know how I'd go about finding out what their maternity policy is. I have been meaning to check Glassdoor actually, so that's a good point thankyou.

to encourage professional women to stay with them and be loyal to them whilst knowing they will be looked after if they decide to have a family.

Do you facts and figures to back these statements up? If so that would be good.

Because while it works in theory, it often doesnt work in practice. And lots of companies do not want to chase a new mother for MAT leave payments.

@AmericasAss

Nope don't have any facts and figures sadly .. but the fact that it's made me (somebody pretty loyal) think about leaving, to me means that others must have thought it too. But I can't really lead with that argument either as it's just me, one person

Yes I get what you mean.

But many women dont return. At which point the company has paid out enhanced mat pay. And wont chase to reclaim it.

While it may have made you think to leave, that doesnt mean it does lots of women. If you work place offers other benefits. I lived to a company that offers a less generous mat package. Because their carers leave and sickness package was far better.

If you could get some general stats on women leaving one company for another, naming mat leave perks as a main reason it would really help.

@shazchip so if each country has its own maternity policy, and you're the only woman working in the UK office, is it only you that this would affect at this time? Or are you wanting them to change/improve the policies in every country?

Yes, you will need to make a business case for this and that means you will need an experienced and credible HR support person unless you're experienced in making these cases yourself.

Tbh, if you are the only woman working in the UK(!) I don't see them having much motivation to change it in the UK, and changing it globally (and bearing in mind countries have hugely different statutory pay and leave laws/approaches) will be a tall order indeed. Companies do do it - some global leaders like Google etc have introduced global minimums for parental leave and pay - but it would take serious clout and buy-in. That's not to say you shouldn't try, it's a worthy cause, but be realistic in your expectations.

How many people globally is the company, approx?

@AmericasAss : yeah, I see your point.

@ChangesAt30 : there are multiple UK offices so this would affect many women in the UK. Sorry if my post was complicated :)

Manager is going to talk to HR contact this afternoon, so will update what she says..

Our company policy was the enhanced portion was only paid once you'd been back 6 months. So it was SMP (with a slight uplift to 100% for 6 weeks) while on leave, then in your paycheque 6 months after getting back was a lump sum of 6 weeks pay (based on pre maternity leave pay). That way they didn't have to chase anything as the 100% was not repayable and they figured that once you were 6 months in you would have the routine sorted and be happy to stay. Worked for me!

@CmdrCressidaDuck : around 15,000 global employees. Not sure how many in UK, at a very rough guess I'd say maybe around 500-1000? (Company has acquired a bunch of smaller companies in the last few years and I forget how many individual UK offices there are now). Possibly only around 10% women though.

We did this. I used to work for a law firm. Realised their mat package was significantly less than their competitor law firms. My colleagues spoke to friends at other comparable firms and put together data on what those firms were offering. Presented to firm management (not HR staff). Our firm (eventually) increased its package to be in line.

I think this is your best angle - compare with other companies that their employees and potential employees would consider working for, so their competitors in recruitment terms, and point out the disparity. The difficulty is finding out the other companies’ maternity packages.

One to sneak in there OP.

Asda will pay a bonus if you go back to work for 6 months after mat leave.

You could use that as a suggestion.

Oh as well as enhanced pay for 12 weeks.

Not being competitive with other employers in the same sector is usually the most compelling business case for this sort of thing.

Sadly, this is the response from our HR contact (who is fairly senior) via my manager :

"

• used to have a few enhancements to statutory maternity leave.
• stopped on take over.
• All other companies when taken over (e.g. , ) have existing terms honoured for folk already on leave or for the first 12 months after take over, then all reverts to statutory.

So, basically very unlikely to see any change going forward.
"

((((for background, our company was acquired by another company around 3 years ago, the new CEO is pretty ruthless and more cash/results-focused than employee-happiness-focused, though he relies on keeping employees via good bonuses))))

Well if the bonus are good, That's the trade off. Personally I would prefer good bonuses to EMP. Over the years it will give you more.

Yep I suppose swings and roundabouts!

Thanks all for the replies :)

Have they had to report their gender paygap? If they have and are bothered about PR it could be a good step for them...