The gift of Shared Parental Leave

The gift of Shared Parental Leave

In an industry which has long struggled with female attrition rate, recent research from law.com that shows 44% of partner promotions in the top 30 are women, (up from 12% five years ago), is to be welcomed. Even if that makes a comparatively minor dent in the 20% representation overall.

Originally published in the LAW Absolute Newsletter for Father’s Day 2021

Gender diversity is good for business - according to McKinsey, the most gender-diverse companies are 21% more like to experience above-average profitability.

For 15 years I have had a ringside seat on my wife’s law career, I’ve seen the dynamics and behaviours driven by hourly billing, the ‘eat what you kill’ mentality, the mental health challenges and the relationship tension that manifests itself as a woman posting “congrats, let’s catch up” on their husband’s 2-year LinkedIn anniversary notification.

It hasn’t always been pretty.

Policy and quotas only get you so far, culture change really matters, which was brought home to me when a younger female client of Lisa’s remarked that when they first met, she had assumed that Lisa didn’t have children “because I didn’t think you could be a mum and do this job.”

She and I both recognised how damaging that was for the prospects of all women.

What do dads want?

In their 30th anniversary report “State of Man” GQ magazine’s readers identified ‘Being a present father’ as the number one aspect of modern masculinity.

While dads in my Facebook group describe these desires

• ‘Spend more time with my daughter and be a happier person.’

• ‘To have more time with the kids.’

• ‘Attend more special occasions. Be a more active figure daily in
  their lives.’

Even before the pandemic, research by insurance company Zurich and the UK government-backed think tank 'The Behavioural Insights Team' found that many more men also applied for roles when they offered flexible working options, suggesting the issue is just as important for them as it is for female candidates.

The impact of Covid on parents

The Office for National Statistics found that the first Covid lockdown had led to a 58% increase in childcare undertaken by men but women still did more childcare and women with young children are much more likely to be considering leaving the workplace altogether:

McKinsey reported that in the category of parents of kids under ten, the rate at which women in this group were considering leaving was ten per cent higher than for men.

The Financial Times also reported that this trend is seen at senior levels too:

“Senior-level women were 1.5 times more likely than men to think about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce because of Covid-19.”

What is Shared Parental Leave (SPL)?

In short, couples can share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay between them. Transferring allowance allows parents to share leave in a way that best suits them.

https://www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay

Why is SPL good for business?

Shared Parental Leave is a mechanism for supporting parents to divide parental leave in ways that work best for them as family - improving well-being and long-term loyalty and performance. Crucially, it is also an opportunity to change the business culture, creating a more diverse workplace.

Initiatives targeted at women create a two-tier system, but when men take extended leave (or seek to work flexibly) it is no longer possible to assume that only women have caring responsibilities, and this broadens the definition of what success and commitment at work looks like.

As Lisa Unwin, writing last month, said:

“The partners explained to me that they’d love to have more women on the team, provided they were able to put in the all-nighters and accept that this is an 80 hour a week job.”

Firms can use SPL to create more diverse workforces and maybe even remove some of the energy sapping, relationship and mental health damaging work structures that persist in the industry.

Photo Credit: Jonnelle Yankovich via Unsplash @jey_photography

Benefits for dads, children, and families.

1)       It increases the early bonding experiences between father and child.

2)      It creates the opportunity to build skills for long term solo parenting which is important for equality at home.

3)      It insulates dads from vulnerabilities in the event of relationship breakdown. How often do you hear the story - 'He can't share custody he doesn't know what he's doing’ ? Harder to say if you have a track record of looking after children on your own.

4)     Present and engaged dads create great behavioural outcomes for children.

5)      Great for dual income couples, skills learnt by dads builds equality at home.

According to a Harvard Business Review report,

“Women with equal partners at home are more successful at work. When people are less concerned with the impact of their job on family responsibilities and able to focus and commit more fully to their work, it’s no surprise that they’re more productive and able to take advantage of growth and advancement opportunities.”

The leading Law firms do enhance their leave.

https://www.linklaters.com/en/about-us/news-and-deals/news/2019/december/new-parental-leave-policy

https://www.legalbusiness.co.uk/blogs/keeping-pace-with-change-ao-becomes-latest-city-firm-to-usher-in-parental-leave-reforms/

https://www.law.com/international-edition/2020/01/22/dechert-latest-to-expand-london-parental-leave-policy/

Actions businesses can take to celebrate Father’s Day.

The pandemic has changed everything, we can longer assume that men don’t have or want caring responsibilities.

·         Review your parental leave provision – putting dads at the heart of policy.

·         Identify male fatherhood role models.

·         Encourage men to take leave and access flexible working.

·         Normalise men taking leave and build a different culture.

There is little point making up record numbers of women to partnership if firm wide culture is still built around long hours and an assumption that men do not want to be present in their families’ lives. It’s lazy and it will cause relationship issues and well-being challenges.

Photo Credit: Larry Crayton via Unplash @ljcrayton

Flexible working is 'Just as important to men'

Flexible Working is ‘just as important to men’

An article on the business part of the BBC website caught my eye…

"Senior jobs with flexible hours 'get 20% more female applicants"

First thought, awesome.

Second thought, I wonder if there’s anything about men? Because I know men want flexible working too.

Hidden away (a bit too much for my liking) was reference to men - “just as important for men”

Argggh, come on BBC I thought! This is a really important angle - the angle that would make a world of difference to gender equality to the workplace.

So I opened Linkedin and penned this 1300 character post that has got a lot of comments, interaction and views. Click here to join in the conversation.

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POLITE REQUEST

Please can we stop framing flexible working as a female "thing". The world and his dog knows that women have more caring responsibilities, but until we talk about it being a man thing too, we are doomed to pigeon hole genders into cages called caring and breadwinning.

These cages are traps - traps that keep women from achieving their potential in the workplace and men from being the active and involved fathers they don't remember growing up.

We need to release that canary.

BBC Business News article today "Senior jobs with flexible hours 'get 20% more female applicants"

My first thought, well yeah, obviously.

Knowing how hard men find it to ask for flex and part time work - society deem them not to "need" it, fear of being seen as "uncommitted", perceived optionality etc I wondered if there was anything about men.

Yes - the real story -'Just as important to men'

"The study... found many more men also applied for roles when they offered flexible working options, suggesting the issue was "just as important" for them."

This the truly groundbreaking stuff - pre covid!

Men want flexible working and enabling that desire is a key aspect of gender equality at home and at work.

#flexforall #inspiringdads #workingdads

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New title, same story?

The eagle eyed among you will have notice the article title is now different. I was also intrigued that the title of the piece changed twice… from

"Senior jobs with flexible hours 'get 20% more female applicants" to

“Flexible working helps with mum guilt' to

“It’s really hard to progress when working part-time”

Thankfully the BBC dropped the “mum guilt” angle quickly <facepalm>

A great story of increased female recruitment into Senior roles

Now despite my little rant, it’s worth noting that it’s a really good story about Zurich creatively increasing female recuitment into senior roles. As John Adams at DadBlogUk explains

“For Zurich to have increased female recruit in senior roles is brilliant. To have increased the number of women working flexibly in senior roles is better still. To have male and female senior managers working flexibly and encouraging other staff to do the same, that’s Zurich’s real success. I hope other employers will follow suit.”

I just wish the man angle had been explored in greater (any) depth.

and I’m not alone as the 100+ comments illustrate

“Totally agree and I thought the same thing when I read the article this morning. The policy is gender neutral so why can't our thinking be the same?”

“Such an important narrative. I also feel until men are encouraged to take flex working and shared parental leave, women will never truly be able to move forward from this feeling of asking for special treatment, feeling conflicted and that their careers may suffer if they move to flex etc. Flex for all is the only way to truly achieve a sense of equality.”

“Totally agree. From my experience coaching men in organisations, it’s much more difficult for them to ask for flexible working than it is for women. And understandably as they’re more likely to be judged as no longer engaged in their careers. Headlines like this do not help.”

Of course we aren’t JUST talking about flexible working for caring reasons. There are lots of reasons why people want flexible working patterns and all are important. I’m very keen on the idea of #Flexforall.

What did Zurich do?

In addition to using gender neutral language, each job advert between March 2019 and Feb 2020 stated the roles were available as:

“Part-time, flexible hours, job share.”

The outcome

• “Since changing its policy on job adverts, the number of women hired for top roles has risen by 33%”

• “20% more likely to apply for senior roles if they offer flexible hours.”

In conclusion, great story - but let’s also keep telling all the stories, in particular the one that shines a light on what men want and stops flexible working from being seen a female only desire. Because that doesn’t help anyone!

Click the button to join the conversation on LinkedIn

Photo Credit: Eric Ayon via Unsplash @ericayon10