A new set of golf clubs? A home brewing kit? A pair of novelty socks? Nah. If you’re looking for the absolute best Father’s Day gift (or Christmas, birthday, or even Valentine’s Day gift for that matter) for any new dad, it won’t be found in any store… it’s paid parental leave.
The reviews for this top gift are off the charts, but unfortunately, this present can be difficult to find in any large quantity.
So, we’ve done the research for you to find some of the employers with the most generous parental leave policies and the most inclusive cultures that are encouraging more men to take up this amazing gift.
Knight Frank Australia | Ampol | Cenitex | Philip Morris International | NetApp | EY | Accenture
Knight Frank Australia
Real estate & property | 501-1,000 employees
After a recent review of their parental leave policy, Knight Frank recognized that new parents commonly exhaust their personal leave as they care for their child. As their child starts daycare, they are more susceptible to bugs and illnesses. They were mindful that personal leave should be used to ensure people can take the time out that they need when they are sick themselves. So, they implemented childcare leave. The clause in their policy states:
“Employees returning to work after taking either Primary or Secondary Carers leave will be eligible to use up to 10 additional paid Childcare Leave days within the first 12 months of your return. These days are designed to assist you with ad hoc situations related to your child. These include but are not limited to urgent medical appointments or illness resulting in the child unable to attend childcare.”
Will Blackburn, Associate Director, Building Consultancy, and Alex Meneghello, Senior Property Manager, Asset Management Services are just two of the fathers taking advantage of Knight Frank‘s parental leave policies.
“I will be going on parental leave for five months at the start of October, with 14 weeks of that being paid including Superannuation.
It has meant that we get to split the parenting evenly between my wife and I. It is a great opportunity for my wife to get back to building her career. I will also get to spending some time bonding with my child which I wasn’t able to do working full time. When I return to work, we will do a combination of childcare, grandparents (which we are very thankful for) and both continuing to work on our careers.”
Alex Meneghello shared:
“I took six months of primary parental leave to care for my 10-month-old daughter, Margot while my wife, Fiona returns to work full time. Fiona is passionate about her career and was promoted while on parental leave so was keen to go back to work.
We didn’t want to put Margot into childcare just yet, so me being able to take the parental leave is the perfect solution for us all. Margot is our first child and previously, someone in my position would’ve only been able to take two weeks’ leave to spend with their child in total, typically when they are newborn. There’s been a massive shift in the way Knight Frank treats parents more equally.”
Ampol
Mining, resources & energy | 5,001-10,000 employees
It used to be rare that men in Australia felt comfortable to take extended primary carer parental leave. But Callan Khera, who recently welcomed his third child to the world, has found a generous and supportive culture at Ampol, and can’t wait to spend precious time with his little one.
“One of my great regrets is that I did not take parental leave for our first child. But with Ampol’s support, I took primary carer parental leave for our second child. It was an incredible experience, being able to bond with my second, make up for missed time with my first and support my partner returning to work.
“Society promotes this ‘traditional’ view that dads go to work and mothers do the rest… But shared caring responsibilities has allowed me to be a happier, better father, partner, team member, leader and more.”
– Callan Khera, Technical Manager, based at Lytton Refinery
Cenitex
Local, state & federal government | 501-1,000 employees
Cenitex also encourage the shared caring of parental responsibilities through generous flexible working policies. These policies have been invaluable to Bryn Jones (he/him), Talent Resource Program Advisor:
“With my partner being a shift worker on the frontline in medical care, having an employer that offers flexible working arrangements has been crucial to us as a family. Our little and rather lively four-and-a-half-year-old is often a challenge (as many could attest to) but being able to have that flexibility as opposed my partners rather stringent and inflexible shifts times has been a god send.
“Cenitex, through their flexible working policy has allowed us to easily balance our work and family commitments. I’m so grateful to Cenitex for providing that to me and my family.”
Philip Morris International (PMI)
FMCG & consumer goods | 10,000+ employees
The enhanced offering for secondary caregivers was a recent policy shift for PMI, one that Mimi Kurniawan (she/her), Chief Diversity Officer, was pleased to share with us:
“Our minimum parental leave allowance applies to all of our employees – all genders, all sexual orientations, and all parental circumstances (birth, adoption, surrogacy). We’re continually reviewing and enhancing the support that we offer to our people across different life stages, and providing more inclusive parental leave options is one example of this.”
NetApp
I.T., digital & online media services | 251-500 employees
Like most Australian companies, just two years ago NetApp only offered 18 weeks of government-funded parental leave. WORK180 provided them with benchmarking data and research to understand the impact of improving our policies. Anastasia Kiteri (she/her), HR Business Partner shares more on the changes:
“Our first ever paid parental leave policy offered an additional eight weeks at full pay on top of the government-funded leave. Partnering with the WORK180 team, we were able to double that to 16 weeks just several months after our first policy was released. Now we offer an industry-leading 20 weeks, gender-neutral paid parental leave. We also increased our leave for secondary carers to four weeks.
“NetApp moved so quickly to drive change and we were able to have the policy signed off after a single email- the business was fully bought into supporting parents.”
Ernst & Young (EY)
Consulting & professional services | 5,001-10,000 employees
“Earlier last year I took six weeks of paid parental leave to look after my daughter, Aurelia, while her mother and my partner, Malene, transitioned back to part-time work. It was a great experience spending quality time with Aurelia, experiencing not only what it’s like to be a full-time carer of a nine-month-old (it’s hard but super rewarding!), but also having the ability to properly bond with my daughter.
This flexibility in EY’s parental policy was amazing and continues to be so. However, it extended well before the birth of our daughter.
My partner and I had a long journey to becoming parents. Like many other aspiring parents, we went through IVF. It was a very trying time, particularly with the COVID19 experience thrown in. The EY organization and teams were very supportive throughout the process and provided me with the flexibility to ensure my partner and I could focus on what was important.”
– Sean Vincent (he/him), Associate Director, Infrastructure Advisory – Strategy and Transactions at EY.
Accenture
I.T., digital & online media services | 5,001-10,000 employees
Accenture understand the importance of offering equitable opportunities for men and women to better share the load when it comes to caring responsibilities. Accenture’s parental leave is available to parents of any gender, and they actively encourage male employees to take leave and leverage flexible working.
“One of my criteria for choosing a new employer was its policies around parents, especially same-sex parents, as Michael and I progressed further along the surrogacy process. A lot of roles I applied for did offer parental leave for fathers, but only a maximum of two weeks, even for same-sex couples. Accenture’s culture around LGBTQI+ inclusion and family-friendly policies like 18 weeks paid parental leave that are open to all employees, regardless of gender, were a big reason for choosing to work here.”
– Daniel Montgomery-Morgan (he/him), Associate Director, Strategy and Consulting at Accenture ANZ
