A new record high proportion of employers – 89% – now promote their support for working parents with paternity leave being promoted as often maternity leave for the first time.
New research by gender equity firm Executive Coaching Consultancy, found that the number of employers that actively promote their family-friendly credentials had grown to a five-year high.
The findings, published in the 2024 Parental Fog Index: Cross-Industry Report, revealed that a third more (35%) top employers actively marketed their family-friendly details compared with the first report in 2019. This implied that more employers understood the need to competitively market their support for working parents as organisations struggle to hold onto senior female talent and the gender and promotion pay gap grows, the authors argued.
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The number of employers that showcased their support through vlogs and blogs was at a record high (60%) up 11% on last year. Almost every employer openly discussed their commitment to working parents (97%) up 3%. This marked an upward trend of organisations showcasing visible role models across the company to demonstrate how their parental support policies are supported by organisational culture.
For the first time, an equal number of employers published pay and leave details of their paternity policy as maternity policy, up 21% on last year to 57%, found the study.
Executive Coaching Consultancy said it was encouraging that the number of employers that failed to make any reference to support for working parents had plummeted over the last six years from 31% in 2019 to 1%. This suggested employers understand the business need to actively support working parents, the report said.
Overall, 20 companies that appeared in last year’s report improved their ranking while a further 43 maintained last year’s position. Despite this there was a 4% drop in the number of employers awarded top-ranking, “beacon” status.
The study, which placed employers into five categories of visibility, rated 7% of employers in its top beacon group, down from 11% last year. A further 47% of businesses reached “fully visible” status, an increase of 10% from last year. In addition to publishing full details of parental policies, these employers actively marketed their support to working parents as core to their employer brand.
Helen Ilsley, parental coaching lead at the Executive Coaching Consultancy, said she hoped the findings this year “marked a turning point for workplace gender equity”. She added there was evidence that showed that “supporting dads to equally share parenting responsibilities is key to eradicating the motherhood penalty which accounts for 80% of the gender pay gap”.
The research authors argued that until men were supported to equally share childcare the significant investment many organisations were making to retain talented women, increase gender balance on boards, and close the gender pay gap, was “like driving a car with the hand break on”.
The report added: “Organisations that are serious about encouraging more men to take extended paternity leave and work flexibly must first demonstrate that men’s careers will not attract an equivalent fatherhood penalty. That means organisations must start to track the career and pay progression of all workers that take up these policies and share this data openly with employees”.
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