The flexibility offered by shared parental leave often appeals to parents but can prove a headache for employers from a resourcing perspective. Rachel Webb Wiles looks at how employers can fill the gap.
Few would argue with the intentions of the shared parental leave (SPL) scheme. Introduced in 2015 to give parents “more choice and flexibility in how they care for their child in the first year”, it was designed to address the gender imbalance in caregiving and offset women’s sliding earning potential after having children.
There are undoubtedly benefits for employers too. In today’s challenging recruiting environment, offering family-friendly policies and demonstrating a commitment to creating an equitable workforce, is a powerful tool in your armoury if you’re looking to attract and retain talent.
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However, SPL is not without its issues. A recent report by the Department for Business and Trade assessing the success of SPL revealed that only 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers had taken up the opportunity.
Parents cite financial reasons as the main barrier for take up, as SPL policies offered by employers are not always as favourable as their maternity leave policies. Employees may also feel that, even though a policy is in place, it is not being effectively implemented in their organisation.
For employers, however, the principal disadvantage reported was the “complexity of the scheme in setting up” and the difficulties of “managing SPL in practice”. So, what are the difficulties, and what can businesses do to mitigate their impact?
A resourcing headache
The very flexibility of SPL – which is what appeals to parents – is what poses the greatest challenge for businesses. As SPL can be shared between partners, both parents may be off work at the same time, or each parent can take time off separately. The leave does not have to be taken in one block but can be split into three different periods. You may therefore have parents taking time off when their child is first born, for example, then return to work for a short period, to take a further block several months later.
Such short periods of leave can be challenging to manage from a resourcing perspective, particularly if they are repeated within a 12-month period as is permitted with SPL. Recruiting someone on a fixed-term contract – the traditional recourse for businesses covering a longer period of leave like maternity leave – is not a viable option in this instance. Often, over-stretched teams absorb the extra work with no additional help and, what was implemented as a tool to improve employee morale and support families, becomes the reason for employees to feel stressed, over-worked and unsupported.
What are the options?
The good news is that, as policies such as SPL grow in popularity, so do innovations in flexible resourcing.
As an in-house lawyer, I know the impact that someone taking short periods of leave can have on a small legal team. Either you increase the workload of existing team members, or you rely on private practice law firms to pick up discrete pieces of work. Not only can this be costly, but it also fails to provide a consistency of service for the business and still relies on a lot of input from existing team members to get somebody different up to speed each time external support is sought. This can be hugely frustrating.
There are now businesses, however, that allow you to engage a lawyer on a flexible short-term basis. The lawyer can step into the shoes of your team member on SPL for a few days a week, relieving the pressure on the team and getting under the skin of your business quickly. This gives the benefit of one point of contact while a team member is on leave, reduces the need to outsource specific pieces of work to private practice law firms, and allows you to effectively manage cost.
The next generation of workers will expect businesses to offer family-friendly policies and put the right support in place to ensure that those policies can be effectively implemented.”
These solutions exist in many sectors, for many different roles, and it is worth exploring your options. Be mindful, however, that not all businesses providing resource on a flexible basis are the same. Do your research and be clear about what skills and experience you need. Being landed with a junior resource when you need someone with experience who can work independently without supervision, can cause more issues than it solves.
Keep employees informed
Let’s be clear, addressing gender inequality in the home and the workplace is a massive undertaking, but the tides are changing. The next generation of workers will expect businesses to offer family-friendly policies and put the right support in place to ensure that those policies can be effectively implemented.
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In the meantime, and as SPL is already a statutory right, it is vitally important that you keep your employees informed. Listen to their concerns and communicate with them about the benefits of SPL and your rationale for adopting an SPL policy. Invest time in exploring the recruiting resources available and be innovative: you may find that there is more choice for an imaginative and workable flexible resource than you had previously thought.
Ultimately, if you manage to address your resourcing issues and implement a flexible parental leave structure, you will improve staff retention and enhance the culture in your business, leading to a happier, healthier workplace.
