Women's Day 2018: How firms support employees through parenthood journey

Companies now deciding to support employees throughout the parenthood journey - in turn, ensures that fellow women have a better experience at the workplace

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a date designated by the UN to celebrate and advocate for women’s rights and gender equality. In the year of #MeToo and Time’s Up, it is clear that the original aim of this day has still not been realised. Women are struggling to close the equality gap, more significantly, in the corporate world.

Motherhood is a period when many women decide to stop working. New mothers sometimes find it difficult to adjust to their dual roles. 

Many companies have now decided to support employees throughout the parenthood journey - this, in turn, ensures that fellow women have a better experience in the workplace.

"We understand that maternity and employment should not be an ‘either/or’ choice, and thus, when we evaluate a candidate, we look at them basis their credentials, competencies, quality of experience, and value fitment, independent of their gender or life events that might have led to a break in continuous employment", Abhinav Chopra, CHRO, Viacom18 told Business Standard.

 Woes of working women

Often working mothers suffer from the guilt and social stigma of being too selfish since they cannot be with their children throughout the day. In India, the forces that make them feel so are at work even before a child is born.

Moreover, couples who are both working hard to earn a livelihood in the 24/7 corporate work culture in India are shamed for being “absent parents”.

Towards brighter days

Companies like Ikea, Viacom18, Ericsson are now going the extra mile to provide benefits such as counselling for weight and fitness, extended maternity leave, transportation facilities, leave for elder care and bereavement, etc. 

Flexibility for employees

Viacom18 provides 36 weeks of maternity leave, 30 days of paternity leave and leaves for medical check-ups during pregnancy. The firm has a flexible working option for 12 weeks post maternity leave and day-care facility and allowances. To strengthen the employee-company relationship, Viacom18 offers birthday, marriage, empathy and compassionate leave - and pet allowance.

"Viacom18 has an unlimited Work from Home policy, which offers employees the flexibility to address unavoidable personal commitments and exigencies. 

Work from Home is available to all employees irrespective of their gender", said   Abhinav Chopra

Swedish retailer IKEA also introduced a progressive parental policy last year. Ikea male and female parent can take six months maternity leave.It is also planning to offer creche facility in its new stores.

At Ericsson, women employees can now request for an extended leave of two months beyond the 26-week maternity leave. Employees also have a flexible working policy, under which they can opt for a different work schedule for a period of not more than three months in a year.

These gestures are an effort to build better employer brands and distinctive employee value propositions.

One may think that such flexibilities affect work efficiency in an organization. However, Chopra said, "Contrary to having a negative effect on performance, employee feedback tells us that the bouquet of benefits that we offer to our employees empowers and encourages them to give their best, knowing that the company truly cares for them."

"Special benefits to women employees does affect work efficiency, but positively," he added.

Why Maternity rules are so important

Last year, the Indian government passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 , through which about 1.8 million women could benefit. The measure took India to the third position in terms of the number of weeks for maternity leave after Canada and Norway Norway where it is 50 weeks and 44 weeks, respectively.

However, going by the uniform definition of workers in the 2011 census, the female work participation rate in the organised urban sector is abysmal. It stands at a mere 15.44 per cent - this is the sector that is covered under the Maternity Bill.

A report by the Indian Women's Network of the Confederation of Indian Industry said that an about 37 per cent of working women in India opted out of their jobs mid-career owing to maternity or childcare issues. Social media, blogs are extensive with accounts of mothers who had held lucrative positions in private companies and were forced to leave due to unsupportive human resource departments.

The fact is that poor maternity rules have a bad impact on firms too. When trained/skilled workers leave, both the efficiency and the profitability of the enterprise declines, which, when it happens en masse, has a negative effect on the GDP of the country.

A McKinsey Global study in 2015 found that India could increase its GDP by 16-60 per cent by 2025 by simply enabling women to participate in the economy at par with men.