Various organisations in the country are now extending additional benefits to working mothers to ease getting back to work after pregnancy and help them establish a work-life balance and that includes women who opt for adoption and surrogacy options to raise children.
From adoption to surrogacy, companies have been giving leverage to mothers by allowing them to work from home, additional leave during adoption and surrogacy along with maternity leave which is common to all organisations.
For example, Coca-Cola India provides a 15-day leave period for adoption to the mothers who want to adopt a child. Similarly, in Airtel, women employees can avail 12 weeks of leave and if the age of the child is within two years then the leave would be six weeks.
To support an adoptive parent, 36 days of paid leave each year is available for women employees and single fathers at ICICI bank.
In a unique initiative, PNB MetLife grants four weeks of leave as maternity benefit to women employees opting for surrogacy with the same benefit for adoption. The company also gives a recovery period for an unfortunate incident of miscarriage during pregnancy.
"Motherhood is one of the most sensitive stages in a woman's lifecycle and our maternity policy allows 12 weeks of leave with an option to increase it by clubbing sick leave, earned leave or casual leave with it. New mothers can avail an additional one month leave with pay in case of any complications during delivery.
"Our women employees going in for surrogacy or adoption can avail of 4 weeks of leave as a maternity benefit. In the unfortunate event of a miscarriage, a 6-week leave can be availed," says Tim Braswell, Director HR, PNB MetLife.
To manage 'tiresome' toddlers companies have come up with creches that would not only help the mothers keep an eye on their children but also give children an opportunity to meet others in their age group.
The creche support policy at Coca-Cola gives freedom to
employees in selecting a creche of their choice and get reimbursement annually from the company.
Additionally, the company's 'Kids@Work' policy allows employees to get their children to work on at least two days.
Special arrangements are made in the office to engage and entertain the children which include magic show, film screenings, games, fun activities etc.
The Airtel office in Gurgaon, provides Day Care facilities for children by accommodating babies starting 5 months to 5 years and also have an after school programme age.
CCTVs are installed for constant surveillance and make it accessible to employees along with medical facilities available for emergency.
"Women often take a break from their careers due to various life-stage needs like maternity and child care. To provide an enabling environment and to ensure that working women do not leave the workforce. We have has designed several policies to help and support its women employees at different life stages. This includes maternity leave, child care leave, fertility leave and flexible working hours, among others," says T K Srirang, Senior General Manager & Head- Human Resources, ICICI Bank.
Besides, the company also provides a 180-day fertility leave for employees undergoing fertility treatment and 36 days of paid child care leave is available each year for mothers or single fathers till the child attains the age of 2 years.
Many companies have also started work from home policy which enables employees to balance their children and work at the same time.
At companies like ICICI bank, women employees have a provision of working from home. They can have seamless access to their required 'IT applications' for their resistance.
"The technology that we have developed has a unique 'in-built' identity check that gives access only to the employee. We have used facial recognition technology to ensure that no one can impersonate the employee and get access to our applications. This is part of an overall 3-level security process, which ensures that the bank's data remains protected and secure," says Srirang.
