Here’s what happens when new parents decide their own parental leave

At Makers Academy we believe everyone should have a job that they love. We‘ve built our company based on trust, not fear. We have an unlimited leave policy, and we can set our own salary. We believe in the benefits of a diverse workforce, and we aim to actively reduce the gender gap in the technology sector.

Even with all this in place, we still found that it was hard for an employee to take for time off to care for a growing family. When my son was born 2 years ago, our CEO was supportive, and advised me to take as much time off as I needed. I took 3 weeks off work. In the UK, that’s 1 week more than most new fathers can expect.

Even with the support of my CEO, I felt guilty taking that extra week. When I returned to work, I felt just as guilty leaving my wife and child at home. On top of all this, for the first 12 weeks of his life, my son was colicky and liable to cry all night, so my guilt was compounded by exhaustion. I think it’s safe to say I wasn’t at my most productive! All in all, I regret my decision to go back to work so early.

Why did it feel so difficult to just take some time off?

We found that in a self-managed company, it’s difficult to know what support the company can provide. There appears to be a conflict between the needs of the individual and the needs of the company. The individual needs to take time off to love and nurture a new human being, whilst the company needs to get a job done. In a self managed workplace, it’s hard to know how or when to prioritise your own needs over the needs of the company. We also found that we didn’t have enough in-depth knowledge about parental leave. We weren’t clear on the legal implications, or what to expect of parents when a baby is born.

Enhancing parental leave beyond the UK statutory could help us to employ more women.

In this well-sourced article, Lyndsey-Rae McIntyre (Chief Diversity Officer at IBM) said:

“The ROI comes in the form of attracting the best talent in the industry, and in having an engaged workforce.”

A recent report by the EHRC found that discrimination is a growing problem. Around 54,000 new mothers may be forced from their jobs each year — more than twice the figures from 2005. Of those mothers who were allowed to work flexibly on their return, around half reported negative consequences. They received fewer opportunities at work or felt that their opinion was less valued.

There’s also an opportunity to help us retain more women, giving them a better chance at succeeding at all levels of the business. Susan Wojcicki wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

“When we increased paid leave at Google to 18 weeks, the rate at which new mothers left fell by 50%.”

Parental leave has a positive affect on the whole family.

The Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn conducted research showing that children of mothers who took maternity leave had higher education and income levels in adulthood, with the largest effect seen in children from lower-educated households.

Parental leave is important for the secondary carers as well, who are often also the primary earner. Research conducted in Sweden found that each month the father stays on parental leave has a positive effect on maternal earnings. In fact, when income was measured 4 years after the birth of the child, mothers’ incomes are 6.7% higher for every month of paternity leave their partner takes. Fathers in Sweden are currently entitled to 90 days of paid paternity leave.

In light of this research it became really clear to us that having no policy on parental leave meant we were missing a great opportunity. The ‘big-name’ tech companies like Twitter and Facebook are increasing their parental leave in a competitive effort to attract and retain female workers. That brought us to our next problem — like any startup, cash flow is a concern, in a way that it isn’t for the likes of Twitter or Facebook.

How much does it cost to enhance Statutory Maternity Pay?

After doing our research, we were pleased to find that providing enhanced parental leave and pay isn’t as detrimental to cash flow as you might believe. The cost of parental leave is dependent on the level of enhancement provided by the policy, and whether or how people are ‘backfilled’ whilst on parental leave. In the UK, SMP (statutory maternity pay) will cover some of the costs:

• 90% of earnings for the first 6 weeks
• £139.58 for 33 weeks thereafter

We estimate that when someone leaves the company, we can expect to lose 3–6 months of productivity, plus time spent hiring a replacement, plus recruitment fees. On top of that there is the risk of recruiting the wrong person. By comparison, paid parental leave becomes cost effective as well as humane.

What benefits did we decide to offer?

In making this decision, we wanted to trust individuals to make their own choices, whilst empowering them to take the time they need with their family.

We considered the biological development of a newborn. Babies tend to be more responsive to settling into a regular sleep routine around 12–18 weeks. The above studies noticed improvements when parental leave increased above 12 weeks. We also wanted to recognise the secondary carer’s role in the family. We recognised a precedent set by Google, Twitter and Sweden to offer at least 12 weeks paid leave for the secondary carer. Taking all this research into account, we settled on 2 options.

Option 1:

We advise the following standard guidelines, as an enhancement to SMP:

• Up to 18 weeks of fully paid parental leave for the primary carer
• Up to 12 weeks of fully paid leave for the secondary carer
• Statutory maternity leave would apply as normal. Up to one year of leave for the primary carer, with the option of shared parental leave and pay.

This option will give soon-to-be-parents more confidence in making this personal decision, without feeling any pressure to ask ‘permission’ from a superior.

We hope our recommendations will empower both primary and secondary carers to take the time they need to bring new life into the world. This also sends a clear message that we are serious about bridging the gender gap.

Option 2:

• Staff members set their own parental leave & pay, negotiated via the advice process with their colleagues.
• We provide a knowledge base of our research to staff members.

Every family is different, and we wouldn’t want to try and predict every possible future for our employees. This option allows the employee to be the main decision maker in something so personal. For example, there are many reasons a person may not qualify for SMP, in which case a more custom option is more appropriate.

In providing an inclusive parental leave structure there is a real opportunity for a company to attract and retain a more diverse and highly skilled workforce. For a company like Makers Academy the reward will be felt in more subtle ways than the bottom line ROI (Although we’ll enjoy that, too!). We value our team members as whole people, and this parental leave structure is respectful, inclusive, and affordable.

Makers Academy is a teal organisation with a self-managed workforce. To follow our journey, follow us here on Medium.