Dive Brief:
- MTX Group Inc. announced Friday that it will offer one year of paid maternity leave, effective 2020. The cloud company's new policy creates three months paternity leave, as well.
- MTX said that it recently began streamlining key business functions such as finance, operations, development and talent acquisition. These developments aim to provide what it called an "inclusive and generous career support package" for women that "continues attracting top talent, values modern work practices and advocates for employee well-being."
- "The extended Maternity Leave Policy is another step forward in ensuring new parents can adjust to the changes in their lives without having to worry about economic stability or losing value to the organization," said Ankita Sinha, chief people officer, in a statement. "MTX has always prioritized a high Happiness Index and year-long maternity leave will reinforce that to a large extent. MTX is setting a benchmark that addresses the gender gap, a real concern in the tech industry and global economy."
Dive Insight:
Paid leave remains a highly in-demand benefit among workers. Policies that codify longer durations of parental leave allow working parents time to balance work with family responsibilities. Lengthier leave policies come at a time when 60% of parents claim to be burned out, according to one study.
A year's worth of leave can create scheduling problems, however, as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation discovered. The foundation cut its 52-week paid leave in half because it claimed that, with temporary positions open for this long, it eventually needed to "backfill the backfill." At certain points, 50% of a team would be either on leave or staffed by those in backfill positions, according to Steven Rice, the foundation's chief human resources officer.
Employers that address barriers to advancement for women and other underrepresented groups in the workplace are developing a more inclusive work environment. Leave is a consistent barrier for women, and many women fear that taking caregiving leave will doom their career advancement — conveying that they are not serious about their work or loyal to their organizations.
Experts have said that offering fathers (or any secondary caregivers) the same or similar leave time as mothers could help partners not only balance work and personal responsibilities, but also better balance caregiving duties at home. Policies at companies like EY, which gives fathers as much leave time as mothers, and PwC, which returns parents back to work in phases after they take parental leave, might allow workers more support in and out of work during this period.
