The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has launched a new loyalty leave policy for staff in 24 of its operating countries, providing five days of paid leave for those with three or more years of consecutive service.
The new paid leave policy, which was launched on 20 May 2019, aims to improve staff wellbeing and engagement, as well as to attract and retain talent. The policy will be effective from 20 September 2019, which is the end of ANZ’s financial year.
Kathryn van der Merwe (pictured), group executive, talent and culture at ANZ, said: “Many of our employees have told us that they want more flexibility to focus on what’s important outside work, and one way we’re giving them that is to provide more time off.”
ANZ has 37,000 employees working across 32 countries. In Australia, the standard allowance for annual leave is 20 days; loyalty leave will therefore increase this to 25 days for eligible staff. Employees based in countries that already provide 25 days of annual leave, such as France, Germany, United Arab Emirates, the UK and New Caledonia, will not be eligible for loyalty leave. The policy will also not be available in Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam due to complex annual leave rules.
Eligible staff working in Australia, New Zealand, Bengaluru and Japan will also have to ensure that their annual leave balance is no higher than their yearly accrual as at 30 September each year in order to utilise the leave policy; for example, the yearly accrual limit is no more than 20 days for full-time Australian employees and no more than 23 days for a full-time employee in New Zealand.
The loyalty leave policy was communicated to employees via an email from the organisation’s chief executive officer, in addition to videos, news and information displayed on the staff intranet, posts on its internal social network, and promotions across ANZ’s LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
Van der Merwe added: “Regular annual leave is essential as it allows our people to spend time doing what’s important to them personally, as well as to rest and recharge to ensure they are able to deliver great results for our customers.
“While we considered a number of potential enhancements to various employee benefits, annual leave is a core benefit that is relevant to all permanent employees, regardless of seniority, gender, or status as a parent.”