Nationwide pet superstore Jollyes has enhanced its range of employee benefits as part of its mission to be one of the best UK retail employers.
From January, Jollyes’ more than 1,250 employees will be entitled to enhanced paid maternity leave of six months, up from six weeks, and it will double paid paternity leave to four weeks. It will also introduce fertility leave for two days of each IVF cycle, as well as neonatal leave and baby loss leave.
The organisation has made these enhancements in recognition of its understanding that there are many roads to becoming a parent so it wants to support all staff at different stages of their journey.
In addition, Jollyes has partnered with financial wellbeing app Wagestream to enable its employees to financially plan, see upcoming payments ahead of time and draw payments in advance.
It has also partnered with The Retail Trust to launch its Happiness Dashboard, which has tips and tools to help employees to be happy at work. Jollyes will receive anonymised data from staff who complete a short survey about the benefits that most resonate with them.
Claire Goldenberg, people director at Jollyes, said: “The early response from Jollyes employees to our enhanced parental policies has been fantastic, with the introduction of baby loss leave particularly striking a chord. We are committed to our goal of being one of the best employers in retail. That’s why we wanted to ensure our parental policies was one of many reasons our people would want to build a long-term career with us.
“We appreciate that the stretch between December and January payday can be a real pinch point for many people’s finances, which was why partnering with Wagestream at this time of year was particularly important for us. We hope this partnership will help give our incredible people that extra bit of peace of mind over the Christmas period, and in the months to come.”
