Transport for London, Monzo and Goldman Sachs have been named among those technology businesses which offer their workforces the strongest maternity, paternity and family-friendly policies.
Technology diversity champions Code First Girls and the MotherBoard Movement partnered on the #MumsWhoCode campaign to tackle challenges faced by working parents in the technology industry. They highlighted those businesses offering a minimum of either six months of full-pay maternity policy, or four months of full-pay paternity policy, alongside flexible working arrangements, on-site childcare and other family-friendly policies.
The campaign recognised aerospace and defence multinational Thales’ fertility treatment leave, return-to-work mentoring and coaching programme for new mothers. It is also in the process of introducing buddies for all parents returning to work from family leave, and offers six months full pay for employees who have been in their role for at least a year.
Ford, meanwhile, was recognised for providing employees with 52 weeks of statutory maternity leave regardless of length of service or if their pregnancy results in a stillbirth, and a partial reimbursement of NCT Parent Craft Class fees.
Government agency Defence Science and Technology Laboratory was listed for its job sharing and flexi-time schemes, as well as a blended working policy, so employees can work on laboratory sites, from home or in other remote UK locations.
The employers recognised for their maternity leave policies were:
- Ford
- Thales
- Deloitte
- DSTL
- Arenko
- Goldman Sachs
- Shoosmiths
- Flutter
- Transport for London
- Revolut
- Monzo
- Willmot Dixon
- Atkins
- GCHQ
The employers recognised for their paternity leave policies were:
- Burberry
- FundApps
- Deutsche Bank
- Bumble
- Wise
- Klarna
- Innocent
- BCG
- Abrdn
- American Express
- M and G
- Netflix
- Spotify
Anna Brailsford, chief executive officer of Code First Girls, said: “To protect and accelerate progress, tech businesses must ensure they have policies in place that are inclusive of employees at all stages of their life. Caring responsibilities for parents bring new challenges that can widen gender inequality over time.”
Sophie Creese, founder of MotherBoard, added: “With 50% of women leaving the tech industry around childbearing age, we need to tackle this drop off point of skilled women from leaving if we want to improve gender disparity at all seniority levels. By offering good maternity and paternity leave policies, employers showcase their value on parenthood and we’re very pleased to spotlight those that are leading the way.”
