Vodafone has enhanced its support for parents and carers, introducing added assistance, greater flexibility, and extended paid and unpaid leave.
For employees who care for seriously ill, disabled or older loved ones, the carer's policy will offer 18 weeks' leave, with the first week fully paid, for each dependant adult under their care.
This is in line with the organisation’s parental leave policy, which offers the same to employees caring for a child, up until they reach the age of 18, with a maximum of four weeks’ leave to be taken in any one year.
Vodafone has also enhanced the support available for parents whose baby is born prematurely, or who lose a baby before the 24th week of pregnancy. It has enhanced its maternity, paternity and shared parental leave policy to enable employees whose baby is born prematurely to delay the start of their leave until the baby is discharged from hospital.
Vodafone UK will also introduce two weeks’ paid leave for expectant parents, regardless of gender, who lose a baby before the 24th week of pregnancy. This benefit is already available to employees who lose a child in the later stages of pregnancy or at any time before a child’s 18th birthday, inclusive of whether the loss occurs to an employee or their partner.
Additionally, the organisation has introduced free access to a care concierge service, provided by Legal and General, to provide support and assistance to employees balancing work and eldercare commitments.
The service includes a 30-minute telephone call with a care expert to help employees and guidance on funding care. Employees can then access discounted services if they require help with finding care, or if they would like a care expert to act on their behalf.
Clare Corkish, HR director at Vodafone UK, said: “As an employer, we are committed to helping protect and support our people and their families through important life stages. These new policy changes have been made in the belief that we can have a positive impact at a time when people are dealing with sensitive and stressful situations, and ultimately need support the most.
"Our ground-breaking maternity leave, parental leave, domestic violence and abuse policy and, more recently, our global menopause commitment have all been curated to best meet the needs of our employees and we expect these enhancements to make a real difference.”
