Introduced just a year ago (c.f. article No. 10475) Aviva’s second parent parental leave program that allows all employees who become parents regardless of gender to take a fixed period of paid leave has proved particularly popular among fathers in the five countries across which the program has been initially deployed (paid leave of 10 weeks in France, 26 weeks in the UK, 12 weeks in Canada, 18 weeks in Ireland, and 16 weeks in Singapore). Aviva’s leap of faith seems to have worked, at least in the UK (in terms of the numbers) and the insurer now hopes that its concept of ‘equal pay parental leave’ will become commonplace.
Over the course of 10 and ½ months 729 Aviva staff members have taken up the new Aviva parental leave program, 496 of whom work in the UK, and of these 228 fathers took up the option. Aviva has calculated that 67% of UK ‘new-fathers’ have taken up the landmark policy of up to six months parental leave, and 95% of fathers have extended the length of their leave periods, which had previously been two weeks.
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