Dad Chats Live – Equal Parental Leave. Today we were joined by Rob Simpson who works for @avivauk. Aviva have scrapped paternity leave, two weeks just aren’t enough – Aviva recognised this and have an excellent new policy.
At Aviva all staff are entitled to equal parental leave when they have a child. This means that fathers can take up to 6 months paid leave and up to 12 months including unpaid leave. This is a game changer when becoming a parent and listening to Robs experience it’s easy to see why. Rob tells us why this policy was so important for him, his wife, and his new born baby – especially getting through those first few weeks of sleepless nights! He also tells us how supportive Aviva were when he used the policy, not only do they actively encourage their staff to make use of the policy. They also keep in touch with their staff while they’re off. Rob’s manager kept him up to date with things at work so he didn’t have to worry about it!
This policy is an absolute game changer, and something we think is so important for dads to be offered. We would love to see more companies making a change to support equal parental leave.
Aviva have also written us a great blog post telling us all about their policy. It’s entitled How Aviva Are Changing Paternity Leave For The Better. Anthony Fitzpatrick Head of colleague Experience and Employment Policy at Aviva tells us about the change to the entitlement, and Rob shared more of his experiences of using it.
