Maternity Leave - What you need to know!
When a team member shares their exciting news of their pregnancy or impending adoption with you, considering how to support your employee in the transition to and from maternity leave is vital and will ease any potential stress on both sides.
The team member is required to share their news with you and request their maternity leave in writing, at least three months before their expected due date. Ensure the team member has provided their requested final day, their first day back to work and a breakdown of their time off and what leave this is made up of. Their eligibility will be dependent on a few different factors - which, you can check out here. Once you have approved the requested maternity leave, the team member can then apply for their paid parental leave through MyIR.
In the lead up to the team member transitioning to maternity leave, keeping communication going and exploring support is key, this includes:
Keeping in Touch "KIT" Days - these are great for both parties to stay connected and for employees to stay involved in workplace changes, which will minimise the need for playing catch up on their return to work. They can also receive payment for this (up to 64 hours) without their PPL payment being impacted.
Communication level while they're off – discuss if the team member wants regular workplace updates during this period and what this would look like.
How they see their return to work going - this may include if there is an option of returning to a part time role on a short or long term basis.
While your team member is on maternity leave, make sure you reach out, even just to say “Hi”. Remember they're in a baby bubble and facing new challenges (hello sleepless nights!), days can quickly zoom by and turn into months, so communicating, checking-in and inviting them to team events (or even just for a coffee with the team) and getting those KIT days in place, is super important.
On the transition back to the workplace, have an agreed plan in place and keep communication open. We recommend looking at reduced hours for the first few weeks while the team member is learning to do the working-parent juggle or to assist with balancing daycare bugs.
With there being a strong focus on employee benefits, there is a trend in businesses providing a top up to the parental leave payments to a percentage of the team members normal wages, this is an awesome benefit, and something a lot of candidates look for in employers. If this is something you offer or are considering, your team member will likely need to change their tax code while they receive their paid parental leave (PPL) payment to the secondary tax code on either their top up payment or their PPL payment, whichever is smaller.
Having a parental leave policy in place around the process and support available can be a huge help here and can provide both parties with a guide on how to approach maternity leave. Reach out to the People Passion team if you would like to discuss this further.