Equal paternity pay transforms take-up

Previously an average of two weeks was taken by dads at Aviva.

Almost all (97%) new dads take more than two weeks paternity leave.

This compares to national figures where, in the year end to March 2019, less than a third of eligible new fathers used paternity leave.

And according to analysis by the University of Birmingham, only 9,200 new parents (1% of those entitled) took Shared Parental Pay in 2017/18.

Lindsey Rix, Aviva CEO UK Savings and Retirement, said: “When barriers are removed, and the right culture is in place, men are keen to take more time out of work to care for their young families. Equal parental leave can be a powerful catalyst for changing workplace culture and the experience of new parents.”

“We believe our approach to parental leave is working because of a number of factors. First, there is active and vocal support from senior leaders, who themselves take months, not weeks, of parental leave. Second is the simplicity and ease of the policy, there’s no small print. Third, there is support beyond the paternity period itself – when colleagues come back to work there is broad availability for flexible working. Finally, we work hard to normalise it – the more people who see colleagues taking lengthier parental leave, the more they feel able to do so as well.”

However women at Aviva continue to take a significantly longer period of parental leave compared to men (311 days v 158 days), and only 18% of women said they didn’t change their original working hours, compared to 62% of men.