Reward Gateway introduces one year’s fully paid parental leave globally

Reward GatewayReward Gateway has enhanced its parental leave policy to up to one year on full pay.

The new policy allows all primary carers, regardless of gender, to take unlimited paid leave in the first year after their child’s birth or adoption.

The employee engagement organisation, which employs more than 300 staff globally, has introduced this change as part of a broader revamp of its global benefits package.

Reward Gateway reviewed its benefits offering earlier this year, with the aim of injecting more flexibility and choice into the benefits programme.

The review also aimed to align the benefits available to staff with the organisation’s new core values, such as fairness, balance and choice, and to ensure that the programme was suitable for staff across all of its locations.

New additions to the programme include increasing annual leave from 30 to 35 days, and a holiday buy and sell scheme of up to five days.

Employees also have access to an all-employee share scheme, staff lottery, a free book benefit, wedding and new baby bonuses and free healthy breakfasts and drinks.

The new global benefits programme will be implemented over the next few months.

Debra Corey, group rewards director at Reward Gateway, said: “We are committed to providing our employees with benefits that deliver against our new principles. We used the review to make sure that every benefit ticked each and every box.

“Our updated parental leave policy is an example of how we changed a benefit to align with these principles. We want all our employees, regardless of gender, to be able to spend time with their children, safe in the knowledge that their role will be there for them when they’re ready.

“Paid parental leave is an important contributing factor to help reduce the gender pay gap, get more women into [senior executive] positions and strike a healthy work-life balance.”