ACCENTURE SHARES GOOD NEWS FOR 'NEW PARENTS' ESPECIALLY FOR DADS- REPORT!

Over the past year at IT major- Accenture more than women, men have been taking paid parental leave. Nearly, 272 dads applied the 18 weeks of fully paid leave available, when compared to 115 new mothers. While in 2016, just 56 men took leave. 

According to company standards, Superannuation is paid during parental leave, and annual leave, personal leave and long service leave that can be accrued during the period. 

 As per Women's Agenda report, Accenture has seen a 330 percent increase in men applying for leave over the past four years. This option is being claimed mostly due to a new policy which is offering 18 weeks of fully paid parental leave to new parents. This new policy was introduced in November 2018.

Ever since being introduced, this policy has showed excellent result, offering direct figures on the impact of paid parental leave equality policies, which has been introduced over the past couple of years to promote better shared care at home.

Looking into the positive side, this policy is in high demand as more young fathers are taking parental leave after noticing others taking it and helping mothers at home. 

Gareth Shaw, a managing director in Accentures Financial Services practice, says he’s been noticing more dads accessing the leave. He is also planning to normalise it across the firm. Meanwhile, he also believes that the policy is exactly the kind of thing that is needed for parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Accenture’s country manager Bob Easton in a statement  said: “It is essential for us to normalise men being active carers in order to level the professional playing field, and we may see this being accelerated as a result of COVID-19.”

At Accenture, the policy enables “all permanent full time and part-time employees of all gender identiies” to access 18 week’s paid parental leave. This leave can be taken during the birth or adoption of a child, who is newly under parental care.

Earlier to this policy, staff could only access 13 weeks leave.