Interest in shared parental leave is much higher than initially thought, report suggests

The level of employee interest into shared parental leave (SPL) will actually be much higher than initially estimated by the British government, a recent report published by law firm Linklaters was able to reveal.

The survey polled 250 recent parents and parents-to-be working in FTSE 100 companies about SPL and a staggering two-thirds (63%) said they were either interested or very interested in taking up the new right. This is significantly higher than the government estimate of take-up, which is between 2% and 6%.

The research also found that take-up of shared parental leave SPL will be influenced by whether employers offer enhanced pay; 76% of those interested in SPL said entitlement to additional pay during the leave would be relevant to their decision.

On the other hand, 62% of both men and women revealed that they had concerns that taking the leave would damage their career prospects.

Fifty per cent of men said they would be inclined not to take leave if other men in their organisation weren’t taking it.

Tensor Time and Attendance and Personnel Management systems can help ease transition to shared parental leave

Managing changes brought about by the new shared parental leave rules will not come easy for a significant number of HR departments, but going for a workforce management system that enables users to modify existing rules related to leave and pay in an easy and forward-looking manner could help, and this is specifically where Tensor plc could put its extensive experience in this field to very good use.

Our flagship WinTA.NET integrated workforce management solution incorporates a dedicated Absence Planning and Entitlement Management feature.

Our comprehensive, yet user-friendly software comes pre-loaded with graphical calendar charts that provide a colourful way of viewing an individual’s or a department’s absence records.

Each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence, with specific rules set for every interval. As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

WinTA.NET supplies the relevant managers with information on employee’s absences through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. After that, the system would rapidly identify missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you’d like to find out more about the Tensor workforce management solutions, just contact our team or Book a Demo, we’ll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.