How Lewis Silkin developed and rolled out its equalised new parent leave policy
Lewis Silkin LLP talks to HR & Compliance Centre about the development and rollout of its equal parental leave and pay policy, including the benefits of the policy and how it is seeking to encourage other firms to follow suit.
Key points
- The policy applies to all new parents in the same way and completely replaces the firm's maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave policies. In developing the policy, the firm's HR and legal team worked to ensure that the policy triggers underlying statutory rights where possible and had to consider the practical effects of the policy, such as the implications for employee and partner benefits.
- Since the introduction of the policy, all new fathers at the firm have taken 26 weeks' fully paid leave.
- The firm attributes the success of the policy in part to its flexibility and ease of use and, in particular, the fact that leave and pay do not have to be shared by the new parent and their partner (unlike statutory shared parental leave where they do have to be shared).
- Introducing a policy like this is only the first step: senior leadership needs to visibly encourage the taking of leave by new fathers (and particularly senior new fathers) to ensure the success of the policy in practice.
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