Aligned to their employee promise of ‘Freedom’, Vodafone NZ are proud to announce innovative updates to their Parental Leave offering, designed to better support both primary carers and partners be part of this special time with their new arrival. Primary carers will receive an additional 26 days of paid leave and partners will receive a matching 26 days allowance. Primary carers will also continue to receive Superannuation contribution for up to a full year while on leave, helping to reduce the ‘motherhood penalty’.

Their new benefits will champion equity, support primary carers’ advancement in the workplace and offer financial security at a time when it matters. In addition, Vodafone are enhancing the support given to their people on return to work as they navigate this important life milestone.

Vodafone understands that everyone values the Freedom promise in different ways, and in recognising the differing needs of a diverse workforce, will offer Primary Carer Flexi Return, a scheme offering returning primary carers 26 additional days of leave, to be used flexibly in the 2 years post birth / adoption.

Their new Secondary Carer Flexi leave provides partners with an increase from 10 days paid leave to 26 days paid leave. These 26 days can be used flexibly over two years, giving secondary carers freedom to choose how to use that time with their whānau. This aims to address the challenges faced by partners, who increasingly tell Vodafone they want to have the opportunity to be more involved at home.

One of the contributing factors to the ‘Motherhood penalty’ is loss of potential Kiwisaver earnings while on parental leave. To directly address this, Vodafone will continue Superannuation payments at 4% for the duration of Parental leave, up to a maximum of 52 weeks. They also top up the government Primary Carer payments to full pay, for a period of 22 weeks, which will now be paid as soon as the person begins their leave.

Jodie King, Chief People Officer, said her team are continuously seeking feedback and reviewing what other improvements they can make for Vodafone employees, “Our Freedom promise for employees means we’ll continue to offer choice to our people. We’ve already made great strides here launching our work from anywhere policy, and we’ll have more to announce in the coming months as we continue to build a world-class offer for our people”.