Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield – Winner 2021, Best for Fathers
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield build and manage property, including shopping centres, residential, convention and exhibition space, and airports.
Of all the organisations’ male employees, 75% are fathers. The company offers enhanced paternity leave of four weeks at full pay, with flexibility on how they take it, which 100% of eligible fathers took in 2020. They match their enhanced Shared Parental Leave to their enhanced maternity package, with flexibility on how this is utilised within the first year following the birth of a child. They offer three months of leave at full pay and an additional 3 months at half pay.
Fathers are provided with tailored support, including a one-to-one meeting with HR and their line manger to discuss paternity, shared parental leave options and entitlements. They are equipped with a Working Families’ Parental Leave Guide to support their journey.
Fathers are also assigned a workplace buddy as part of their Family Buddy Scheme, which enables current parents to support new and returning parents.
During their leave, fathers keep in contact with their buddy and line manager. When they are ready to return to work, HR arrange a meeting to discuss flexible working and phased return options.
On returning, line managers complete a compulsory (after 3 months leave) return-to-work induction plan to ease the transition back to work.
Employees can attend a New Parents Coaching Workshop, specially designed for fathers and partners. The coaching saw an 80% uptake in 2020, receiving 8.5 out of 10 Happiness Index rating from employees who took part.
Everyone has the right to request flexible working from day one. Of all the flexible working requests submitted by fathers, 100% were approved.
Fathers can also benefit from two paid wellbeing days a year to support their mental and physical wellbeing. A paid Family/Personal Day helps staff with commitments outside of work, like caring responsibilities.
Benefits such as a dedicated Intranet page, a Yammer network, an annual Bring your Kids to Work Day, all support fathers in the workplace.
In 2020, 20% of fathers and partners eligible for shared parental leave opted to take it, (compared to the current UK average of 2%). Based on current requests, the organisation expect to see this increase to 50% in 2021.
Feedback from those leaving the company shows that 80% of leavers rated the business as a family friendly employer, with 84% rating flexibility as adequate or above.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has now achieved ‘Top 30 employer with Working Families’ for the last four years.
Find out what the judges had to say about Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield – Winners of the Best for Fathers Award 2021.