Businesses worried about extension to parental leave

Posted by HR Zone in Pay & benefits on Thu, 01/05/2008 - 11:55

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are concerned over government plans to extend parental leave, according to new research.

The report by Citrix Online, which surveyed almost 300 SMBs and 1,800 working parents, found that 58% of SMBs believed that extending maternity leave would have a negative commercial impact on their business, while 48% said the same for paternity leave.

However, the findings also revealed that 74% of businesses have implemented flexible working options, while almost half welcomed the government's plans to extend flexible working to parents of older children.

Denise Tyler, founder of Mother@Work, said: "Working parents worry about the affect that having children will have on their career aspirations, so it is promising to see that businesses are recognising the benefits of flexible working and introducing options that will really help employees."

For the working parents surveyed, mothers ranked 'working away from the office' as the most important benefit (54%), followed by a pension (44%) and an annual bonus or health insurance (both 36%).

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Editor's Welcome

 

Hello! And welcome back as we enter 2012, with a busy year ahead of us all. With talk of double-dip recessions, a possible partial or even full break-up of the Eurozone and unemployment rates set to hit nearly 9%, topics such as organisational streamlining, staff resilience and talent management are likely to be on many an HR professional's lips over the next 12 months.
 
But to lighten the gloom here in the UK, we also have the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and its attendant public holidays to look forward to at the start of June. Followed by two weeks of Olympic Games from 27 July to 12 August and the Paralympics from 29 August to 9 September, each generating their own excitement, but also issues to work through for hard-pressed HR departments trying to sort out the multifarious staffing issues in advance.
 
So with an interesting but challenging year to come, HRZone promises to be with you, supporting you all the way and providing our usual insightful blend of news, analysis, community blogs and expert comment to help you sort the wheat from the chaff. As ever, we love to hear from you too so feel free to either post your words of wisdom to our blog section yourself or, in the case of longer, more in-depth ‘expert voice’ articles, drop me a line with any ideas to cath.everett@siftmedia.co.uk.....
 
Cath Everett
HRZone Editor 
 
 
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