Independent agency WiredCo. has expanded its parent leave initiative to include pet owners as well as staff going through surrogacy, IVF, adoption and fostering, AdNews can reveal.
The agency has expanded its support prior to, during and after staff become parents with paid leave, access to unlimited counselling, customised return to work plans and other benefits such as $500 meal vouchers and flexible work from home days.
In researching the redesign WiredCo. management looked at existing models but found none of them truly reflected what their team felt modern parenthood means, so they made up their own.
Angela Hampton, WiredCo founder and managing director, told AdNews the agency feels it has landed on a more humanly approach to parental leave.
“The definition of the ‘family unit’ is so broad now, and so too is the journey people take to become parents, so we wanted to come up with a considered and fully inclusive program that reflects and respects the now,” Hampton said.
During pregnancy staff have the option to work from home when feeling unwell and extra flexibility for appointments.
IVF support includes five days full paid leave for the person undergoing treatment and two days leave for their support person.
While the government’s paid parental leave scheme provides some support to WiredCo people, the current cost of living means it’s not nearly enough, Michelle Hampton, WiredCo. managing partner, said.
“Just 23% of employers in Australia offer paid leave (between 7-12 weeks) and while we are an independently owned SME, we made a conscious decision to be part of this group,” Hampton said.
“Our program doesn’t just look at financial support when our team become parents, it looks at all the other important stuff in the lead up to and afterwards.”
Extra support is also available if something goes wrong. For example miscarriages have two weeks paid leave and stillbirths have four weeks paid leave.
Return to work plans are totally customisable to adjustments required such as role changes, extra support and extra flexibility.
Not everyone plans to have children of their own, but bringing a pet into a person’s life is a big change for anyone and the agency wanted to provide support for these people too, David Kennedy-Cosgrove, WiredCo. partner, said.
“We’ve redefined what it means to be a parent to include fur babes/pets as Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world (28.7 million pets now living in 6.9 million households: 69% of Aussie households). But almost 80% of the country's employers are not pet friendly,” Kennedy-Cosgrove said.
Fur baby leave includes two paid days, plus the option to work-from-home for up to two weeks.
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