The social media giant, Facebook has taken an initiative to engage the men employees who are going to be the proud father. The company has announced a paternity leave for PAID 4 months effective from January 2016 across the globe. This engagement practice will give the new dads to be more supportive at home shouldering their responsibility equally with their spouse and the child.
In western countries extended paternity leave provision is a culture. An Italian employee can avail 13 weeks of leave with 80 percent pay. Similarly a Swedish employee can take for 8 weeks. In Norway, it is 45 weeks with 80 percent pay, followed by in Canada with 35 weeks of leave with 55 percent pay.
Some of the companies in Western countries with extended paternity leaves are Bank of America: 12 weeks; Yahoo: eight weeks; Google: seven weeks; Twitter: six weeks; Microsoft: four weeks; Trip Advisor: four weeks; PricewaterhouseCoopers: three weeks and Deloitte: three weeks.
In India, Godrej provides 2 weeks of paternity leave from 2015. In fact SAP Labs has started the option of flexible timing and work from work option for the new fathers in addition to the 5 days of paternity leave. The Central government employees can avail the facility of paid paternity leave of up to 15 days. Some companies allow employees to take the paternity leave in intervals. For e.g. Sapient has a policy that the men employees take a few days of leave after the delivery followed by again some days of leave when required at home. Not only this, they can even take a break of 2 hours between their works too. Even organizations like Citi encourage employees to take 3- 6 months of flexible work time options after the delivery.
Extended paternity benefits have been utilized as big tool for retaining and engaging the male employees
Spirit Of HR 