Blog: Why new paternity leave rules are good for UK business
1 April 2011
The Fatherhood Institute has identified five key ways in which paternity leave and additional paternity leave are good for British businesses:
- Initial and Additional Paternity Leave stimulate financial and labour productivity performance, as well as attracting and keeping high quality male employees
- Fathers’ take-up of paternity and parental leave enables mothers to take shorter maternity leave: this is helpful to employers
- Fathers’ take up of Paternity and Additional Paternity Leave may improve both fathers’ and mothers’ physical and mental health – with positive spinoffs for employers, given the costs to them of poor employee health
- Addressing fathers’ caring responsibilities transparently through paternity leave enables employers to optimise the men’s performance. ‘Sweeping fatherhood under the carpet’ is no longer a viable strategy
- Fathers’ take up of paternity leave can ‘buffer’ families against separation and divorce. Family breakdown is very costly to employers. Fathers experiencing family breakdown typically perform poorly at work and are at high risk of unemployment.
For more detail on all these points, read our paper, The Business Case for Paternity Leave and Additional Paternity Leave in the UK.
Read more about the changes brought in on 3 April 2011.
What happens to maternity leave if a mother dies…or is incapacitated? Find out here
Tags: For employers, For fathers, Maternity leave, Paternity leave
