While workers are called upon to work longer and longer, companies are led to collaborate with multigenerational teams. They must now take into account the expectations of each age group, including the most mature. A phenomenon that pushes some firms to offer leave to the grandparents they have in their ranks.
Fannie Mae, Booking and SentinelOne are among the companies now offering these new types of leave to their employees, according to Quartz magazine. They have the right to it as soon as they become grandparents, whether following childbirth or adoption. This means that companies consider the family and the balance between personal and professional life as a lever for attracting and retaining employees.
“Grandparental leave” an attractive factor for companies
At a time of shortage and aging of the workforce, all means are good to ensure that employees are not tempted to see if the grass is not greener elsewhere. This is why human resources directors are adding grandparental leave to their arsenal to keep their employees in their lap, in the same way as telecommuting or a certain flexibility in working hours. “Grandparents do a lot. The working population is changing, people are working longer, and they are still in the job market when they have grandchildren. Grandparents are not a huge proportion of our staff, but they are a key part“, Divya Ghatak, director of human resources of SentinelOne told Quartz.
For the time being, the firm specializing in cybersecurity only has a few employees who can potentially claim grandparental leave. But they could be many more in a few years. Some 20% of Americans over 65 were still working in 2019, according to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). A growing number of retirees are returning to employment in the country, due to the financial difficulties they face.
An option recently appeared in the United States
A phenomenon that has not escaped companies which, like SentinelOne, offer grandparental leave to their teams. “(This measure) has sent a very strong message to the rest of our employees that we are not just looking after one segment of the workforce”explained Divya Ghatak to Quartz.
Grandparents’ leave recently appeared in the United States, like the unlimited ones before them. Nothing surprising when you know that the country does not offer any legal minimum for paid leave and that the average is around 15 days per year. In this context, grandparental leave is a means of promoting the attractiveness of a company on the labor market.
Leave to reconcile professional and family life
While few of them have yet taken the plunge, most offer a certain organizational flexibility to their employees so that they can reconcile their professional and family imperatives. Because working Americans are no longer willing to sacrifice their lives outside of work to advance their careers. On the contrary, they want to preserve it at all costs. Thus, 82% of Americans prefer to have an additional week of vacation rather than benefit from an annual salary increase of 2,000 dollars, according to a survey carried out by the recruitment specialist EmployBridge among 19,500 employees in the country.
Leaders and managers try to adapt to this phenomenon, by taking into consideration the personal grievances of their employees and by offering them arrangements so that they can continue to work while participating in their family life. A balancing act in line with recent developments in the world of work.
