With Capgemini UK’s recent rethink of its Family Friendly Policies, the organisation is responding to the needs of a diverse and inclusive workforce — and a changing world in which the understanding of support and the definition of family is expanding.
Vanessa Twohey, Head of Employee Engagement & Advisory Services and Simon Nandhra, Head of Employee Relations, talk about why an update is long overdue — and how this refresh, with inclusivity at its core, is challenging expectations, changing the culture, and driving the business’ Diversity, Equality, Inclusion & Wellbeing agenda forward at the most fundamental level.
What inspired the radical refresh of family friendly policies at Capgemini UK?
Simon: At Capgemini UK, the employee journey / experience is central. We understand that many of us will have a different family journey experience with highs and lows along the way, including experiences where starting a family can be really challenging. We wanted to take a leap forward in terms of what we are doing around our family-friendly policies to ensure our people have access to the right support no matter what their circumstances may be. I am a strong believer that the employer–employee relationship is defined by how we are there for each other at critical times in our lives.
For the first phase of our reviewed policies, we focused on support around pregnancy and baby loss, fertility assistance, and compassionate and bereavement leave. For the second phase, we wanted to break the barriers around parenting. We asked ourselves: why is it that people on maternity get X amount of leave, yet paternity leave is only this much? What about if you are a same-sex couple or adopting a child? Following our review, engagement with our employee networks, (such as the Women@Capgemini UK network), and receiving employee feedback, we significantly refreshed our approach, replacing our existing individual family friendly policies for maternity, paternity, adoption, surrogacy and shared parental leave with two new inclusive ones — Primary Parent Family Leave and Partner Family Leave.
Vanessa: The initial policy refresh was inspired by our women’s employee network, Women@Capgemini UK. The members had asked us to update our policies around baby loss. The experience of loss comes in many forms and when we looked at this, we decided it needed to be more inclusive, so we expanded the remit from the initial ask. What we’ve tried to do with all our Family Friendly Policies is acknowledge that people are on a journey throughout life. We are also looking at how we can support people in creating and growing a family at all stages, and developing as a parent and navigating all the responsibilities that come with that. For us, it’s not just about the policies – it’s about our approach to the employee experience. It’s not about, ‘Here’s our policy, you must follow this to the letter’; ultimately, it’s about engaging in a conversation about what supporting someone actually means.
How important is it to consider inclusive language in moving your policies forward?
Simon: As a diverse and inclusive organisation, we recognise that terminology is key in respecting and acknowledging others, therefore the language in our policies take this into consideration. Historically, terminology was gender focused. For example, our previous paternity leave policy was applicable for ‘partners’, irrespective of gender. We thought, ‘well, then why isn’t it just called partner policy?’, which has led to a gender-neutral and inclusive approach across all our policies. When we considered how we talk about issues, it then opened doors to look at how we’re doing things in other areas of diversity and inclusion. We have individuals who are neurodivergent for example, and we’re now looking at how we can adapt our policies to suit their needs too.
What external drivers have helped inspire policy change?
Vanessa: The pandemic was definitely a point of rebalancing. Suddenly, people were saying, ‘I want to take more time out with my family’ and recognising that working away from home can have a real impact on relationships. Internally, we also saw a lot more engagement and ideas coming through from our employees, asking us whether we had considered this or that. Post-pandemic, we find that graduate hires are asking us about our policies now, whereas before, they might not have necessarily asked or cared about compassionate or paternity leave. Now they are thinking about career development and what we as an organisation are doing to support the wellbeing of our people. And while Gen Z and millennials want organisations to do things differently, they also don’t want things to look ‘slick’ — when we talk to them, they say, ‘just tell me what it is’, so that’s what we need to do.
How has support for working parents evolved over the past few years and how does Capgemini UK culture support that?
Simon: There has been an increased drive from Capgemini UK to support our employees who have family commitments, whether they be in their capacity as parents or carers. From a personal perspective, I have a young daughter, and when I was working in the office five days a week, which I have done for the last 20 years, I was worried I would not have much time with my daughter. However, the support and flexibility Capgemini UK provided me was amazing and allowed me to create the right work/life balance. I think the challenges of the pandemic brought about greater understanding and appreciation for caring responsibilities of all kinds on a wider platform. Now, with working at home or hybrid models, both parents can do the school run and manage their work around it. It offers a lot more flexibility and balance in the workplace, which has a positive impact on general wellbeing. That’s then reflected in everything that they’re doing.
Vanessa: For Capgemini UK, it’s not about making support prescriptive, but about giving guidelines and fostering the culture. If Simon comes to me, for example, and says, ‘it’s my daughter’s nativity play, I’m going to be offline for an hour’, I haven’t got a problem with that because I know he will have either logged on early or will be working later to catch up. The importance is that he delivers, and the quality of those deliverables. I give him the flexibility to choose how he delivers in the best way. I trust him to do so; a lot of our family policies are built on trust.
What for you is the crux of a successful evolution in wellbeing policies?
Vanessa: We found with policies that managers like things to be quite clearly defined. But if somebody has a death in their family and asks how many days off they are allowed for compassionate leave, there has to be flexibility. With bereavement leave, one person may want to come back to work quickly, while another may need longer – it depends on the circumstances. These refreshed policies now underline that ethos around flexibility, which makes it more comfortable for those conversations to happen between managers and employees. Bringing both sides to the table is also hugely important in family friendly policies — and this extends to issues like menopause because it impacts both partners. When we run calls about menopause, we often hear from partners who feel they just can’t help their partner because they don’t understand what is going on. That’s why our menopause policy and the health resources on the Peppy app are for everyone — not just the person going through menopause.
What reaction has your policy reboot had?
Simon: The feedback from our employees has been phenomenal. Employees asked for these policies, so they feel heard. Implementing the policies has helped managers to understand and be more sensitive about family situations, which in turn has led to people having more open conversations with each other. It’s also had an impact on our internal employee networks, with more people wanting to join them. Diversity and inclusion policies are not just there for people with families – they’re about everyone. Generally, we’re seeing it almost as a blank canvas and I think that’s needed, given the changes we’ve seen in the world over the last few years.
