‘Employers that shy away from flexibility are missing out on a wealth of untapped talent’

A growing body of evidence tells us what we already know anecdotally: the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women who have shouldered the majority of childcare responsibilities while trying to also hold down busy jobs. 

Studies show this disparity starts from the moment a baby is born. Evidence from other countries, such as Sweden, is clear on the benefits of giving equal paid paternity and maternity leave. 

While we all await the outcome of a government consultation on reforming paternity and shared parental leave, we have announced that the John Lewis Partnership was becoming the first UK retailer to introduce 26 weeks equal parenthood paid maternity and paternity leave and two weeks paid pregnancy loss leave. 

The paradox of taking time off work

This change came from direct feedback from our Partners - employees who co-own the business - and our own data, which shows that our frontline Partners entitled to paternity leave often felt they couldn’t afford to take time off when their baby was born. This echoes previous research conducted by the Fatherhood Institute and the TUC. 

Families come in all shapes and sizes and we heard from Partners in single sex families who have been impacted by the inequality between maternity and paternity leave. 

Recently, a branch manager at one of our Waitrose shops told me that during the pandemic her wife had to have an emergency caesarean and, because she was only entitled to two weeks leave, she had to take extra holiday so she could support her wife and baby. 

Even with this extra holiday it felt very early to come back to work after a traumatic birth and getting into the swing of life with a newborn baby.

Of course, parental leave alone won’t solve the gender divide. There’s also the issue of job flexibility and how part-time workers are valued and supported to progress their careers. 

That is why we are now advertising all jobs with a flexible working option, unless there is an operational reason why this can’t be done. We are also providing additional support to make sure we are paving the way for part-time workers to progress in our business, and ensure their performance is valued equally to their full-time peers, and they receive fair recognition and reward. 

Employers that shy away from flexibility are missing out on a wealth of untapped talent. When we tried out new flexible working on job adverts, it increased both the number of applications we received and the proportion of women applying. 

Lessons learned from Covid-19

The pandemic has been a global experiment in flexible working and has shown that it works. So there’s a real opportunity for us as employers to all be more creative about where, when and how people work, so that individuals feel that work truly works for them. It means they can truly flourish.

Retail has long been a destination of choice for people to work in because it offers flexible hours that aren’t the usual nine-to five, and jobs that are close to home. 

But this is a conversation much wider than retail, now more than ever. As employers we all need to pull together to bring parenting policies into the 21st century.