Davis reveals how his own parental experience inspired Aviva’s new initiative
Following the announcement that parents employed by Aviva are now entitled to equal paid parental leave, we caught up with Danny Davies, Chief People Officer for Aviva Canada.
Davies explained to us the ins and outs of the scheme, and revealed how his own personal experience of becoming a dad helped inspire Aviva’s inclusive initiative.
“The scheme we’ve rolled out entitles all Aviva employees, regardless of gender, age or seniority, to 12 weeks paid parental leave – which is considerably more than the governmental allowance. The thinking behind the scheme really came from our core values. Canada is such an inclusive place to work, as is Aviva, and so it was really a case how could we not offer this kind of scheme.”
The policy will be offered to all workers who have become a parent on or after November 19th, in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Singapore and France. And with work-life balance and inclusivity becoming more of a focus for HR strategy, it’s not unlikely that more and more equal parental leave initiates will be implemented in 2018.
For Davies, Aviva’s offering came from a personal place, as he told us: “With this scheme, what really hit home with me, was my own experience of becoming a parent.
“I remember taking three months off work to spend with my son – and they were honestly the best three months of my life. I thought, everyone deserves this – this time apart from work to spend with your child. It’s a real dilemma for some employees – of course they want to take that time off, but money worries and job stability makes it near impossible.
“We believe in today’s age, employers should be thinking proactively about parental leave – for all not just the privileged few.”
