Employees are now eligible for impressive family leave benefits from the day they start – HR lead Ebeny Kurz-Firth explains why.
Earlier this month, Microsoft New Zealand announced a range of major changes to its family leave benefits – including additional parental leave and paid time off to care for sick relatives – however, they aren’t the only improvements impacting staff.
The tech giant also confirmed that it would be scrapping its six-month tenure requirement so all employees would be eligible for the new benefits from their very first day with the company.
“We used to have the six-month period which is probably a bit of a historic and economic rationale but the reality is that life doesn’t wait,” HR lead Ebeny Kurz-Firth told HRM.
“Whether something happens within the first six months or not, it’s still going to feel like significant life event for our employees so we want them to be able to make the most of our benefits from the moment they join.”
Microsoft’s new benefits include up to four weeks’ leave per year – at 100 per cent of their salary – in order to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition. The company’s parental leave policy also changed with primary caregivers now entitled to 20 weeks paid leave and secondary caregivers entitled to six weeks.
The policy applies to all parents – regardless of whether the child is theirs by birth, adoption or a foster relationship – and all those who take leave will receive 100 per cent of their salary.
Kurz-Firth suggested the company would be shooting itself in the foot if it withheld the benefits just because personal circumstances had arisen within a certain arbitrary time frame. Doing so, she said, might risk the valuable new recruit leaving.
“That’s where you look at the cost of implementing something like this versus the cost of not,” she said.
