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iCrossing UK removes restrictions around parental leave

October 16, 2019 | 3 min read

iCrossing UK has updated its parental policies to increase flexibility and inclusivity for employees and their families.

Anyone who takes maternity, paternity and/or adoption leave will now receive enhanced parental leave pay packages irrelevant of their length of service, with no limitations around when they can fall pregnant or adopt a child. Previously, staff had to wait two years between expanding their families to be eligible for the full benefits.

The updates also bring the digital marketing agency’s adoption leave policy and pay in line with its maternity and paternity policies.

HR director Louise Cotton says: “We updated our family policies to ensure that we weren’t placing unnecessary restrictions around when our employees were choosing to have children. For example, many parents choose that their children be close in age – and by changing our policy we’re taking at least one potential worry off their plates and widening the net to help find the best people to work with us.”

iCrossing’s enhanced maternity pay consists of 12 weeks at full pay and 27 weeks at statutory maternity pay. New parents are also gifted a £100 John Lewis voucher and £50 credit to help towards childcare costs through babysitting app Bubble. All staff are eligible for 'Together Time', which allows them to take up to two hours off during the working day (a maximum of three times, non-consecutively in a 12-month period) to spend with loved ones, for example to attend a school event.

In the past five years, the agency has welcomed four of its female staff members back to work as new mothers - three following the births of both their first and second children - and celebrated five of its male staff becoming fathers.

Returning parents are also encouraged to Flex 10 their hours, enabling mums and dads to work around school hours and/or take up part-time employment.

Our head of content (and mother-of-two) Jo-ann Fortune works a four-day week, starting and finishing early, and senior paid search director (and father-of-two) James Marshall compresses his hours to work a nine-day fortnight.

“Having taken maternity leave twice in recent years, I’ve witnessed how inflexible many companies are with mothers returning to work”, says managing director Claire Paterson. “I’ve seen more mothers unable to return than those that have, and this is unacceptable to me.”

“All of these policies promote wellbeing and a better work/life balance, and I believe happier employees will create better work for our clients.”

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