Many new fathers fear taking parental leave will hamper their chances of promotion
Paid paternity leave provisions were brought in a year ago.
ALMOST 40% OF people think that new fathers don’t take the full parental leave they are entitled to because they fear an adverse impact on their finances.
Meanwhile, 28% said it was because fathers believe they may be viewed as less committed to their jobs.
The findings published in Hays Ireland’s annual gender diversity report found that more than one-quarter of both men and women think fathers don’t take their full available entitlement because parental leave is still viewed as the exclusive domain of mothers.
Since September last year, fathers are entitled to two weeks of paid paternity leave at a rate of €230 per week – the same rate available under maternity leave rules for a period of 26 weeks.
Some 250 men and women working in specialist and technical roles across Ireland were surveyed for the report.
Gender inequality
Along with the parental leave attitude, more than half of all employees (57%) agreed that there is some form of gender equality or equal opportunity imbalance at their organisation.
Three-quarters of both men and women feel they have the opportunity to promote their skills and progress their careers in their workplace.
Despite this, over a third of female respondents said they feel they don’t have the same career opportunities as their equally capable male colleagues.
Some 59% of men said they believe their female colleagues were rewarded in an equal manner but just 17% of women agreed they were paid equally.
Flexible work hours
Meanwhile, 90% of employees said flexible working was a benefit for them in their organisation and 46% believe that it allowed greater representation of women in senior roles.
However when it came to actually availing of flexible working options, men and women both believe that it could harm their career advancement prospects.
When asked if flexible working is a career-limiting move for women, 75% of women and 59% of men agreed. When the same question was asked about men, 64% of women and 64% of men said it was career-limiting.
“This is certainly room for improvement,” Richard Eardley, managing director of Hays Ireland said.
“While an organisation’s employees all need to work together to create a workplace culture that welcomes diversity and inclusion, it’s ultimately up to senior management to properly formulate and execute diversity programmes,” he said.
Written by Hayley Halpin and posted on TheJournal.ie
