Maternity Pay & Leave - Staying Ahead of Your Competitors

Introduction

Maternity leave and pay is a familiar workplace right which is now well established in the UK. Over the years there have been several extensions to both the amount of leave that a woman can take and also how much pay she receives. Employers will be familiar with paying Statutory Maternity Pay to any woman who is eligible; but where employers pay SMP only, many women find that their income is reduced dramatically. They may question their employer’s credentials in claiming to be ‘family centric’ - where their period of maternity leave may have to be cut short due to financial issues. Online pressure and successful campaigning has highlighted this issue to those who might otherwise have just accepted SMP as being all that they might expect to receive.

As a result the workplace is becoming more sympathetic to the needs of working women. Many employers are looking at ways to attract the best workers in; and also how to keep those employees engaged throughout their maternity leave period. The cost benefit analysis of keeping trained and productive employees as part of the workforce suggests that in many cases, paying SMP does not go far enough. More and more employers are looking at ways to respond and enhanced schemes are becoming more common. Where the public sector have lead the way for many years, the private sector are now catching up.

Those attending this course will find out how to stay ahead of the competition by offering better financial provisions for maternity pay.

What You Will Learn

This live and interactive course will cover the following:

• A brief overview of the current regulations regarding leave, pay and benefits
• Why working women are becoming dissatisfied with statutory payments only
• Why it makes good business sense for employers to focus on financial support for those on maternity leave
• Enhanced maternity leave schemes and how to decide on the level of pay appropriate
• Scheme rules and why they are important
• How to design and implement a scheme
• Linking your maternity scheme to other schemes and polices which are there to support those with caring/childcare responsibilities

Recording of live sessions: Soon after the Learn Live session has taken place you will be able to go back and access the recording - should you wish to revisit the material discussed.