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Effective from 1st of February 2022 for any birth / adoption events that have taken place since 1st of January 2022
Overview
Becoming a parent is an amazing life event & whilst you are at Camunda we want to be sure that you have the time to enjoy it!
We are excited to offer 20 weeks paid parental leave to all employees with 6 months service & successful completion of a probationary period (if applicable) regardless of gender/sexual identity. This policy covers becoming a parent through child birth or adoption.
You can take paid parental leave for 20 weeks during the first year of parenthood. If your local laws offer more, you are entitled to that. And if your local laws offer less, then you are entitled to our 20-week parental leave policy. The 20-week balance is per birth or adoption event. If you live in a country where a statutory Parental Leave payment is available, you will be required to claim statutory Parental Leave pay (if you are eligible) and Camunda will supplement the difference.
We encourage you to take the time you need. Employees will be given autonomy to decide for themselves the appropriate amount of time to take and how to take it. If you wish to take the full 20 weeks as one block when the child is born/adopted or if you prefer to take the 20 weeks in up to three blocks throughout the year following the birth/adoption, that’s totally fine. Some employees may not take the full 20 weeks too! Do what works best for you & your family. Communication with your manager/team is key here, we want to ensure that work pressures don't impact your time off, for this reason we advise early planning and communication prior to your expected leave.
We are happy to discuss additional leave requests on a one-on-one basis. All of the Parental Leave period should be taken in the first year. We understand that births/pregnancies can come with complications & it's for this reason we are open to conversations on how we can help.
If you haven't been at Camunda for six months
Initially, you can take up to 21 consecutive calendar days of paid FTO from the time of birth or adoption event which will be deducted from the 20-week total. Full salary supplementation from Camunda will begin once you hit six months of service & have successfully completed your probationary period (if applicable) for the remaining Parental Leave balance. Depending on where you live, you may be able to receive statutory Parental Leave pay from the government to cover any unpaid time off.
Planning your Parental Leave
Planning is an important part of our parental leave policy. We strongly encourage you to begin planning with your manager at least 3 months prior to the date you intend to be on leave. If possible, please begin planning sooner as some teams may require more time than others.
To kick off your parental leave please submit the dates that you are requesting to be on leave in Bob our HRIS system at least 30 days prior to your due date. Dates may change and that's ok, you can adjust them at a later date. Having a tentative date will allow your manager and the People team to have visibility on your planned time off.
Your 20 weeks of leave will start on the first day that you take off. You may decide to start your leave in advance of the arrival date or after the arrival, both of which are allowed. We encourage you to decide on what time period works best for you, your manager & your team. You can also split your 20 weeks over a course of 3 blocks eg. 3 weeks at birth, 12 weeks at the midpoint & 5 weeks at the end, so long as it's within the first year of the birth/adoption date.
Please also be sure to check what your statutory entitlement is for parental leave. Most often this can be found on government websites or via a local authority. We don't have specifics on each country but in most cases this information is easily obtained.
Process outline
Employee: Discuss leave dates with your manager at least 3 months in advance of the due date. The sooner the better! Employee: Enter your tentative dates for parental leave in Bob.If
these dates change, you can amend them at a later date.- Note start and end dates on parental leave tracker.
- Provide payment documentation to payroll.
- Note a date 4 weeks before the end date to reach out.
- Note if the employee is a people manager as the reporting line may need to be amended on bob.
- People Ops: Amends parental leave request to reflect the actual leave date if required.
- People Ops: Places employee on leave effective on first date of parental leave
- People Ops: Connect with the employee on the amount that will be provided by payroll.
- Payroll
- People & Organisation
you are looking for the process we follow for this, see our playbook page.
Taking FTO after 20 weeks of Parental Leave
Should you need to take any additional time off following the 20 weeks of parental leave, please work with your manager & your PBP on this request. In accordance with local regulations and if applicable your contractual holiday entitlement / public holiday entitlement may continue to accrue during your 20 weeks parental leave and can be taken after your parental leave.
Additionally, you can use your FTO to shorten your work week to 60% full time equivalent (~2 days) for up to 8 weeks following your return.
This FTO can be arranged in various ways to accommodate your childcare situation and facilitate a smooth return to work. For example, you can choose to work 3 days a week or 5 hours a day. If you choose to do this, please discuss with your manager to align on expectations of results while transitioning back to work. If you or your manager have any concerns, we recommend discussing them with your People Business Partner (PBP).
If you choose to take your parental leave in blocks, you can shorten your work week up to 8 weeks in total, not 8 weeks per block. For example, Block One - 3 weeks short weeks upon return, Block Two, 3 weeks short weeks upon return, Block Three - 2 weeks short weeks upon return, total 8 weeks.
Sales commission & payout on Parental Leave
At this moment we offer up to 20 weeks pay of base salary only. A future iteration of this policy will consider commissions.
Returning from Parental Leave
Please let your manager & the People Operations team know with as much advance notice as possible as to when you would like to return to work. This can help with planning and required communication.
The People Operations team will reach out to you before your expected return date to make sure all is ok with your expected return.
Process outline
- OR
- Wait for communication from the People Ops team, roughly 4 weeks prior to your end date as per Bob.
If you are looking for the process we follow for this, see our playbook page.
How can we help you return to work?
Returning to work after an extended leave can be difficult and we want to ensure a seamless transition for you. To help we are happy to extend our FTO policy to enable you to shorten your working week by up to 2 days for the first 8 weeks of return. Details on this can be found above.
Please also work closely with your manager on what working hours work best for you & the team. It may be easier to start earlier in the day or break your working day up throughout the day. We work asynchronously so let's make that work for you!
Manager Parental Leave Guidelines
Supporting an employee that is readying to go on parental leave is really important. The planning and communication prior to the leave ensures the best outcome for the employee and enables business continuity. Below are some tips to help you out during this time:
Helpful Tips
- Review & understand the policy above. Should you have any questions please reach out to #ask-people-team.
- Give the employee your congratulations. This is an important time in your employee’s life as well as being exciting it can also be quite nerve racking. Your support will really help!
- Ask the employee how we can support them? Ensure they are aware of our parental leave policy & ask if they are comfortable with the news being shared. At certain points the employee may want the news to be kept confidential until a certain time. If this is the case ask if they are ok if it is shared with a PBP and an update to the wider team will take place at a later date.
- Work with your PBP to arrange out of office coverage in the event that the employee needs to leave earlier than anticipated. Info on backfilling can be found below.
- Check if the employee would like to be communicated whilst out on leave. Employees may want to continue to speak with you on an informal basis and some may not. It's advised not to speak about work related matters unless brought up by the employee. Employees on parental leave are eligible to come on the company retreats/meetups, the topic DRIs will look after the communication on these topics.
- Think about documenting important company updates in your 1:1 (one-on-one) google document? This can then be provided to the employee when they return so that they have an efficient overview into what happened whilst they were out.
- After you have received a return to work confirmation form the People Operations team, get ready for the employee to return to work. Reach out to them and ensure that they are all set for the return and ask if there is anything that you could do to help the transition. Allow time for catching up on emails and events that may have taken place whilst they were out.
Backfilling
When an employee is going out on parental leave you will want to understand how you’re going to reallocate this employee's responsibilities & output?
- When you’re notified of the leave, consider reaching out to your PBP. Your PBP will work with you to find a resolution.
- Commonly we could consider:
- Reallocation of tasks within the team.
- Hiring a temporary contractor.
- Backfilling the role.
- Factors that play into deciding what to do would be:
- The level of the role.
- The length of time that the employee will be on leave.
- Each case will be treated on a case by case basis.
FAQ’s
To be created as questions arise.