Overview

Becoming a parent is an amazing life-changing 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 applies to both childbirth and adoption.

How it Works:

You can take up to 20 weeks within the first year of parenthood, per birth or adoption event.
If your local laws offer more, you are entitled to that. If they offer less, you still get the full 20 weeks through Camunda.
In countries with statutory leave payments, you will be required to claim statutory Parental Leave pay (if you are eligible) and Camunda will supplement the difference.
Leave can be taken in one block, or broken up into a maximum of three blocks within the first year.

We encourage you to take the time you need in a way that works best for you and your family. Early planning and communication with your manager/team will help ensure a smooth transition. We want to ensure work pressures don't impact your time off, and for this reason we advise early planning and communication prior to your leave.

We are happy to discuss additional leave requests on a one-on-one basis. We understand that any journey to parenthood can come with complications & it's for this reason we are available for open 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.

If you have variable compensation

The 20 weeks of paid parental leave is also applicable for Camundi on a Sales Incentive Plan. The company offers supplemental payments of 50% of the prorated annual variable target as long as the employee reached at least 85% of quota over the last six months. The payments will be made in accordance with the timeline described in their sales incentive plan (e.g. monthly or quarterly).

Planning your Parental Leave

We encourage you to start planning with your manager at least 3 months before your anticipated leave and submit your required dates in bob at least 30 days in advance. Dates can be adjusted at a later time if needed. Having a tentative date will allow your manager and the People team to have visibility on your planned time off. If possible, please begin planning sooner as some teams may require more time than others.

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.

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.

Your contractual FTO amount will not be reduced and will continue to apply throughout your parental leave. FTO may not be used to break-up Parental Leave blocks. Consecutive time off related to parental leave must be logged as Parental Leave in bob.

If 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.

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.

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.

DRT	People Ops

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Keywords	Parental Maternity Paternity Leave