nib Group has updated its suite of benefits to better support the health and wellbeing of its more than 1,300 employees.
The broad range of employees’ entitlements include paid parental leave, paid gender affirmation leave, compassionate leave for pregnancy loss and miscarriage, cultural leave, flexible public holidays, and increased paid family and domestic violence leave days. These benefits came into effect on July 1.
nib Group chief people officer Martin Adlington (pictured above) said the benefits were introduced following months of consultation with employees and planning.
“It’s important that our benefits reflect the diverse needs of all our employees, no matter their life stage,” Adlington said. “For example, one of our benefits include increasing our paid parental leave for up to 18 weeks for all parents, regardless of whether they’re a primary or secondary carer, in the first two years of the child’s life. Our employees can choose to take this leave in a way that suits them – whether that’s consecutive weeks, single days, full pay or half pay,”
Adlington said the suite of benefits also reflect Australia’s modern and inclusive society.
“For example, our parental leave benefits provide greater opportunity for all parents to share family responsibilities,” he said. “Current data tells us that men account for only 12% of primary carer leave use, yet it’s known that fathers feel more motivated after taking parental leave and will consider staying with their organisation longer as a result. Women are also more likely to have interrupted careers, reduced participation in the workforce and lower earnings potential to care for their child or family members.
“We believe all employees, no matter their gender or background, should have equal opportunity to excel in the workplace. Our range of benefits will help to support this and shows that we’re serious about meeting our commitments in our diversity and inclusion action plan released last year.”
Another benefit introduced is five days of paid cultural leave designed to support nib’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees to take time away to practice their traditional rituals and customs and partake in dates of significance.
“We’ve introduced five days paid leave to enable our First Nations employees to participate in days of significance, such as NAIDOC and Reconciliation Week, understanding that it’s an important part of their culture, tradition and identity,” Adlington said.
According to nib, these benefits complement its hybrid working model, which was introduced last year. The model includes a $1,200 annual work-from-home allowance and the opportunity to work outside the office for most of the time, including overseas.
“Life at nib means our people have the flexibility to choose when, where and how they work and it’s important our policies, practices and benefits support this,” Adlington said. “In fact, 85% of our employees say they now have the flexibility in their work schedule to be able to better balance their work and personal needs. We were also excited to expand our hybrid work offering recently to include international remote work for up to six weeks at a range of locations, including the UK and Ireland. Our benefits help position us as a market leader when it comes to our employees. We aim to be an employer of choice for both our existing and future employees.”
