UK employers largely unfazed by arrival of shared parental leave

Last month, the Work and Employment team surveyed over 3,000 UK clients and contacts across a range of sizes and industry sectors ahead of the SPL regulations coming into force next month. For context, the Regulations have been widely criticized among employers and legal commentators as grossly overcomplicated and almost useless in practice. It is impossible to avoid the faint suspicion that this is a deliberate attempt by the Government to unite employer and employee through a common enemy, to the extent that leave arrangements are agreed through dialogue between the parties, without any reference to the details of the Regulations at all. , because it’s a process that will almost certainly end in tears. The study also found that some of the city’s larger employers are trying to avoid the procedural minefield set out in the Regulations by providing fathers/partners with benefits comparable to full maternity leave (including allowances). That’s all well and good for employers who can afford it, of course, but it’s probably not an approach that will be widely adopted.

Pending more complete publication elsewhere, here is a brief preview of our survey results:

Impressively, over 50% of employers say they are “quite prepared” for the new Regulations. However, we have to wait to see ifquite prepared“means (and) we have the rules and some form templates downloaded from the internet; or (ii) we actually understand how it will work in practice (look below). Only 17% say they are “very prepared”, although the Regulations will come into force in a week. More than a quarter of respondents were either poorly prepared or not prepared at all.

Of course, this may be due to the very limited use of the SPL system that most respondents seem to anticipate. It is impossible to avoid a tsunami of employers’ indifference to the Regulations, as shown by research:

Only 6% of employers believe that the Regulations will have a significant adverse impact on their business, while the rest have little to no impact. Less than 4% viewed SPL as helping to retain employee talent that would otherwise be lost due to childcare responsibilities. Nearly two-thirds of respondents believed that 5% or less of their male workforce would join SPL, while 50% believed that a similarly small percentage of their women would do so. The very bad news for circulating lawyers is that over three-quarters of employers believe there will be no significant increase in the number of claims to the Tribunal, and as many as 90% believe there will not be even a significant increase in the number of employee complaints. All very disappointing.

However, this is in stark contrast to the results of the question about respondents’ greatest concerns regarding the new regulations. They clearly indicate trouble ahead. Over half said their main concern was simply trying to understand the Regulations and how they could even be implemented at work, while over a third were concerned about the impact of long-term or intermittent absences on workflow management. Perhaps in both cases they could get help from the Acas Regulation Guidance – 55% found it very or moderately useful, but a full third of employers surveyed had not read it at all. If you’re in doubt, you should take a look at it – while it doesn’t contain the same obnoxious layers of detail and sub-detail as the Regulations themselves, in most ordinary cases it will be a more than decent touchstone.

Finally, how about making the most of bad work and turning SPL into something positive for employees through some form of improvement? 17% of employers are already working on it, and almost another 50% do not rule it out in due course. Much more divided opinion concerns an incentive to return from shared parental leave, similar to that often offered to women when returning from maternity leave. 24% either will or probably will. 26% think probably not, 26% are sure not and 24% haven’t decided yet. However, even of those who propose increasing SPL salaries, significantly less than half intend to actively use the issue in their recruiting efforts.