It's been a year since we made some radical enhancements to our parental leave. So what difference has this made?

12 months ago we introduced enhanced leave benefits to help our people manage the life juggle, giving them better support to be their best both at work and at home.

A year on and I’m really proud to be able to say that our parental leave benefits are some of the best in the industry. As I’ve said often, diverse and inclusive workplaces that support people foster new ways of thinking and deliver better outcomes for clients.

It’s why our ongoing drive to create a diverse and inclusive workplace is so important to us. We know these remain big issues, particularly in the technology and financial sectors, and we want to make a difference where we can.

One of the ways we aim to measure our progress is through external accreditation, which is why we’ve recently submitted our application for WGEA Employer of Choice in Australia.

Another way of measuring the impact of our diversity and inclusion initiatives is through the individual stories of the people that work at IRESS.

Real stories from our people

In this video you can hear directly from two of our people - Kelly Bretherton, head of product, in the UK and Roy Diaco, group tax manager, in Australia - about how important our paid parental leave policies have been to them and their families.

As well as hearing these real stories, it’s encouraging to see the data. Since we launched our enhanced leave benefits in September last year, 83 employees have taken paid parental leave - 36 women and 47 men.

Alongside our parental leave offering when having a new child, the generous leave we provide when a child starts primary school attracted media coverage and is also making a difference. 15 people in the UK took advantage of it when the new school year began in September and we expect more IRESS parents around the world will do the same when school starts in their regions.

I love hearing stories of how our benefits are helping our people manage the life juggle. It shows that we’re doing the right thing and continuing to make IRESS a great place to work.

For more on this topic, read the latest article from Julia McNeill, global executive for People@IRESS, about why diversity and inclusion needs more focus within the industry.