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News & Events 2 min read

Support for parents at Xero

Nicole Reid

Nicole Reid

Sep 29, 2020

At Xero we strive to do better every day and we know that the only way we’ll achieve our business goals is by ensuring everyone who works at Xero feels they have all the support they need to do the best work of their lives. 

We are very pleased to announce some changes to our parental leave benefits. 

Parental leave payments: All primary carers, regardless of how they become a parent, are entitled to parental leave payments that are equivalent to 26 weeks. Over that time Xero will ‘top-up’ to 100 percent of their base salary any government allowance or other regional support. 

Partner’s leave: If a Xero employee’s partner has a child, or together they adopt a child or bring a child into their permanent care, they will be entitled to up to six weeks of paid partner’s leave. This can be taken in up to two blocks throughout the first year. 

Keeping in touch days: It can be difficult for new parents to jump straight back in after time away. This benefit enables employees on parental leave to stay in the loop. Employees can return to work for up to 10 keeping in touch days, paid at their usual salary.

Flexi-return: When a Xero employee returns to work following either parental or partner’s leave, they can choose how they want to work for the first two months, with the support of their people leader and Xero. This might include reduced days or hours and work from home arrangements.

Supporting our people on their parental journey

As part of our wider diversity and inclusion work, we’re committed to supporting parents on their journey – before, during and after parental leave.

We reviewed our parental leave policies and decided that we could do better. We’re pleased to announce these changes, which we co-designed with parents at Xero.

To be a truly inclusive workplace for those growing a family, we’ve designed these benefits to support equality. That means they’ll be available to permanent employees globally, regardless of gender identity, how they become a parent, or how long they’ve been with Xero.

We want everyone at Xero to do the best work of their lives and we know that’s only possible when employees feel included, engaged and supported. This change resonates with two of our Xero values in particular: #Human (be authentic, inclusive, and care) and #Challenge (think big, lead and embrace change, seek new and better ways). It’s also in line with our diversity and inclusion principles, one of which is that we support flexible ways of working.

Diversity is valuable because it ensures our people thrive, and it reflects and serves our diverse customers best. We were excited to be globally recognised for our commitment to diversity in the workplace in the 2020 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. This index helps to drive change by tracking the financial performance of public companies committed to supporting gender equality.

Leave is an important part of supporting diversity and wellbeing. Our teams at Xero also enjoy a range of leave options including volunteer leave, wellbeing leave, lifestyle leave and extra annual holidays, as well as a range of other benefits. 

Working at Xero gives you the opportunity to be challenged and supported, while having lots of fun. If this sounds like a team you want to be part of, we’re currently growing our teams. You can check out vacancies for your region here.

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