As the battle for talent continues and companies face the challenges of remote work and changing employee expectations, culture, and employee benefits that are engaging and enticing help companies attract and retain employees.
One company at the forefront of employee rights and culture is Workday, a provider of cloud applications for enterprises. This was recently recognized when Workday was certified as a Family Inclusive Workplace in Australia. The company has also been named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For two years. It has been awarded Ethisphere’s “World’s Most Ethical Company” award for its culture, environmental and social practices, and ethical and compliance activities. , governance, diversity, and initiatives to support a strong value chain.
Workday in Australia also complies with the Workforce Gender Equality Act and recently submitted its third annual report to the Workforce Gender Equality Agency (WGEA). This Australian government agency oversees its commitment to only deal with organizations that comply with the Workforce Gender Equality Act in business tenders.
Workday says one of its core values is its employees, and it has policies to show it. Workday says, “People are the core of our business. Without them, we wouldn’t have a business. We hire the best and expect great performance.”
Workday is one of the first companies in Australia to achieve family-friendly certification, with only 70 companies certified since the initiative launched 12 months ago.
Family Friendly Workplaces (FFW) is a joint initiative of UNICEF Australia and Parents At Work. It aims to create national work and family standards for all Australian workplaces and establish a benchmark to better support workers in managing their work and family care needs. The initiative also addresses systemic barriers to women’s employment and gender inequalities, such as access to flexible work, paid parental leave, and support for children and older people.
According to the Family Friendly Workplaces site map, Workday encourages all employees to put family first. It says, “Our philosophy is that the well-being of our employees’ families is central to the well-being of the individual worker, so many of our benefits reflect this approach to holistic family-wide well-being.
This family-centered approach means that all employees have access to family-wide private health insurance, as well as income protection and life insurance, and all employees have access to an EAP program, which offers a range of services from mental health support to financial consultation; all of which are accessible to any member of the household. Workday also provides all employees access to Maven, which provides family planning and support for egg freezing, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, adoption, surrogacy, new parenting, and return to work after a child’s leave up to and including a child’s first birthday.
The pandemic highlighted Workday’s family-first culture and attitude, with all employees receiving additional benefits to cover costs related to Covid-19 (two weeks of extra pay) and other funds to set up work-from-home stations. Workday also gives all caregivers (including those responsible for aged care) US$2,000 per year to cover healthcare costs so that employees can care for their families while they work.
Workday also recognizes that some employees may need additional support for caring responsibilities, including childcare or aged care. Workday’s Caregiver Leave Policy provides coworkers with daytime caregiving responsibilities to request up to 12 weeks of leave and receive 50% of their regular pay.
The policy also empowers parents to achieve meaningful careers at Workday while balancing family responsibilities. The company also has a flexible working hours policy, which allows people to pursue better work arrangements to support caring responsibilities. The policy includes a compressed work week, an AM/PM schedule, non-working hours or alternate days, or part-time schedule requests.
Workday’s parental leave policy offers up to 12 weeks of paid leave and 100% salary to welcome and bond with a new family member (birth or adoption of a child). This benefit is available to all new parents, including moms, dads, same-sex couples, and adoptive parents.
Jo-Anne Ruhl, vice president and general manager of Workday Australia and New Zealand, said, “Workday’s policies and benefits have been carefully designed to ensure we are an employer of choice, but we are also committed to the embedding a ubiquitous culture of belonging and diversity in our company. We know our employees and customers will benefit from this long-term initiative. We know this is the right choice, leading to better business outcomes, employee engagement, and business innovation.
As part of the Family Inclusive Workplace certification, Workday is committed to implementing a two-year action plan to continue investing in and developing a family-friendly workplace culture.
