At Pernod Ricard Winemakers, we are committed to creating work environments where people feel comfortable to truly be themselves and confident to share who they are with the people they work with. Fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone has access to the same resources, opportunities and rewards is an important part of our commitment to valuing our people. Being a family friendly workplace is aligned to this commitment and ensures we continue to create a workplace culture that enables all employees to balance work and family responsibilities.
Parental Leave Support and Flexibility
We offer a generous fifteen weeks of paid parental leave and the flexibility to receive this at half pay over thirty weeks. Our policy is gender neutral and has been designed to be inclusive for families of all shapes and sizes. In the tragic event of miscarriage, still birth, or a life-threatening circumstance after twenty weeks of pregnancy, we offer our employees the full paid leave entitlement and, in the event of early pregnancy loss, we offer two weeks bereavement leave. Through our Parental Policy, we also offer additional financial support such as superannuation on a portion of unpaid leave, paid entitlements for foster and kinship carers, and surrogate recovery leave. Our policy can be used flexibly and within the first twenty-four months of the child’s arrival. We have a Parents, Families & Caregivers digital hub that provides our people with a comprehensive library of external resources to support them when starting a family, pregnancy, adoption, returning to work and developing their career as a working parent. We fully support and have a culture of flexible working in order for our people to balance work and family life commitments.
Wellbeing @ Pernod Ricard Winemakers
Our wellbeing program, ‘When life gets big, Go small’, includes a calendar of activities and initiatives to support our people with their mental, physical, social and financial wellbeing. We also provide a range of useful resources within our digital ‘Wellbeing Hub’ to connect our employees with information related to their personal situation.
Our programs include mental health training sessions, exercise challenges, free flu shots and skin checks, as well as access to online industry leading webinars. Our wellbeing ways of working includes guidelines on creating space between meetings, focus time to finish off the week and taking regular breaks. We also provide access to a free onsite psychologist and Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to directly support the wellbeing needs for all our people and their immediate family members. All these initiatives help our people to balance work and family commitments.
Over the past twelve months, we have seen an increase in our male colleagues taking parental leave and 45% of our parents have returned back to work on a part-time basis. We also currently have 49% female representation in leadership positions across the business. In our recent culture survey, 84% of our people indicated that their manager genuinely cares about their health and wellbeing and that they have the flexibility they need to manage work and other commitments.
Gemma Charles – Commercial Manager, Operations
I have worked for Pernod Ricard Winemakers for over 11 years. I received a great amount of support from my leadership team and colleagues when I went on parental leave in 2016 to have my daughter, Winter Lee. I returned in 2017 when Winter was 8 months old and was promoted to a management position working across both Australia and New Zealand. With staff & stakeholders in both countries, I was often required to travel and received constant flexibility to enable me to work my travel in around my family.
I was 8 weeks pregnant with my second child when I saw a new internal promotion advertised within the business. I immediately applied and was thrilled to be offered the position. I opted to be transparent with the hiring manager and shared the exciting news of my pregnancy. I was overwhelmed with how supportive, flexible and encouraging the leadership team was during this period. We worked together closely as I transitioned into my new role, as well as providing training and induction to my parental leave cover. As I prepared to commence my second parental leave period, I felt valued by my company and excited about the plans we had made together for my return to work in 2020. Knowing that Pernod Ricard Winemakers fully supported both my career development and my new role as parent was really important to me and played a huge part in helping me feel mentally prepared as my second daughter, Raven Mae arrived in Dec 2019.
When the time came for me to return to work, I once again received excellent support, guidance and flexibility from my Manager and the business. My transition back to work was managed over 3 months, moving from 3-days a week, to 4-days and eventually settling into a 9-day per fortnight routine that allowed me to take Winter to Kindergarten, and have some one-on-one time with Raven – in addition to diving headfirst into my new role. Alongside returning to work and adjusting to being a household with 2 working parents, I have received an endless amount of support, coaching and training to ensure I have the skills I need to perform my new role and deliver key outcomes for the business.
In conjunction with paid parental leave, paid ‘Keeping in Touch’ days, the Parents, Families & Caregivers digital hub, and support of my manager and the business, I have been able to develop professionally in parallel to building a family life I am proud of. I will forever be grateful to Pernod Ricard Winemakers for being beside me every step of the way.
“At Pernod Ricard Winemakers, we are proud to support families of all shapes and sizes. Last year, we were honoured to be named as a Family Friendly Workplace and we've made some great strides in our first year of the certification. Our aim is to provide inclusive family support and further develop our commitment to gender equality and family inclusiveness.”
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