How grandparental leave could become a key retention tool

This arti­cle is part of our Going Against the Grain series, which tells the sto­ries of com­pa­nies bold enough to break busi­ness norms and try out new ideas. To explore the rest of the series, head here.

The birth of a grand­child is a spe­cial moment in anyone’s life – and it’s one that employ­ers should acknowl­edge, accord­ing to Saga.

The trav­el and insur­ance firm, which spe­cialis­es in serv­ing clients aged 50 and over, intro­duced grand­parental leave as a ben­e­fit at the end of 2021. This enables any employ­ee to take an extra week of paid hol­i­day after the birth of a grand­child.

Saga’s chief peo­ple offi­cer, Jane Storm, explains that the pol­i­cy has been designed to “recog­nise the role that our old­er col­leagues play in their fam­i­lies and wider soci­ety”. 

Research by Age UK indi­cates that 40% of grand­par­ents over the age of 50 reg­u­lar­ly pro­vide babysit­ting ser­vices for their off­spring.

“There is an added expec­ta­tion on grand­par­ents,” Storm argues. “Because of the chang­ing shape of work­ing fam­i­lies, their sup­port is often need­ed and appre­ci­at­ed.”

She hopes that the extra time off will enable any new grand­par­ents at the com­pa­ny to relieve their chil­dren of some of the bur­den of neona­tal care. Ide­al­ly, they will use such leave soon after the birth, but they’re allowed to take it when­ev­er they like.

Employ­ees who have used the ben­e­fit so far have pro­vid­ed encour­ag­ing feed­back for Storm. The first per­son to take the leave “was real­ly grate­ful to have that oppor­tu­ni­ty to be there for her daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter”, she reports. “But the thing that pleased me the most was the response of our younger col­leagues. They were proud that we were offer­ing this ben­e­fit, even though it didn’t direct­ly help them.”

Storm believes that the move will help Saga to attract and retain old­er work­ers. “Flex­i­bil­i­ty is of grow­ing impor­tance to peo­ple as we come out of the pan­dem­ic,” she says. “Organ­i­sa­tions must also respond to the increase in demand for tal­ent because of the great res­ig­na­tion. This is one of the things we’re doing to ensure that we’re still rel­e­vant.”

More­over, giv­en that most of Saga’s clients are aged over 50, she hopes that the pol­i­cy will help peo­ple in the busi­ness to “bet­ter reflect the com­mu­ni­ty we serve. Hav­ing more col­leagues who are of a sim­i­lar age means that they bet­ter under­stand the chal­lenges our cus­tomers face and can be more empa­thet­ic.”

Tackling ageism in the workplace

The new ben­e­fit also aims to address a prob­lem that affects many work­places in the UK. One in 10 Britons aged 65-plus were still in work in 2019, accord­ing to the Office for Nation­al Sta­tis­tics. This pro­por­tion is expect­ed to rise, with the state pen­sion age increas­ing grad­u­al­ly and fore­cast­ers pre­dict­ing that over-65s could make up more than a quar­ter of the country’s pop­u­la­tion by 2066.

Giv­en how the nation’s work­force is age­ing, Storm believes that employ­ers will have to do more to remain “attrac­tive and rel­e­vant” to peo­ple at dif­fer­ent life stages. 

“Peo­ple are stay­ing in employ­ment for longer, so the odds of their becom­ing a grand­par­ent in work will short­en as time goes on. Pro­vid­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty for peo­ple in that age brack­et will there­fore become increas­ing­ly impor­tant,” she says.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, many old­er people’s expe­ri­ences of work have been marred by age dis­crim­i­na­tion. While it’s not unlaw­ful to ask an employ­ee about their retire­ment plans, employ­ers need to avoid ask­ing ques­tions that could be per­ceived as putting that indi­vid­ual under pres­sure to retire. Storm reports that sev­er­al Saga employ­ees have faced such enquiries at pre­vi­ous com­pa­nies. This has made them “lose their con­fi­dence at best or feel dis­crim­i­nat­ed against at worst”. 

A recent sur­vey from 55/Redefined, a firm that cham­pi­ons age diver­si­ty at work, found that 65% of old­er work­ers believe that the employ­ment mar­ket is closed to them. This sit­u­a­tion sim­ply has to change, accord­ing to Storm. 

“We live in a soci­ety that’s ageist in terms of both how peo­ple over the age of 50 feel about work­ing and how employ­ers view them,” she says. “This can be seen in the high num­bers of peo­ple from that age group who are drop­ping out of the work­force. It’s impor­tant to make peo­ple feel wel­comed for their con­tri­bu­tion and not judged for their age.”

The busi­ness ben­e­fits of hav­ing a more age-diverse work­force are also clear to Storm. “Multi­gen­er­a­tional teams bring togeth­er a far wider range of skills and expe­ri­ences,” she says. “Busi­ness­es must there­fore work out how they can help old­er employ­ees to feel more wel­come and cre­ate the con­di­tions for them to be retained. That’s not real­ly hap­pen­ing at the moment.”

Storm hopes that Saga’s ini­tia­tive will encour­age oth­er employ­ers to fol­low suit and also spark a broad­er con­ver­sa­tion about the val­ue of old­er peo­ple in the work­force. 

When it comes to intro­duc­ing ben­e­fits schemes tai­lored to old­er employ­ees, cost shouldn’t be a decid­ing fac­tor, she argues. 

“For me, it’s not about the cost; it’s about the halo effect of what this ben­e­fit says about your cul­ture and how you wel­come peo­ple, regard­less of their age,” Storm says. “The finan­cial aspects are irrel­e­vant. This is about doing the right thing.”