Parents of babies born or adopted on or after 5 April 2015 will be able to take advantage of shared parental leave, one of the biggest family friendly working reforms in years. But does this legislation do enough to truly suit the needs of the future workforce?

In this podcast we discuss the future of family friendly working and the advantages to be gained from embracing a culture of agile working. We hear from Jo Swinson, Minister for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Women and Equalities Minister, about how shared parental leave will work and what she expects the take up to be. Jo also discusses why legislation like shared parental leave will help challenge conceptions in society and drive change to achieve a more level playing field for male and female employees. Tim Munden, Vice President of HR at Unilever, discusses how Unilever are looking to go beyond implementing the new legislation to start incorporating parental and other family absences (like eldercare) into their talent planning pipelines and the importance of line managers and role models in communicating this type of culture. We also speak to Jennifer Liston-Smith from My Family Care about the issue of pay and why employers should consider the business case for embracing family friendly working in terms of recruitment and retention. Jennifer also gives her advice for employers who want to embrace the future of family friendly working, including how to equip managers to handle requests for leave.

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