Last Tuesday was a big day for our company and our industry. In our company-wide meeting with over 350 Kieser team members, the parents and expecting parents announced our very first parental leave policy, a massive step forward for our team and anyone who joins our team from last Tuesday onwards.
Our parental leave policy provides 12 weeks for primary carers and 2 weeks for secondary carers givers - all at full pay + super and with 2 years of flexibility.
"We don't do things by halves at Kieser and we wanted to implement a policy that would have a significant impact on family planning for our team" says Kieser Australia CEO Brett Long. "We took our time with our industry research, and from what we have seen the fact this will be at full pay means it will be an industry-leading policy. We are confident that this level of support will help our Physios, EPs, Exercise Scientists and Clinic Support team to grow in their careers at the same time as enjoying parenthood."
Brett goes further by citing the example of attrition in the Physiotherapy industry: "We know that early attrition is a big problem in private practice Physiotherapy, and we're committed to taking steps to help physios have long term careers. The parental leave policy we announced today is just one step forward in this vision."
The parental leave policy is part of a wider project of Diversity and Inclusion implemented by the Kieser Australia Board in 2021, "This project started at board level and has involved feedback from every level of our team" says Kieser CFO and Board Member, Dianna Butterworth.
"We are really proud of what we've implemented, but we also know this is the first of many steps to further support parenthood, gender equality and diversity in our organisation" remarks Dianna.
The Kieser Parental Leave Policy was announced on the same day as our 3rd Women in Leadership event for 2021 where we had over 100 of our female team attend and enjoy a wonderful presentation from Associate Professor, Doa El Ansary from Swinburne University.
"We already have such a good culture in our Kieser team - we're excited to grow that culture step by step." says Dianna, "We've got some exciting things planned" she concludes, with a big smile!