Zeta rolls out slew of initiatives towards parental support

Zeta has rolled out a slew of initiatives towards parental support.

The company is moving away from gender-based differentiation for parental leave and will instead look at the role of primary or secondary caregiver. Secondly, there will be no differentiation on natural birth, surrogacy, or adoption.

Under the new policy, a primary caregiver can take up to 26 weeks of paid leave, and a secondary caregiver can take up to four weeks of paid leave. This applies for birthing mothers, adoption or surrogacy. The company will also allow for clubbing this parental leave with accrued leave, in case new parents need extended time off.

For new parents who are unable to come back to work post the 26 week mark, additional time off will be given. Primary caregivers can take an additional 12 weeks of unpaid leave, and secondary caregivers an additional two weeks of unpaid leave.

New parents can also choose to work for reduced hours at full compensation for the same time frame.

Adoptive parents will also be given Rs. 50,000 as reimbursement towards paperwork.

"Over the last year or so, we have been relooking at our D&I charter, and realised that we wanted to reform the entire leavy policy and our guidelines around maternity, paternity and related benefits. The new policy we have rolled out came into effect in April," said Margaret Dsouza, head of HR at Zeta.

The company is also looking at providing enhanced support while the parent is at work or even at home.

This includes a commute allowance of Rs. 1000 per day for pregnant women employees for the duration of their pregnancy, lactation rooms in office, and a daycare benefit under which the company will provide Rs. 8000 per month towards daycare/caregiver fees.

"Even if I look at the average age at Zeta right now, I think three to four years ago we had very low numbers of new parents because of course, the entire organisation was relatively on the younger side. Last 2-3 years witnessed a lot of them getting married, starting their family. So we see that the next two, three years will be crucial for us to make sure that we give them enough support for their new lifestage," said Dsouza.

The modern banking tech unicorn, which has 1,500 employees, helps banks and fintechs launch next-gen card programmes.