Iress gives generous leave benefit for school start

Financial technology business Iress has made a significant commitment to supporting working families with a generous leave benefit for added flexibility with children starting school.

The global organisation, which has UK offices in Warwick, Cheltenham, London and Leatherhead, has offered all parents working at the company that have a child starting primary school up to eight and a half additional days off at full pay during their child’s first term.

The benefit has been introduced to help families more easily manage the transition to primary school, something that can be increasingly tricky for parents to juggle - often meaning working around staggered start dates and short days before the child starts full time.

Julia McNeill, group executive of People at Iress, said: “We want to ensure Iress is an inclusive workplace where people feel supported to be their best both at work and at home. Children starting primary school is an important milestone for any family and we wanted to make the transition easier for the parents that work at Iress. As far as we’re aware we’re the only company offering such a generous amount of leave at full pay to help parents out at this crucial time.

“Our regular employee engagement shows that family-friendly benefits are amongst the most highly valued by our people and so we wanted to provide remarkable benefits that would truly make a difference to people’s daily lives.”

The starting school additional leave entitlement is part of a comprehensive benefits package Iress offers its working parents which also includes enhanced paid parental leave for up to 26 weeks for primary carers and up to six weeks’ leave for secondary carers, the first four at full pay, plus a flexible return to work option that enables employees to work part-time while receiving their full time wage for the first four weeks back after having a child.