“At KPMG, we recognise the nature and definition of ‘family’ is everchanging and we need to ensure that we create Family Friendly policies that reflect this change. We acknowledge that flexibility and choice are important values for our people as they balance their work and Family lives. We also recognise that ‘family needs’ change over the course of an individual’s career and we want to provide support at all stages, whether it be looking after young children, caring for sick family members or elderly parents. We are proud to support this initiative and to continue to evolve our policies and our workplace culture. At KPMG we also feel a sense of responsibility to drive conversations and advocate for policy change that supports equality within families and delivers economic and social benefits for all Australians.”
KPMG recognise the importance of family. We acknowledge all families, including couples with and without children, same sex couples, couples with dependents, single mothers or fathers with children, siblings living together and multigenerational families.
We are committed to ensuring we support all our working families and the various work and family care responsibilities our people may have. We do this by continuing to ensure that our policies and practices enable a family friendly workplace culture and the best outcomes for our people.
Family Wellbeing: Wellbeing to KPMG is important, The KPMG wellbeing approach is holistic and focuses on mind, body connections and finance. It provides our employees with wide ranging support. Our KPMG Care service caters for a range of support services from mental health, wellbeing, legal, financial and dietary advice for employees and their families to ensure they thrive at work in all aspects of their life.
In addition to our KPMG Care service, we offer wellbeing circles. Wellbeing circles provide a safe space for employees to explore self-care, talk openly and authentically connect with other peers to support each other across a range of topics, including, pregnancy loss, undergoing assisted reproductive treatments, anxiety, depression and PTSD, healthy habits and ways of working. These are run by trained mental health facilitators with a maximum of 10 participants per group.
Family Care: To help and support our carers who are caring for elderly parent (s) or someone with a disability(s) KPMG offers a referral service to DR Care Solutions. DR Care solutions are experts in navigating the complex system of My Aged Care and Disability care, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). A support offering that helps alleviate the stress and anxiety caused when having to transition a loved one into Aged Care or Disability Care.
Parental leave: In July 2021, we launched a new paid parental leave policy, making it one of the market leading parental leave policies. We removed the primary and secondary carer labels, tenure guidelines and increased the number of weeks paid.
Our new policy consists of 26 weeks paid parental leave within the first two years of the child’s life for all parents (regardless of gender), offering parental leave that allows our employees greater flexibility and choice to utilise this leave in the best way that meets their family needs.
Flexible working: We recognise that everyone’s work preference and needs can change over time and are influenced by life beyond the workplace, including family care responsibilities which is why we have a hybrid working model. Hybrid working offers flexibility in a framework, no matter where our employees work or their role through change in hours, patterns, or job location. We continue to work to ensure these support offerings are promoted widely throughout the business by leaders and employees.
In December 2021, KPMG launched a Work from Anywhere Policy to allow our people to spend time with loved ones who live overseas, working overseas up to six weeks at a time.
Family Wellbeing: We closely monitor our KPMG Care usage, and we have seen a utilisation increase, specifically during Covid-19. In FY20 our KPMG Care usage was sitting at five per cent. In FY21, our employees were seeking additional wellbeing support, whether that was for mental health, wellbeing or financial, this doubling our utilisation rate to 10 percent. We continue to monitor usage rates each year and ensure these services are known and promoted through our organisation.
At the height of Covid-19 we saw 143 completed wellbeing circles. The number of circles that took place speaks to what our employees needed during that time. We continue to run these circles with 47 circles completed in FY22 with planned ongoing session into FY23.
Family Care: We are aware of a number of employees who have engaged with the elder care referral services throughout Covid-19, with aged care placements taking place. We will intently promote our Family Care offerings into FY23 more strategically as we will expand our support services for carers.
Flexibility: We are seeing our people, including our leaders actively using our hybrid working model which provides increased flexibility and choice for our parents and carers to work across the home, office and client hubs to support professional and family/personal needs.
Parental Leave: Following the launch of our new Parental leave policy we are seeing an increased use of the Parental leave support services and the flexible options. This includes the use of our flexi-paid parental leave offering with employees who are returning to work from parental leave the flexibility to choose how they return that best suits their new work and family needs. They may choose to do to this in a way that best suits their family, i.e., on a flexi paid parental leave plan, working a few days a week with the remaining as parental leave.
Since our new policy has been in place, we’ve seen a 20 percent increase in fathers accessing the policy and embracing fatherhood. This leave, which can be used up for up to two years following the birth of their child, is truly supportive of the positive benefits of shared caring.
An effective workforce is one where the jobs are well-structured, and the workforce is motivated. We know that flexibility builds trust and mutual accountability with employees and the employer. Having a flexible working environment and good family friendly policies benefits our people to better balance competing priorities in life. Our policies allow our people to work during times that work best for them, their families, and the business. Family wellbeing, family care, flexible working and a flexi paid parental leave option is a desired workplace benefit, it improves employee wellbeing and reduces parenting/caregiver stress.
“At KPMG, we recognise the nature and definition of ‘family’ is everchanging and we need to ensure that we create Family Friendly policies that reflect this change. We acknowledge that flexibility and choice are important values for our people as they balance their work and Family lives. We also recognise that ‘family needs’ change over the course of an individual’s career and we want to provide support at all stages, whether it be looking after young children, caring for sick family members or elderly parents. We are proud to support this initiative and to continue to evolve our policies and our workplace culture. At KPMG we also feel a sense of responsibility to drive conversations and advocate for policy change that supports equality within families and delivers economic and social benefits for all Australians.”
Parents At Work acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
