Mercer Marsh Benefits
Mercer’s Perspective
The expansion of paid parental leave offerings is positive, particularly for fathers and same-sex partners, and recognises the social change that is already occurring in many families and employers.
Whilst the skills initiatives are encouraging developments for employers, they will take some time to be implemented and for the potential positive effects to be felt. Jobs with lower barriers-to-entry in hospitality, retail and care sectors are likely to be the first to experience improved staffing levels off the back of improved migration levels and the improvement to accessible childcare. However, it remains to be seen whether other industries such as engineering, teaching, nursing and medicine, requiring specific skill sets that historically take years of education, can source the required skills from migration as quickly as they would like.
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Implications for employers
- Organisations should review their current approaches to attracting diverse talent to make the most of these initiatives. It also points to a need to ensure the organisational culture supports the rebalancing of the distribution of work and care within families.
- With minimum wages rising, employers will feel the effects on their remuneration budgets and may need to review the flow on implications to other roles. Although this will place wage pressures on employers, this may be offset by indirect costs associated with talent shortages and the turnover of workers.
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Implications for individuals
- The measures will have a positive impact on individuals with children, with the expansion of parental leave and more affordable childcare.
- Workers on low wages will see an improvement to their take-home pay in a time when the cost-of-living is front of mind.
