Dive Brief:
- A key tenet of the Johnson & Johnson credo is to respect employee dignity, foster a workplace culture of health and provide equal opportunity for everyone.
- The focus on diversity and inclusion enables J&J's people to truly come together to solve the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges.
- To those ends, J&J unveiled a a significant upgrade to its parental leave policy in the U.S. As of May 1, 2015, all new parents—maternal, paternal, and adoptive—will have the opportunity to take seven additional weeks of paid leave (or eight weeks total, when considering the one week of paid leave that was already available for employees) during the first year of the family’s birth or adoption.
Dive Insight:
According to Peter Fasolo, vice president, J&J Worldwide Human Resources and Lisa Blair Davis, vice president, International Total Reward and Global Benefits, the change means mothers who give birth can take up to 17 paid weeks off. Also, the time doesn’t need to be taken consecutively, so employees can utilize much-needed flexibility during such a critical time in their lives. J&J also is making the change retroactive for employees who became parents on or after May 2014.
The parental leave upgrade underscores J&J's strong support for the modern-day family, no matter what shape that family takes, said Fasolo, adding that in addition to the obvious benefits for mothers, the new policy is also a great stride forward in terms of fathers’ and adoptive parents’ leave.
For HR executives, the J&J parental leave change is a prime example of a focus on the health & wellness of families, work-life balance and  putting first the needs and well-being of employees.
CORRECTION: Johnson & Johnson reached out to BioPharma Dive and clarified there was a small error in its original release. The eight weeks of paid leave is cumulative (it's actually seven additional weeks on top of the one week already available to workers). This post has been updated to reflect that.
