How One Firm Made Its Parental Leave Truly Gender Neutral

Episode 21 of The Diversity Career Podcast explores how a mid-sized tech company, Veridian Software, redesigned its parental leave policy to be fully gender neutral. Lucas and Luna break down the specific changes Veridian made: replacing 'maternity leave' and 'paternity leave' with a single 20-week 'primary caregiver' benefit, adding four weeks for non-birthing parents regardless of gender, and covering adoption and surrogacy equally. They discuss the pushback from some managers who worried about coverage gaps, how Veridian used data from a two-year pilot to silence skeptics, and the surprising retention impact: a 30 percent drop in turnover among new parents within 18 months. The hosts also touch on why many companies still default to gendered leave assumptions and what other firms can learn from Veridian's transparency around take-up rates. #ParentalLeave #GenderNeutral #WorkplaceEquity #DiversityAndInclusion #VeridianSoftware #Careers #Retention #FamilyPolicy #PrimaryCaregiver #AdoptionLeave #SurrogacyLeave #HRStrategy #EmployeeBenefits #WorkLifeBalance #InclusiveWorkplace #PeopleAnalytics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo