Software company Cisco Systems Inc. is introducing three paid days off as a benefit for new grandparents for all of its employees around the world.
The benefit, which the company initially rolled out six months ago for its U.S. employees, came to Canada in March and will continue to expand to other countries. “By the end of the year — our fiscal year ends in July — all regions across Cisco will have this,” says Alex Johnson, manager of human relations at Cisco Canada.
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While Cisco focuses on attracting the right talent and caters to people early in their careers, it also values its more mature employees, says Johnson, who notes the benefit made sense when looking at which experiences were meaningful in life and how the company could play a part.
“One of those elements that came up through interviews and the research was around grandparents.. . . Oftentimes, we have maternity or paternity benefits, but this idea that it stops there wasn’t really comfortable for us. We looked at that more broadly — what more could we be doing, especially around grandkids, and knowing that it’s flexibility that’s needed when that happens,” he says.
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Johnson notes employees can be use the benefit at any time during the first year of a new grandchild’s life because Cisco wanted to provide flexibility around timing if they needed to travel to see the new family member. The benefit is in addition to all the company’s other leaves and paid time off.
Employees have described the policy as progressive and have had a positive response to it so far, he adds. “There’s a member of my team who has a couple of grandchildren and I asked her, ‘Hey, are there any more grandchildren on the horizon this year? [Are you] looking forward to using this benefit?’ And she said, ‘I’m so looking forward to this benefit, I am actually encouraging my daughter to give me more grandchildren so that I can use this benefit.’ I thought that was pretty clever and appropriate,” says Johnson.
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