Shared Parental Leave

Shared parental leave is where a birth mother is able to cut short her maternity leave and any associated statutory maternity pay. The balance of her entitlement is put into a pot available to her and the father or partner as shared parental leave and pay.

Your employee may also have access to enhanced contractual maternity, paternity or shared parental leave or pay, and so are able to exercise their statutory and contractual rights and choose the provision most suited to their circumstance.

This guide will help you navigate these tasks in Every HR.

User Permissions

To be able to access and administer shared parental leave, you must ensure you have the correct permissions applied. These include View All Absences, Approve All Absences, and Edit Settings. Please refer to our guide User Permissions and Every HR Permissions Glossary for further assistance.

Setting Up Shared Parental Leave Policies

To create your new shared parental leave policies using the left-hand menu select Absence Management then Settings. From here select the tab titled 'Absence Approver Tags'. Here all previously created absence approver tags are listed.

If you require new tags for your shared parental leave policies select the green 'Create Approver Tag' button.

Give your tag a name and select 'Save' to confirm. Your new approver tag is now ready to be assigned.

Next select the 'Family Leave Settings' tab. This is where your approval groups for shared parental leave are created. Select the green 'Add Approval Group' button.

Now, select which approver tags you want to assign to your shared parental leave, and the order they apply. Also confirm if the policy requires approval from all or any of the applied tags. Once completed select 'Done' to continue.

To create a new shared parental leave policy, select the 'Parental Leave' tab, and within the tab select the 'Shared Leave' tab. Select the green 'Add Shared Leave Policy' button.

Give your policy a 'Title' to easily identify it, and select the 'Job Category Type' it applies to.

Now, input the minimum number of full months continuous service required within the organisation prior to a specified number of weeks before the due date. For example, 12 months continuous service is required 15 weeks before the due date. You would input '12' full months, and '15' weeks before childbirth.

Next you need to input your occupational bands. Select the green 'Add Occupational Band' button. Specify the 'Percentage of Pay', and 'Start' and 'End' weeks.

Now select if 'Statutory Pay' is included by toggling the switch. Depending on your policy you may need to create more than one line. If this is the case, select 'Add Occupational Band' again, and complete the additional information. For the policy to be valid, the weeks from band to band must run continuously, and all policies must start from week '1'.

Any required 'Notes' for the policy can be input as necessary within the free text box.

Once you have completed all the required information for your policy select the green 'Save' button to continue.

Your new parental leave policy will now show within the 'Shared Leave' tab of the 'Parental Leave Pay Policies' section.

Applying Shared Parental Leave

Once you have created your shared parental leave policies, you are able to apply them to employees. From the left-hand menu select Absence Management, then Absence Records and locate the employee you wish to apply shared parental leave to. Once in their record select 'Shared Parental Leave' from the 'Add Family Leave' button to the top of the page.

You will now be required to enter the following information:

Binding Notice Given to end Maternity Leave/Adoption Leave on - Date employee gives binding notice to end leave.

Binding Notice Given to end Maternity Leave/Adoption Pay on - Date employee gives binding notice to end pay.

Date Maternity Leave/Adoption Leave Ends - Date leave ends.

Date pay ends for Maternity/Adoption Leave - Date pay ends.

Child's Date of Birth Or Date of Placement - Child's date of birth.

Number of Weeks Leave taken by Leave End Date - Number of weeks maternity leave taken.

Number of Weeks Adoption/Maternity Pay taken by Pay End Date - Number of weeks maternity payment received.

Roles - Include all the roles affected by the shared parental leave policy.

Ensure 'Meets Average weekly earnings requirement of £123 a week' box is checked to ensure the policy can be applied to the employee.

Finally, select the appropriate 'Pay Policy' for your employee.

You can also fill in a section below titled 'Details of Individual Sharing Leave' if you have this information however, this is not mandatory. This section applies to the person your employee is 'sharing' their leave with. Select the green 'Save' button to continue.

A section titled 'Notifications' will now appear below. This is where you are able to input up to three separate notices of requested leave. For each notice given, you must input a date the notice is given, select 'Period of Leave', and complete the start and end dates of the period. Periods must be requested in full weeks. Then select 'Add Period' to continue. You are able to submit more than one period for each notice block.

Once completed the notices will now be sent to the approvers as a task, depending on your approval route, it may require more than one approver. The leave periods can be approved separately. An approver may choose to approve one notice block and decline another. Once approved the employee will now have a task to select a policy and they will also appear in the employee's absence record.

Employee Task

Make sure your employees have the correct 'My Portal' permissions in order to access the leave request. 'My Leave' and 'My Tasks' are required. Please visit our guide User Permissions for further information.

Your employee needs to visit My Portal and select My Tasks. The requested leave will show within the tab titled 'To Do'. Select the 'eye' icon to continue.

The employee can view the details of each shared parental leave policy available to them.

Once the employee has viewed the policies they are able to choose their preference. This will then be sent to an approver to approve and confirm acceptance.

Confirming Shared Parental Leave

Once the employee has confirmed their choice of policy, it then requires final confirmation and approval. A further task will be generated and dispensed depending on your chosen approver route. Once approved the shared parental leave will be logged, and if you have Every payroll the details, including pay bands and percentages, will feed through automatically.