Flinders University has earned a third SAGE Cygnet Award – this time for their work to improve supports for parents and carers on staff.

Through internal assessment, Flinders discovered a range of barriers were preventing parents and carers from being fully involved in their workplace.

Gendered language in policy documents was preventing staff from taking primary carer and partner parental leave in gender-equitable ways, and fixed-term and part-time staff were disadvantaged when it cam to accessing superannuation.

The University stepped in to extend paid parental leave from 18 weeks to 25 weeks, and removed barriers for all  fixed-term and part-time staff to access employer superannuation contributions higher than the legislated superannuation guarantee.

They also improved communications around their policies to support awareness of caregiving supports, and upgraded breastfeeding facilities on campus.

Higher staff satisfaction

Over eight years, staff’s reported satisfaction with their benefits rose four percentage points to 82%, exceeding university benchmarks by 7%. Men began accessing primary carer leave and women began accessing partner leave, pointing to early improvements in equity around caregiving roles.

The university also saw reductions in the gender pay gap, and positive feedback on upgraded breastfeeding facilities.

An immediate and positive impact

SAGE CEO Dr Janin Bredehoeft congratulated the University.

“Flinders should be very proud of this achievement. Their work to include new parental leave entitlements in staff the enterprise agreement shows an impressive commitment to ensuring there is tangible support for parents in the long term.

“Alongside their dedicated spaces for breastfeeding on campus, these actions are having an immediate and positive impact of staff, building a workplace that actively values parents and carers.”

Next steps

Enhancements to resources improved user experience but revealed gaps in support for carers of children with disabilities. Feedback also shows that there are more opportunities for the university to promote caregiving initiatives, especially the uptake of partner leave.

Find out more

This is Flinders University‘s third SAGE Cygnet Award, which builds on the work they did to achieve Athena Swan Bronze accreditation.

Access this downloadable PDF summary of their progress and impact to find out all about the barrier they were tackling, their actions, outcomes, impacts and next steps.

You can also read their full Cygnet Award application to get all the details about how they did it.