Katie Guild’s Post

Why is maternity pay so f*cked in the UK? Well Harriet M. and I have a few ideas, which is why we created Nugget Savings After spending a year obsessively trying to get to the bottom of the problem with parental leave in the UK By talking to parents, building a community, and years beyond that - experiencing the reality of maternity pay and witnessing friends crumble under the pressure We have come up with three key pillars for change 👉 Education 👉 Transparency 👉 Financial planning And the burden is split between 👉 Individuals/families 👉 Government  👉 Companies So I wanted to pitch this to our community. Had we got it right? Was our diagnosis accurate to their lived experience? I was genuinely gobsmacked by the response (particularly for a video over 2 minutes (!)) This pitch gained over 130,000 views 😱 with hundreds of comments providing invaluable insight And solidified that we are on the right path to transforming parental leave in the UK. Our audience back our mission. Do you? Let me know any feedback in the comments 👇

At 47% of the national minimum wage, how maternity pay is 'excessive' is truly beyond me. Kemi's issue with maternity pay is that it takes from one group of people to give to another... which is... how tax works? You also HAVE to have been working or very recently working to qualify for maternity pay, so you have paid into the system. She also thinks maternity pay is too much of a burden on small businesses. REMINDER: small businesses recoup 103% of statutory maternity pay. They can also apply for advanced funding. All other businesses recoup 92%. I'd actually argue that the fact that our statutory maternity pay is so piss poor puts MORE pressure on businesses, because they feel obliged to pay a rate above SMP so their employees can afford life. 🤷🏻♀️

"Enforcing tight guidelines in the name of brand consistency is a surefire way to dampen your creativity and growth" THIS, this & this again 🙌 Excellent bit of substacking from Matilda Lucy which you can read here https://shorturl.at/RxPfg 👈👈 With a lovely lil shoutout to Nugget Savings and our *slightly* chaotic but effective social media posting 🤣🤘 Particularly loved the line about creating content that stands out from 'AI slop' that we seem to be wading through everyday - particularly on this platform 🙃

Green flags that indicate a family friendly workplace: 🟢 Senior leadership have modelled taking the full parental leave entitlement 🟢 Parental leave policies are explicit, easy to find and are advertised on job listings  🟢 Employees are allowed to work flexibly  🟢 Inclusive language and policy structure for all genders and family structures 🟢 There are senior members of the team who have young children 🟢 People have been promoted shortly after returning from parental leave 🟢 There is a designated place to breastfeed and store milk 🟢 There is a policy for when your children are unwell  🟢 There is a culture of parenting out loud  🟢 Team bonding activities take place within work hours So much of this is easy and low cost to implement 🔥 What would you add?

Quit being secretive about your parental leave policies - did you know they can make you go VIRAL? 🌎 ...in a good way! On Wednesday we published this video about Deloitte improving their parental leave policy to an equal 26 weeks full pay for both maternity and paternity leave. Here's what happened: 👉 140,000 views on Instagram and 2.9k likes - in 24 HOURS ⏰ 👉 28.6k views on TikTok and over 140 shares & saves 👉 Over 75 comments largely praising Deloitte for the change and shouting about other employers who are doing the same This is AMAZING employer branding and builds good will with potential future customers too. Our community want to hear positive stories about companies supporting working parents. ✅ This video's performance isn't unusual - invariably we see similar success anytime we shout about companies being progressive and supportive. 💪 If your company is on the cusp of making family friendly changes to your workplace get in touch 💬 We can help amplify your message 📣

Enhanced parental leave policies are expensive 💰and most employers aren’t going to increase their offerings out of the goodness of their hearts 💔 To push for improvements in the workplace for working parents, HR teams need to be armed with data. 📈 ❓How does your company’s parental leave policy stack up against your competitors? ❓What’s the average length of enhanced paid leave for a company your size? ❓What are the most common hurdles for parents returning to work after having a child? ❓What innovative policies are companies using to support new parents for relatively little cost? A lot of this information has previously been hard to come by as companies are traditionally very secretive about their parental leave policies 🤫 Over the last year and a half Harriet M. and I have been blowing this topic wide open with Nugget Savings 💪 We have over 800 searchable parental leave policies on our website and have been collecting so much insight from companies and parents alike. We’re ready to share what we’ve learnt for the first time with HR Leaders who are keen to transform the experience of working parents in their organisation - to nurture talent, increase retention and ensure working parents remain productive in the workplace. Which is why we have teamed up with Hera Voice to bring together People/HR leaders in London, on Monday 23rd September, to hear from experts and learn how we as a collective, can do better to support parents to thrive in their careers.    If you're in a senior HR/People role, and you'd like to come along, here is the link to register - https://lu.ma/2rttmc1x    We'll also be hearing from Flexa and Papier and there will be a tonne of takeaways to help you, help your people!

Recently I’ve been reflecting a lot on how *negative* the chat can be around being a working parent or a new mum on maternity leave. I’m more and more conscious of trying to balance the endless barrage of depressing stats and stories with good news. 🗞️ Because there *are* fabulous employers who are putting a lot of time, care and cash behind their employees who are expecting a child or navigating their first years of parenthood. Whilst it’s true that statutory maternity pay 💰 is pitiful in the U.K. - it is also true that two thirds of employers offer enhanced maternity pay. There are more opportunities for flexible working than ever (not enough, but we should acknowledge the progress that has been made! 💪) and we’re seeing more and more understanding and policy around fertility treatment. Paternity leaves are being extended. Progress is happening 👏 Whilst employees can be great drivers for this change - HR leaders are often the key 🔑 to really transforming company policy on parental leave. We talk to a lot of fantastic ‘people’ people in our community who are so passionate about supporting working parents in their workplace and are tirelessly advocating for them to the c-suite. If you’re an HR leader and this sounds like you - let us support YOU! Join us for a free event with Hera Voice to learn how to better support working parents. You'll hear from experts at Papier and Flexa, and we'll share valuable insights from Nuggbase, the UK's largest database on parental leave policies. 🗓️ Date: Monday, September 23rd  ⏰ Time: 4:30 PM 🗺️ Location: London 🤩 Bonus: You'll receive an exclusive E-Toolkit packed with insights, case studies, and resources to help you get started! Sign up now! We can't wait to see you there. 🔗 https://lu.ma/2rttmc1x