Volvo Car Malaysia adopted the Family Bond policy about a year ago and employees are grateful.
Volvo Car has always been a human-centric company. Their vehicles are centred around safety and their sustainability policy is second to none.
Recently, they launched a global initiative to pursue equal parental leave entitlement to all their employees.
This ‘Family Bond’ policy was adopted by local representative Volvo Car Malaysia last year, applying to their 160 employees.
Today, all employees at their offices and plants with at least one year of service gets a total of 24 weeks of parental leave, regardless of whether they are mothers, fathers, or adoptive parents.
The policy allows leave to be taken within the first three years of parenthood, during which the company still pays 80% of their salary by default.
Here’s what Volvo Car Malaysia’s CRM Manager Veena Menon had to say about her experience a year after the Family Bond policy was implemented:
“As a mother of three children, I cannot express how thankful I am to have 24 weeks of paid parental leave when I had my newborn.
I value the importance of early attachment in a child’s development, which is why I am grateful I can utilise the benefits from our Family Bond policy to bond and connect with my newborn during the most crucial period of her life.”
“I must say it is indeed empowering to be part of such a modern and progressive organisation. At Volvo, the focus has always been on the people, and through Family Bond, the company has provided both mother and father the opportunity to play an equal role in their child’s upbringing.
As we advance as a society, gender equality is of utmost importance and so the conversation of whether one should choose between career or family should never exist. I hope to see more organisations follow in the footsteps of Volvo Cars to offer extended paid parental leave for the betterment of the family unit.”
Charles Frump, the Managing Director of Volvo Car Malaysia, added “The Family Bond policy embodies our company’s culture and values. The Malaysian government recently announced an extension to the current parental leave policy, which now allows seven days for working fathers and 98 days for working mothers.
This is already a positive step towards the right direction, to build further consideration for equal parental leave entitlement.”
