Striking a balance: How we help working parents at Hootsuite
How do you balance career and parenthood? It’s a question many ask themselves when they’re considering or preparing for a new addition to the family. How much time will you have off? How do you transition back to work after such a long leave? Will you have time to spend with their family — and if you take advantage of it, will your work suffer as a result?
All these questions can be overwhelming, especially alongside the thought of having to ask for accommodations.
As part of the Hootsuite team, we want to ensure that you don’t have to worry about this. We offer a wide array of benefits that ensure our #HootParents are supported and well equipped to manage all the different priorities that come with parenthood. Foremost among these benefits is 26 total weeks of full and partially paid leave, available to birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents, helping Owls to spend more time with their family during this challenging and exciting time in their lives.
This has been well received by our workforce, and many of our employees have found great benefit in it, like Ken Ho, our Senior Software Developer in Vancouver.
“Hootsuite’s generous parental leave policy allowed me to take time off and bond with my son without also having to worry about finances,” he shares. “I’ll be honest, the first few months were rough and I can’t imagine how much harder it’d have been if I had to work as well.”
Abdalla Ali, our Implementation Specialist in London, had similar thoughts.
“As a dad-to-be, you don’t know what to expect,” says Abdalla. “Going on parental leave allowed me to spend this special time with my family without worrying about the next morning or week at work. It is probably one of the best benefits that Hootsuite offers its employees.”
Our leave also comes with flexibility — for example, you may choose to work with your manager to break your parental leave into multiple segments, or adopt a more phased approach to slowly transition back into your role. This is what Lucy Monaghan, our Manager of EMEA Facilities, did.
“The flexibility Hootsuite gave me as I returned to work after maternity leave made the transition a breeze,” she says. “I had my manager and team’s full support to have a phased return, allowing time to merge my two roles (professional and mum).”
We also want to make sure our Owls have time to sit back and recharge, and take that time to spend with their family if they’d like. One of the ways we do this is through our annual paid wellness week. Every year, we give everyone a company-wide week off, separate from a vacation allotment. This is a time where we encourage everyone to log off and step away from their desks.
Meanwhile, our half-day summer Fridays, which we call “Owly Time”, let our Owls get a head start on their weekends, every weekend, for an entire quarter. We hope it gives them the quality time they need to disconnect and spend more time with the ones they love.
Many Owls have also found benefit from our global distributed workforce strategy, which lets employees choose where they work. Parents will sometimes use this to spend time with their families throughout the day. The flexibility allows them to take some time to drop off their kids, or simply be there for the little moments with their family. For Gaby Jordao, Hootsuite’s Manager of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, remote work allowed her to watch her son grow up.
“As a first-time parent, our distributed workforce strategy has been fantastic,” she tells us. “Working from home has allowed me to see my child throughout the day and be present for all the special moments in the first years of his life.”
In addition to parental leaves and extra time off throughout the year, we provide four weeks of paid family care leave. This includes bereavement, compassionate, and caregiver leave. To supplement, we also offer a comprehensive Employee Assistance Program, with resources to assist in family planning, home support, and legal and financial support. Our EAP is free and confidential, in a variety of formats such as in person, phone, online, and video.
All of these resources and benefits play a role in contributing to one of our core values — #OneTeam. By offering employees the flexibility to manage their family life alongside their professional life, we make Hootsuite a place where everyone feels valued and empowered to do their best work without compromising who they are.
If this is something that appeals to you, we’ve got open roles around the world. Check out our careers site and apply today!
