Intuit India to give extended parental benefits to its employees

Intuit India, the IT and software firm headquartered in Bengaluru, India, has all plans to attract and retain quality talent in its workforce.

It has announced a range of benefits for employees who are in the early weeks of parenthood, after Flipkart, Adobe and Accenture recently
increased their maternity leave benefits.

"As an employee-focused company, we want to create the best possible work environment that is simultaneously value-driven. Our employees are our most important asset, and we want to be able to provide them the necessary support so that they can do their best work without compromising on the work-life balance," Vijay Anand, SVP and MD, India Development Center, told ET.

In the recent past, a proposal from women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi was approved by the Indian labour ministry, which sought to increase maternity leave in private companies to 26 weeks. At present, this period is of 12 weeks.

Talking of Intuit, from January 1, paid maternity leave would be increased to 26 calendar weeks from 12 while paternity leave, which earlier was for five working days, will be increased to 15 working days. Similar to maternity leave, adoption leave would also be given for 26 calendar weeks. Adoption leave is gender neutral, and would be provided to all employees who adopt children if they become the primary caregivers.

"Employees should not have to slow down their professional careers when embarking upon motherhood or fatherhood, and we see it as our responsibility to provide them the enabling environment to take sufficient leave as required," Somnath Baishya, director-HR at Intuit, told ET.

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