LADbible Group announces LADfamily; a new suite of family friendly policies for its global workforce.

Leading youth publisher, LADbible Group, has today announced a series of family friendly policies to help support their global workforce following a year of unprecedented growth with offices opening in Ireland and across APAC.

Putting the wellbeing of employees first, LADbible Group is introducing policies that include fully paid leave for pregnancy loss, fertility treatment and a workplace nursery benefit allowing employees to recover tax savings on childcare costs in their local areas.

The policies, to be introduced under the banner LADfamily, are an important step for LADbible Group and shows that as an employer, key life moments, good or bad are recognised and understood.

The new policies are the next stage in LADbible Groups aim to better support employees balancing work and families. In 2020 they launched their enhanced pay for maternity, adoption, shared parental and paternity leave, with employees entitled to up to 100% of pay for the first 13 weeks, and 75% of pay until week 39 of adoption, maternity and shared parental leave, as well as up to 4 weeks full pay for paternity leave.

LADbible Group CEO and Founder Solly Solomou said: ‘The past year has seen our teams grow by almost 30% and as we continue to grow further, it’s essential that our approach to employee benefits and support for our teams continues to reflect our strong company values. As someone that’s become a father during lockdown, I can personally understand what a life changing experience this is for everyone involved. I’m so proud that we’re able to launch LADfamily and ensure that we’re providing supportive policies that give our LAD employees the support that they may need.’

LADbible Group outlined several directives as part of its first ever Diversity Strategy released in July 2020, with an increase in female senior leaders being a core focus. Since this strategy launched, it has been a great success and there have been multiple senior female hires.

Felicity Rothwell, HR Director (Manchester) said, ‘At LADbible Group, we understand the importance of our team’s families and life outside of work and are committed to ensuring that they feel supported and empowered to take time away and prioritise family and milestones in their lives.

Sinead Allchurch HR Director (London) added: “We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce, and we believe that these policies are an important step in further demonstrating that we truly care about our employees and their lives outside of work. We know our team will feel the value of these new policies, but we also believe it will help us attract top talent from all backgrounds, ethnicities and genders and at all levels because LADbible Group puts our employees at the centre of everything we do.”

Policies announced today include:

Pregnancy Loss Policy:

LADbible Group will provide 10 days paid leave as a minimum to help employees cope with pregnancy loss. This is no minimum length of pregnancy required for this policy to be activated. We also understand that everyone’s experience is unique and will work with the employee on a case-by-case basis to understand if any further time off would be helpful.  This policy will also provide the employee with paid time off to attend any medical appointments related to employee’s loss. This also applies to an employee who is supporting a partner attending these types of appointments. To ensure that all employees get the support they need, LADbible Group offers free private counselling throughout the year.

Fertility Treatment policy:

Employees who are undergoing fertility treatment personally or supporting a partner undergoing fertility treatment can take paid time off for the purpose of receiving and recovering from treatment and attending appointments associated with the process (for example, consultant appointments, collection of eggs, monitoring tests etc)

Employees will be entitled to up to five days leave per cycle of treatment for up to three cycles in total. This also applies to an employee who is supporting a partner going through fertility treatment.

Workplace Nursery Benefit:

Employees who opt in, will have guaranteed places and costs will be paid in the form of a salary sacrifice providing employees of significant potential savings.

After more than a year of remote working, LADbible Group have made several decisions to help motivate their workforce and reflect the changing priorities of their employees. This includes their creative gifts such as the recent mail-out of bespoke giant Easter cookies, which recently made headlines, and the publisher promises that these will continue to reflect important moments in their employees’ careers and personal lives. Over the coming weeks, LADbible Group are also introducing a new blended working policy that will combine the benefits of office and remote working for their employees.

The policies introduced today are effective immediately and will be available to the global workforce. The nursery benefits are currently UK and Ireland but a similar option in Australia is currently being explored in line with what’s available according to Australian Government policy. LADbible Group already has a competitive benefit package that includes industry leading maternity and paternity leave, mental health support through regular counselling sessions and healthcare.