The NZ Super Fund has won the innovation category at the 2018 YWCA Equal Pay Awards, held last night in Auckland.

The Fund was recognised for its innovative leave and benefits package, which it rolled out in June this year.

In their decision, the judges noted “that the evidence of the [Fund’s] redesigned leave and benefits programme speaks for itself. Staff described this as a progressive and thoughtful package in keeping with the approach of the whole organisation towards addressing gender imbalance and their everyday employee experience.”

Features of the NZ Super Fund’s new benefits package include a top-up to full pay for 26 weeks during primary carer parental leave, a KiwiSaver lump sum top up for unpaid parental leave, an option to purchase two additional weeks of annual leave, cultural leave (where up to four public holidays a year can be used to celebrate another day of cultural or religious significance) and school term contracts.

Mika Austin, General Manager of Human Resources at the NZ Super Fund, says the award is wonderful recognition of all the hard work that has gone into creating the new benefits offering.

“We support equal pay for equal work. Our new benefits package has been designed to be forward-thinking, consistent with our purpose, and to accommodate employees at different stages of their employment life cycle.”

“We want to position the NZ Super Fund as an employer of choice, and to attract and retain the best people to do great work for the benefit of New Zealand. Part of doing that is ensuring we provide competitive benefits.”

“The package offers something for everyone. Not everyone will need parental leave, or elder care, or the ability to sell or buy extra leave, but we were careful to design the programme so that it was available to all, and not differentiated by seniority, gender, ethnicity, title or tenure.”

She says, “There are simple things we can do to incentivise and ensure there is equal access to opportunities. For example, we've created a platform that allows our families to make parental leave choices in a more balanced way by encouraging men to think about taking parental leave or school holiday contracts. A lot of our Dads would love to spend time at home with their babies and kids. This helps to normalise childcare across the workforce, so that it is no longer perceived as a woman’s sole domain.”

“The package is one way we tell our people that they matter to us, and we will look after them,” says Ms Austin.

“Thank you to the YWCA for highlighting the issue of equal pay. And congratulations to all the entrants and winners.”

Media contact: Catherine Etheredge, Head of Communications, NZ Super Fund, 64 9 366 4905, 64 274 777 501, [email protected]