AGL recognises there are multiple ways you can define caring and family responsibilities. We understand responsibilities change at different stages of a person’s life. We appreciate caring and family responsibilities are not exclusive to just children or older adults. More than 35% of our workforce have caring responsibilities. We’re committed to supporting our employees to thrive and help them integrate their personal, work, family and caring lives.
We offer a range of flexible working arrangements to employees. One of those is our Hybrid Working model of three days in the office for office-based working, that provides flexibility for employees particularly those with caring responsibilities. Whether it’s caring for children, elderly parents, or other dependents, the ability to work from home allows our employees to better manage their personal and work commitments.
Anonymous survey comments:
Carers Network Story:
By reviewing and updating our policies to be gender neutral, we support fathers and father figures in shared caregiving responsibilities which have a lifelong positive impact to children as well as employee wellbeing. Beyond parental leave, we create a supportive environment through flexible and hybrid arrangements to promote a culture that values work-life balance for all employees.
Marc says if it wasn’t for AGL’s gender-neutral Parental Leave Policy and the support from his team, his wife wouldn’t have been able to pursue her career aspirations, and he spend time as the primary carer to their son, Bastian. It’s now so much more common for men to take leave to care for their children, it was great to have that primary carer role and take care of Bastian.
A key part of Marc’s journey was the 20 weeks of paid primary carer leave, Marc accessed through AGL, which allowed his partner, Jessie, to join the Lions Outback Vision Van as one of two doctors, travelling to remote and Indigenous communities to provide ophthalmology services. On her workdays, Marc was the primary carer and was able to bond with Bastian all while a Senior Engineer [at AGL] could gain experience at managing two operational sites acting in his role.
The ability to take 20 weeks paid parental leave along with annual leave created a win– win situation. Marc says the leader support has been exceptional since the birth of his son and later when his family had to deal with some health issues. He feels fortunate to work as part of a great team at AGL | Perth Energy.
“As the Executive Sponsor of AGL’s Carers Network, I’m passionate about supporting employees across our business who have different caring responsibilities. AGL recognises, supports and values the commitment to others that carers make, whether that’s caring for children, people with disability, friends, the elderly, or other family members. Achieving Family Friendly Workplaces accreditation signals our dedication to fostering an inclusive environment at AGL and guides the strategic direction of our policies and practices, making sure all employees feel valued and empowered to balance their work and caring lives.”
