When Senior Systems Engineer Blanca Arcas was expecting her first child, she suggested some ideas for improving Airspan’s parental leave policy. Here, Blanca explains what happened next, and how it transformed her experience of being a new parent…

I’ve been with Airspan since 2017. During that length of time I’ve built up really good relationships with my colleagues, so I was excited to share the good news with them. 

Around the same time as I was organising my maternity leave, Airspan was looking at improving its parental leave policy. My manager put me in touch with the team working on the new policy who were keen to use my experience and thoughts about what was needed to help reshape it. For example, I had seen that other companies were offering extended maternity leave. Fortunately, Airspan was very receptive to this idea. 

In the UK, you’re legally entitled to 39 weeks of maternity pay, and the first 26 weeks of this is referred to as ordinary maternity leave. For the first six weeks you get 90% of your salary, and for the remaining 33 you get about £156 a week. Under Airspan’s new policy though, I received 100% of my salary for six weeks, and 50% for the rest of the ordinary maternity leave period. 

The new policy was introduced in October, a few months before my due date, but Airspan applied it retrospectively to some of my colleagues who were already on leave, meaning they could benefit from it too. 

My daughter arrived in January. Having this support was a big help for us and a weight off my mind, allowing me to concentrate completely on her. Airspan would check in to make sure I felt included and connected. This was part of a two week programme designed to keep me up to date with what was going on, where I could come back into the office for one week in April and another in June. The company always got the balance right and this never felt intrusive, or like I needed to work while on leave, but was simply a great opportunity to introduce everyone to my daughter and make sure I was aware of new developments. 

For many, going back to work is a shock to the system, but my colleagues and line manager were incredibly supportive. Under the new policy, when people come back from parental leave they receive the other 50% of their salary from the time off as a lump sum. When I asked for permission to work from Spain, so that my mother could help me with childcare and meet her granddaughter, I thought I might only be able to stay for a few weeks, but my boss arranged it so that I could stay for a few months. Being able to be with my daughter and family at such a special time meant so much to all of us. 

This showed what an incredible culture we have at Airspan. Everyone went out of their way to make returning to work as smooth and stress free as possible. Above all I’m proud to have been part of this group project to make sure future parents at Airspan can continue to enjoy those special first few months with their child to the fullest.