Our Group Inclusion Commitments

We’re ensuring the best start for new families by giving every colleague who becomes a parent a minimum of 16 weeks paid parental leave – wherever they are, whoever they are and how ever they become a parent.

Starting a family is one of the most life-changing experiences we can go through. It should also be one of the happiest times, but it isn’t always easy and the rights of new parents and caregivers vary enormously around the world. We believe everyone who starts a family should have the opportunity to enjoy this. They shouldn’t have to worry about the impact on their career, finances, job security or how they are perceived for their commitment to family life.

Our minimum standard of 16-weeks paid gender-neutral parental leave applies to all colleagues from day one of being part of our Group (regardless of gender, sexual orientation or how they start their family). At the end of their leave, colleagues can return to work at 80% of pre-leave hours for 100% of pre-leave pay for six months too.

We’re helping every colleague who is a caregiver to support their loved ones or take time for self-care with a minimum of 15 days of paid ‘caregiver leave’ every year.

We know that many of our colleagues around the world provide vital care for loved ones – whether that’s children, vulnerable adults, family members or friends with a disability or health condition, or someone else. Juggling the physical and emotional demands of caregiving with the day job isn’t easy, so we introduced 15 days of paid caregiver leave for every colleague globally. It can cover planned caregiving duties (such as taking a dependent to a medical appointment) or unexpected or emergency situations. It can also be used for urgent self-care related to being a caregiver – such as when caregiving responsibilities mean you need to take time out for professional mental health or medical support.

Caregiver's toolkit

We’re supporting every colleague who experiences pregnancy loss of any kind with a minimum of 10 days of paid additional leave and paid time off for related appointments.

Pregnancy loss of any kind can be a hugely traumatic experience. It affects the physical and mental wellbeing of the person carrying the child and can have a significant impact on their partner and family – either immediately after a loss or long after this. Every experience is unique and personal, so we introduced flexible support in the form of a minimum of 10 days of paid additional leave and paid time off for related appointments. Our commitment applies to all colleagues who experience a pregnancy loss, whatever the nature of that loss, regardless of their length of service and whether it happens directly to them, to their partner or to someone who is acting as a surrogate (in countries where surrogacy is legal).

Pregnancy loss support toolkit

We’re standing up for colleagues who experience domestic violence or abuse with a minimum of 10 days of paid ‘safe leave’ to get the support they need at the time they need it – and a zero tolerance approach for abusers that also seeks to identify support to help them change their behaviour.

Domestic violence and abuse can affect anyone, so it’s vital that we offer support at work and that we have the kind of workplaces where all of our colleagues feel safe to ask for help - or know how to support each other. To help, we introduced paid ‘safe leave’ across our global operations to support our colleagues when they need help and in the way they need it.

Domestic violence and abuse toolkit

We’re becoming an increasingly gender-balanced, ethnically diverse, disability confident and faith-aware employer – supporting our commitment to initiatives including the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles, Change the Race Ratio campaign and Race at Work Charter.

When everyone is included as part of diverse teams in truly supportive workplaces, we can achieve so much more – individually and collectively. We’ve set some ambitious diversity goals for our Group and are making progress, but there’s more to do. To help, we have a range of colleague networks and we’re partnering with like-minded organisations who we can learn from and, together, have an even more positive impact on the world around us.

We will be a safe place for all lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer or questioning (LGBTQ+) people, wherever we operate – committing to the United Nations LGBTI Standards of Conduct for Business and becoming an increasingly vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Across Spirax Group, we have committed to be a safe place for all LGBTQ+ people wherever we work in the world. This includes colleagues, customers, communities and everyone we work with, because no-one should ever have to fear discrimination, harassment or bullying for who they are, who they love, how they look, or how they express their gender identity. We also know that many colleagues need some extra support on an LGBTQ+ matter at home and to feel less alone when faced with a challenge, so we support the United Nations LGBTI Standards of Conduct for Business and have an LGBTQ+ and Friends Global Network to help.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion toolkit

We’re creating menopause-friendly workplaces through new global principles to ensure anyone experiencing menopause feels safe and is treated fairly, respected and appropriately supported.

Menstruation and menopause are a natural part of life for many of our colleagues, whether they are experiencing this themselves or whether they know a team member, family member or friend who is. To help, we worked with colleagues across our businesses, in our Women’s Network and with an external expert to create a set of menopause-friendly workplace principles and guidance on positive menstrual health at work. These set out how we can all create workplaces and a working culture where anyone experiencing menstruation or menopause is supported in the best way.

Menopause and menstrual health toolkit

We’re proactively promoting better wellbeing and mental health – having signed the Global Business Collaboration’s Pledge for Better Workplace Mental Health and supporting all colleagues through our global Employee Assistance Programme.

We are all likely to know someone who’s struggling with their wellbeing or mental health and it’s likely that we’ll need support ourselves from time to time too. So, we have initiatives in place like our global Employee Assistance Programme. It provides free, confidential advice and support for colleagues and their dependants – all year round and in their local language (for everyday matters and for when things become more challenging). Our colleague networks run global events to support positive wellbeing and mental health too, having recently covered topics including prostate cancer, endometriosis, male suicide prevention and more.

Championing better wellbeing toolkit

We’re enabling our hybrid workforce to be at their best wherever and whenever they are working – so, we dress for our day, we work where we are at our best and most productive for the task in hand, and we keep in touch and actively include each other.

We believe that hybrid working (the agile combination of working in shared workplaces and away from these) benefits our colleagues and our business. It offers flexibility that means more of us can balance different aspects of life with work, which opens up opportunities for a more even more of us. We know not every role can work in this way, but we’re seeking to enable hybrid working wherever we can. To help, we created a hybrid working toolkit and global principles to guide us.

Hybrid working toolkit

Across Spirax Group, we want to have a truly inclusive and equitable working culture – where we attract, develop and retain great colleagues from all backgrounds and where we support everyone to be their best. When we do this, we’re more successful as individuals, as teams and as a business.

We believe that diverse teams bring a great diversity of thought, skills, experience and perspectives to our Group. That diversity means we’re more innovative and more creative, and it helps ensure our continued business success in an ever-changing world. It means we continue to grow and it creates more opportunities for everyone - our difference is our strength.