Graternity leave is a silver bullet

To graternity and beyond! What splendid news that grandparents are to be given a week off when a new grandchild is born. It’s inspired, empathetic – and makes savvy economic sense.

But then the scheme has been introduced by Saga, which specialises in goods and services for the over-50s. The bosses there grasp the importance of retaining experienced, mature staff who understand their customer base – because they are their customer base.

I know loads of working grandparents who look after their grandchildren part-time. The parents rely on them, the grandparents adore spending quality time, and the babies and toddlers are in seventh heaven.

So of course a week’s paid leave is going to generate loyalty. It is an acknowledgment of the generational ties that bind, that being a grandparent is an important role and that striking a life-work balance isn’t the sole preserve of the young.

Much is made of the quest by millennials for impactful benefits, but their main priority is shared by all demographics; flexible working.

Now there is a City backlash over the Government’s advice that we should once again work from home, with accounting and consulting firm PWC leading the charge by asking staff to use “personal judgment”. According to an Office for National Statistics report, a hybrid approach combining office and home work could reap long-term benefits.

Newborns, however, are notoriously short-term in outlook. Which is why Grandma needs time off straight away to bring calm to chaos, and Grandad can do his bit by taking over the nursery drop-offs for older siblings.

Firms who want their workers to feel like they’re valued members of one great big family need to remember each of them is a precious part of a small one.