Professional Services_FinalistTwitter_NSWEA19

Parents At Work are proud to announce we have been selected as a Finalist in the 2019 Premier’s NSW Export Awards, in the Professional Services category.

Parents At Work CSO Kiri Stejko at the Finalists Ceremony.

The Premier's NSW Export Awards is an annual program which aims to recognise excellence in the export of goods and services by NSW business. The awards acknowledge the important contribution of businesses to the economy through job creation and increased prosperity for the community and for the state.

We are passionate about supporting working parents, and supporting employers to provide family-friendly, gender-equal policies for their employees. Through both our advocacy work with our Parental Leave Equality Campaign, and our business services, we have been able to take this support across international borders.

In partnership with our different member organisations, we’ve been able to provide over 100,000 families with access to vital parental leave and return to work transition programs, work life balance support, career management and other care services. Our membership now reaches around the world, with member businesses in the UK, US, Asia and New Zealand – and growing.

We were particularly proud of our collaborations with the Embassy of Sweden, Working Families UK, Government Equalities Office UK, Global Women NZ and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency which initiated the Parental Leave Equality Campaign to improve the number of men taking up parental leave as a gender equality imperative. We launched Aussie Dads, inspired by our collaborative Swedish Dads exhibition, and recently launched Kiwi Dads.

“It’s been two years since we began the Parental Leave Equality campaign in Australia. It’s now travelled from Sweden, Australia, then to the UK and now New Zealand,” says Parents At Work CEO Emma Walsh. “Everywhere we have been, we have had success by engaging local advocates, uniting local government, the business community and gender equality groups. The goal is to create a parental leave approach that engages men to participate – as well as see our business services continue to provide crucial support to working families in their home-life integration.”

Thank you to the Premier’s NSW Export Awards for this honour – we look forward to hearing the final results.