Smiths Group Launches New Maternity Buddy Policy

Underpins the Company’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity & inclusion

LONDON 10 July, 2023: Smiths Group plc (‘Smiths Group’), the industrial technology business improving our world through smarter engineering, announces the global roll out of a Maternity Buddy Programme, an initiative started in its Smiths Detection division, and now available to all women across Smiths.

Recognising the challenges faced by women around maternity leave, the Maternity Buddy Programme provides women embarking on, or returning from, maternity or adoption leave access to a ‘buddy’ who has first-hand experience of becoming a mother or stepmother and can share their personal experience of the transition to the dual role of parent and employee and offer guidance, support and advice.

Vera Parker, Chief People Officer at Smiths Group, said: “We know that creating an inclusive workplace is key to greater diversity and greater success. We are proud of this initiative which is designed to support women at an important stage in their personal lives, to help them feel supported and connected.”

In FY2023, Smiths introduced new company-wide Leadership Behaviours, providing a unified description of what leadership means at Smiths and a shared commitment to how the business serves its stakeholders. Smiths Leadership Behaviours align to the Company’s three core priorities of growth, execution and people. The Maternity Buddy Programme is linked to the Leadership Behaviour ‘leads inclusively and empowers’.

This comes following the recent launch of Smiths Group’s global parental leave policy, putting in place a minimum of 22 weeks of paid leave to allow primary caregivers the time to focus on raising their family, while continuing to thrive at work.

See more here: https://www.smiths.com/careers/life-at-smiths

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