At Sanofi, everyone gets parental leave: all parents of all genders, irrespective of which country they’re in. “People feel like it’s part of our culture,” Sanofi-Aventis Germany’s CFO Marcus Lueger tells me in this week’s podcast. “We’re recognised, and it pays off,” he says. “I don’t have to offer anybody any kind of retention bonus or above-average pay increase so that they stay. They know what our values are, and that pays back.”

 In an unexpectedly open and warm-hearted discussion, Marcus explains why he shares MyCollective’s convictions around diversity, and explains some of the ways in which Sanofi support both genders in their parenting/career goals:

👉 14 weeks minimum paid parental leave for everyone globally;

👉 giving parental leavers the option to stay in touch and keep receiving news that’s relevant to their team / position / re-entry;

👉 flexible work models, including tandems and hybrid 50-50 office and working from home solutions.

It was really inspiring for us to see what can be done within big companies – and how much can shift as a result. “One thing that definitely changes, is when you recruit someone to a position where in the past people said, ‘She’s 30 she’s probably going to get pregnant, I’m gonna take the guy!'“ says Marcus. „Well, guess what – the guy is also going to go on 14 week parental leave, so that takes one key argument away!”

As we always say – we’ll know that we’ve arrived when men and women of childbearing age are treated the same way, so it’s fantastic to see that in this company, that’s already happening!

Speaker: Marcus Lueger – CFO GSA & Managing Director Finance @Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland

Host: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective

Photo: Marcus Lueger   

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