News More time, more support: our enhanced parental leave from April 2026 15/04/26 When a growing whānau changes everything The people keeping Aotearoa’s lights on have lives outside the job. Field crews and office teams both. The reality of a growing whānau usually involves a lot of joy mixed with a decent amount of stress. In April 2025, we introduced our first round of enhanced discretionary parental leave and joined the New Zealand Parental Leave Register alongside more than 300 other employers. Since then, 19 of our people have used those benefits – 12 of them from our field teams. The feedback told us the staged return to work, in particular, made a genuine difference. So we kept building. From 1 April 2026, we’ve expanded what we offer — because if People Matter is a value worth holding, it has to show up when it counts most. What's changed Two things are new from April 2026. First, we’re now fully paying the two weeks of partner leave. Previously one of those weeks was unpaid. From now on, both weeks are covered by Connetics – and the leave can also be used for prenatal appointments before parental leave starts. Second, we’re introducing one week of discretionary paid Whānau Leave for all parents, caregivers, and partners. It’s flexible by design: use it to prepare before your child arrives, or take it any time in the first two years. It sits alongside what we already offer – the option to extend Primary Carer leave up to two years, and a staged return where primary carers work 80% of their hours for 100% pay for the first 12 weeks back. Together, these changes give our people more financial security and more flexibility at one of the most significant moments in their lives. On the register We’re on the New Zealand Parental Leave Register – a public list of employers who are open and transparent about what they offer working parents. It’s maintained by Crayon, and it’s a resource for employee in New Zealand weighing up their options when a new child is on the way. Being on the register matters to us. It means anyone considering a career at Connetics can see exactly what they’d be signing up for – before they even apply. That kind of transparency reflects the workplace we’re trying to build. “We build infrastructure that communities count on for decades. The least we can do is make sure the people building it can be there for their own families when it matters most.” – Mark Lewis, Head of People and Culture
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