How SentinelOne’s CPO made the case for both parental and ‘grandternity’ leave

When Cinthia Shields’s first granddaughter, Kora, was born in 2020, she wasn’t able to be there due to Covid-19 shutdowns.

Last year, when her daughter, Krystal, was pregnant again, this time with twins, she knew she wanted to be there. Shields, who works on strategic technology partnerships for cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, decided to use the company’s five-day grandparent leave, which rolled out in March 2022.

She had to use that leave three weeks earlier than expected, though, when the babies’ heart beats began to show signs of stress.

“I don’t know how to describe how relieving it was to be able to just jump on a flight that same day,” said Shields, who flew to Phoenix from her home in Golden, Colorado, to take care of Kora while Krystal gave birth.

SentinelOne is one of several companies now offering “grandternity” leave to support an older workforce.

The company made the case for the new benefit after securing buy-in for expanded parental leave, according to Chief People Officer Divya Ghatak. “The workforce is shifting in a way that you do have grandparents working…people are living longer, healthier lives, and you still have people who are quite engaged with their professions,” Ghatak said.

Looking to lead globally on leave. SentinelOne has about 2,300 employees worldwide, with the majority working in North America.

Coming out of the pandemic, “parental leave was a big area of opportunity for us,” Ghatak said. “It is important for both partners to be equal stakeholders in bringing up the kids.” This belief prompted Ghatak to propose offering 16 weeks of gender-neutral leave to SentinelOne employees. The company previously offered 12 weeks of paid leave to birthing parents in North America, and two weeks to partners (parental leave for employees in other regions is determined by country statute).

Ghatak came up with an estimate for the added cost of expanding parental leave by analyzing demographic data of employees likely to use the benefit. She then made the case for the benefit to company leadership by highlighting global initiatives to expand parental leave, such as a European Union Directive, which mandates fathers take at least 10 days of leave when a child is born.

“The world is shifting [anyway], and do you want to take a stand and lead that change?” Ghatak said, describing her conversation with SentinelOne’s CEO, Tomer Weingarten, when proposing the expanded leave. She also emphasized potential implications for attracting and retaining employees: “We said, this is definitely a business decision. But this is also a talent decision.’”

Once Ghatak and her team had secured support from leadership to expand parental leave, proposing five days of grandparent leave was fairly simple, she said. “The foundation had been set with a gender-neutral parental leave.”

The impact of expanded leave. Ghatak said she sees the company’s strong employee engagement, and relatively low attrition rate, as proof of the success of these expanded leave programs. In a recent annual survey, the company’s employees—known as “sentinels”—scored 88% on engagement, a measure of “connection and commitment to the organization and our goals,” according to data shared with HR Brew. Some 96% of the company’s employees reported being “willing to go the extra mile to help the company succeed.”

Attrition at SentinelOne has also trended below 10% in recent years, according to the data.

While only about four SentinelOne employees have taken the grandparent leave so far since it was rolled out last year, Shields sees the offering as an encouraging sign that companies are becoming more attuned to the needs of older employees. Shields noted the leave offerings are a far cry from what was offered earlier in her career, when she was raising her children in Foster City, California.

“Back in the day when…I had both my daughters, we’re looking at a maximum [of] eight weeks. Daddies didn’t have leaves. Definitely grandparents didn’t have leaves,” she said. “I think this generation is going to be leveraging grandparent leave much more often then what we saw in the last 10 to 15 years."