This article explains how to set up and manage maternity protection correctly.

Personio automatically calculates the legally required maternity protection period if you enter an expected date of birth for an employee’s child.

Setting up maternity protection

1. Go to the employee's profile, and navigate to Personal info > HR information.

   The attribute children is a preset attribute under Settings > People > Employee information > HR information, but it can be moved to a different section manually.

2. Click on Edit at the bottom of the page and click on Add child to open the Add child window.
3. Enter the baby’s name and gender. Select Not known if you do not have this information yet.
4. In Expected birth date, enter the birthdate as calculated by the physician.
5. In Actual birth date, enter the actual date of birth.
   

   This field will need to be left blank at first, as it can only be filled at a later stage once the baby is born.

6. Turn on the Enable maternity protection option to activate the maternity protection period in Personio.
7. Check the Multiple birth and Early birth boxes if applicable.
8. In Duration, enter the duration of the maternity protection period. Personio will automatically pre-populate this field with a period based on German regulations. 
   

   Visit the Duration of Maternity Protection Period per Country section to check what should be the duration of the maternity protection period for your respective country.

9. In Absence calendar, select the absence type that you would like to add the resulting maternity protection period to. To create a specific absence type for maternity protection, navigate to Settings > WORK HOURS AND ABSENCES > Absence. 
   
   
10. Click on Save to exit the Add child window.
11. Click on Submit at the bottom of the page to save the changes.

Editing maternity protection

1. Go to the employee's profile, and navigate to Personal info > HR information.
2. Click on Edit at the bottom of the page, but instead of clicking on Add child, click on the pencil icon next to the previously entered date of birth.
   
   
3. In Actual birth date, enter the actual date of birth.
4. Check the Multiple birth and Early birth boxes if that information has also changed. 
5. Click on Save to exit the Add child window.
6. Click on Submit at the bottom of the page to save the changes.

For more information about entering parental leave and long-term absences, click here.

Recommended maternity protection period per country 🌎

Note
While these recommendations are based on local regulations, they act only as a guideline and might need to be adapted to comply with your company policy.