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The Top Family-Friendly Employers

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)iStock_000006039696XSmall

If you are in the market for a new job, and want to make sure that your next employer is family friendly, you’ll want to check out Working Families’ list of top employers.

U.K. work-life balance charity Working Families has launched an inaugural list of the best of the best family-friendly employers. The list recognises employers whose policies and practices have created working environments that are both flexible and great places to work. The 20 organisations have shown track-records and leadership in the areas of flexible working, childcare provision, maternity/paternity policies and eldercare policies.

American Express U.K. is one of the winners. “Our Blue Box Values culture emphasises strong employee engagement and a shared mindset,” said Samantha Bidwell, director of global diversity and inclusion. “These values are based around teamwork, good citizenship, integrity, respect, sharing and being flexible to circumstances. You can really see and feel the values and they have considerable heritage. We have real buy-in for this from both our leaders and employees.” As an example of Amex’s approach to family-friendly working practices, all employees are allowed to request a flexible working option, and about 30% of U.K. employees have taken this up formally. Informal arrangements exist for a large number of other employees.

Lloyds TSB is also on the list, celebrating 10 years of its Work Options scheme which introduced flexible working for all staff in 1999. “With Work Options we moved away from the assumption that work-life balance was only an issue for women with children,” said Fiona Cannon, equality and diversity director at the bank. “Flexibility became an option for all staff and now managers had a toolkit which meant that they could say no as well as yes. They felt supported.” Work Options was developed in response to a concern that there were few senior women in the bank at that time, but also for the commercial reason that the bank needed to be more flexible itself, to meet the changing needs of its customers, including a demand for longer opening hours.

The financial services sector is well represented on the list of 20 employers, with Britannia Building Society and Nationwide Building Society also counted amongst the winners. Accountancy and consulting firms have also done well, with Accenture and KPMG making it to the list.

KPMG were recognised for their ongoing support package for those with families, called ‘My Family Matters.’ This includes allowing employees 20 days subsidised childcare per year. The results of the family-friendly approach at KPMG are evidenced by the fact that 62% of women returning to work after maternity leave are still with the company a year later.

“We have an absolute commitment to attracting and retaining talented people,” said Sarah Bond, head of diversity and employee engagement at KPMG. “Many of these have parenting and family responsibilities and want more flexibility. What is good for parents is also good for business and getting it right for employees will mean getting it right for clients. We can’t afford to be complacent. We will keep focused on those hard to reach parts of the business to ensure we retain and develop our female talent in all areas.”

Working Families is a charity that supports and gives a voice to working parents and carers, while also helping employers create workplaces which encourage work-life balance for everyone. The top employer awards form part of their 30th anniversary, and they have attracted a great deal of interest in the U.K. “The number and calibre of nominations we have had has clearly demonstrated the significance of this list and the importance of family-friendly employment policies,” said Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families. “Our Top 20 are employers whose innovation and farsighted practice have brought them business success and created the flexible and engaging workplaces which working parents and carers really need.”

Working men with children and carers didn’t really come into the equation until the turn of the last century, and before that ‘family friendly’ meant giving women “returners” part-time hours and the chance to job share. The law has changed considerably since then, but some of the best employers in the list have stayed ahead of what they are legally obliged to do by striving to produce a better working environment for everyone. As the realisation has finally dawned that happy employees are more productive employees, employers have taken a progressive stance to improve retention rates, reduce sickness absence and embed flexible practices in the company culture.

The Working Families winners haven’t been ranked. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Is your next employer on the list?

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  1. Jonathon Scott
    Jonathon Scott says:

    It’s great to see financial services companies in here. For all the negative press that they get at the moment a lot of people forget that they also have the ability to look after employees in more ways than just headline making bonuses.

    Also the kind of initiatives provide a great bedrock for driving employee engagement (although they are not a major driver themselves). If the experience that these employees have matches the flexibility of the work life balance then they are on a winner. Some great brands in here.