Family-friendly policies in the workplace are known to lead to greater productivity and improved performance from staff.
These policies include the likes of flexi-time or part-time working; job sharing, term-time working; days working from home; help with nursery or childcare costs; time off for family emergencies; parental leave and maternity leave.
For employees looking to start or add to their family, some progressive employers also offer the opportunity of a career break – a fixed term away from the workplace with a return guaranteed at the same level as before.
While many government departments have led the way in introducing such family-friendly schemes, more businesses are also implementing schemes and work practices that ensure they recruit and retain the best possible staff as employees’ private lives changes.
Companies that have been proactive in introducing flexible working practices that chime with their employees’ lives and work are now among the most popular to work for and their websites will usually reveal how far these policies go with the best firms happy to trumpet their achievements and entice employees.
While large companies, such as public sector employers and multinational businesses, have the capacity and scale to incorporate flexible working practices, it is tougher for smaller employers to implement such policies. Handling maternity leave, flexitime and part-time working is more difficult when you only have a handful of employees. However, more employers are becoming open to suggestions from their staff on how to get the very best out of them while allowing them some leeway on how they do their work.
Whether you’re interviewing for a prospective employer or already employed, you can offer some of your own suggestions for family-friendly working and are likely to have those suggestions welcomed because businesses understand that happy employees are productive employees.
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