The number of employers that promote support for working parents has significantly increased, at a time when the rising costs of childcare are forcing more women out of work.
The Parental Fog Index 2023 Cross-Industry report, which analyses developments in businesses’ parental policies, also found that fewer employers publish basic details of paternity leave and pay than maternity.
The research, conducted by Executive Coaching Consultancy, found that almost a quarter more (23%) top employers (as defined by The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers) were actively marketing their family-friendly details compared with last year, a five-year high.
This suggested more employers now understood the need to competitively market their support for working parents in a challenging recruitment market made worse by the “childcare crisis”.
Childcare
Childcare costs rocket by £200 per week, claims research
Despite this positive trend, two-thirds of employers mentioned parental policies on their website in general terms but provided no clear details. This figure remains unchanged over the past two years.
Among employers that do provide details of pay and leave, slightly more (7%) share these details for maternity than paternity or shared parental leave.
Overall, the number of companies that improved their ranking increased from 11% last year to 31% this year. Despite this, there was a 5% drop in the number of employers awarded top-ranking, “beacon” status.
The study, which placed employers into five categories of visibility, rated 11% of employers in its top ‘Beacon’ group, down from 16% last year. A further 37% of businesses reached “fully visible” status, an increase of 20% from last year. In addition
to publishing full details of parental policies, these employers actively market their support to working parents and are core to their employer brand.
Some 15% of businesses were rated “foggy”. These say they support working parents but don’t say how, but were still rated higher than the bottom ranking: “invisible” (5% of businesses).
Commenting on the research Geraldine Gallacher, CEO of ECC said: “At a time when businesses are trying to hold onto talented women and increase gender balance in senior roles, I am concerned employers are making the job harder for
themselves by not actively promoting their support for working parents. Because of the ongoing childcare crisis, mothers, specifically those at middle-management level, the very cohort from which senior leaders and board members are promoted, are exiting the workforce at a record rate.
“A lack of affordable, quality childcare is forcing dual-career couples to make difficult decisions about whether it makes financial sense for both of them to work. In most cases, it is mothers that are stepping back or away from their careers.”
In March’s Budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced that 30 hours of free childcare for working parents in England would be expanded to cover all children over nine months old from September 2025. This would apply to all households where all adults in the household work at least 16 hours per week.
Gallacher, however, said the government showed little sign that it was “getting to grips with the early years recruitment crisis or that it will properly fund the new 30 hours offer”.
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