Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Family-friendly policies are key to productivity

by Personnel Today 29 Apr 2003
by Personnel Today 29 Apr 2003

In the UK, we work too hard, we give lousy customer service, worry too much,
spend too little time with our children, eat poorly, and we don’t produce
enough. And we share the blame. Somehow we expect people to separate their
heads from their bodies, and working lives from their families. Children need
time, attention, meals, and homework support, not just plugging into the
cigarette lighter socket to be recharged like a mobile phone.

Three out of four senior managers would refuse a job that damaged their
family. One in four has used their ‘get stuffed’ funds, a Australian phrase, to
walk away from such employment saying: "I led a team in an engineering
consultancy. I also have two teenage children. My bosses didn’t listen to my
pleas for two days working from home. I resigned. My boss was shell-shocked.
They could have easily retained me with a little flexibility."

Or how about the man told, at interview with a consultancy, that, "his
weekends were his own, but that the rest of the week belonged to the
company"? A bad joke? Unfortunately, CMG wasn’t joking and did not see the
connection between life-last, family-last policies and impending commercial
meltdown. Tragi-comedy.

And what happens to workers at the frontline who don’t have ‘get stuffed’
funds? Do they have to leave their lives at their door and their children in
the combined care of the Tweenies, Buffy, MTV, and the after school club?

One company that doesn’t think so is Loop, part of Yorkshire Water. Mike
Smith, Yorkshire Water’s HR director explains: "Loop has seen its sales
increase 9 per cent in one year as a result of the family-friendly,
people-friendly culture we have put in place."

Remarkably for a call centre, "79 per cent of staff say they are not
under too much pressure at work and feel able to take their holidays". In
addition, Loop has gone beyond benefit-by-hierarchy by offering half of its
workers flexitime including job share, annualised hours, term working and
working from home.

In complete contrast, the CBI seems proud that 70 per cent of companies
offer one extra family-friendly benefit above the statutory minimum.

Think about it. Why should six in 10 workers be unable to take leave even in
an emergency? The impact on the productivity of your organisation is immense.
If you employ staff on low incomes, a third of those worry about not being able
to feed and clothe their children. Doesn’t it make sense to try and minimise
those worries?

The remarkable truth is that payback on being ‘family friendly’ is well
proven. In Australia, for example, DuPont got back £4 for every £1 spent, while
NRMA got back £14 for every £1 spent.

Why aren’t staff allowed to choose the most effective location in which to
work? Why can’t they have support and freedom to meet family needs? Why do
three in four get no support when adopting? Why do only 5 per cent of men dare
to ask for flexible working?

It’s our fault collectively so let’s do something about it. Life must come
first. And that’s not just being nice, it’s being smart.

By Max Mckeown, Corporate activist and author of Unshrink the People

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
SARS issues for employers
next post
Met to recruit from abroad

You may also like

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022

Consultation on new NHS cancer standards, as waits...

11 Mar 2022

Pandemic pivot to home working fuelled mental ill...

11 Mar 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+