Working Families has revealed its top flexible and family-friendly employers for 2023, the majority of which offer flexible working from day one.
Eighty-six per cent of employers in the charity’s benchmark survey offer employees the ability to work flexibly from their first day, suggesting they are well prepared for the flexible working requests legislation due to be implemented in 2024.
Ninety-two per cent assess some, or all, jobs to determine the potential for flexible working prior to advertising, while 78% of organisations provide details of the options to work flexibly on their website.
Nearly half (48%) are using the ‘Happy to Talk Flexible Working’ strapline and logo on all their job adverts. The campaign was relaunched by Working Families and the CIPD earlier this year.
The top 10 employers for working families in alphabetical order are:
- Audit Wales
- Citigroup
- Crown Prosecution Service
- Grant Thornton
- Imperial College London
- NatWest Group
- North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT)
- Pinsent Masons
- Senedd Cymru / Welsh Parliament
- Yorkshire Building Society
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Organisations were scored on four key areas of flexible and family-friendly working, including how far flexible and family-friendly working practices are embedded in their culture; the creation, development and deployment of family-friendly policies and their take-up; how well these practices are supported; and the effects of family-friendly working on their organisations and their ability to understand those effects.
Law firms and banks dominate the remainder of the top 30 employers in Working Families’ index.
Jane van Zyl, CEO of Working Families, said: “These employers show they are leading the way in building family-friendly and flexible workplaces in the UK and are already ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing the changes needed to comply with the new flexible working legislation coming into practice next year.
“It’s heartening to see that almost half of this year’s entrants are using our ‘Happy to Talk Flexible Working’ strapline and logo on all their job adverts, with a further fifth using it for some of their recruitment.”
Tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton said its family-friendly policies included the ability to take six weeks’ paternity leave at full pay or 12 weeks’ leave at half pay, reduced hours schemes, job shares, and promoting flexibility in its job adverts.
“We are delighted to be named as a leading employer for working families, recognising our commitment to creating an inclusive workplace for all our people. People thrive when they can balance their lives with work, so we’ve developed flexible policies to support this balance. Our culture, fostered by these policies, makes us immensely proud, and we’ll keep enhancing support for a sustainable and balanced career,” said Fiona Baldwin, partner and board sponsor for gender at Grant Thornton UK.
Pinsent Masons has implemented a return-to-work buddy scheme which connects those returning from family leave with a colleague who provides guidance and support, and has an international family matters steering group to help shape its approach to supporting working families.
Laura Cameron, managing partner at Pinsent Masons, said: “We’re very proud of the progress we’ve made in enabling all of our people to thrive in their careers. Initiatives and programmes which ensure working parents and carers can develop and progress is absolutely vital for any business. We’ll continue to engage with all of our people to seek continuous improvement and to be creative and innovative in our approach to supporting working families.”
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