UK’s most family-friendly workplaces revealed

The charity Working Families has published a list of the UK’s most family-friendly workplaces.

The top ten employers include banks, law firms and even the Crown Prosecution Service.

To gain a place in the top-rankings, organisations had to answer a series of in-depth questions on their policies, how these worked in practice, whether flexible working was part of their culture, and how the impact of family-friendly working was evidenced through data.

The list of top employers is as follows (in alphabetical order):

• American Express
• Barclays Bank
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Deloitte
• Independent Living Fund Scotland
• Intellectual Property Office
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Pinsent Masons
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Southdown Housing

Seven of the 10 organisations in this year’s most family-friendly employers were also ranked in the top 10 last year, and a number have also featured in previous years.

The full list of 30 employers features a number of government departments and the National Assembly for Wales.

The employers featured have taken part in Working Families’ employer benchmark scheme, which enables organisations to compare their policies and practices with others and get feedback and support.

Jane van Zyl, the charity’s chief executive, said: “For these best practice employers, their flexible and family-friendly working policies supporting mothers, fathers and carers are well developed, and flexible working is becoming embedded.”

However, she added that flexible working alone would not deliver work-life balance for parents. “What’s key to unlocking parents’ potential is a family friendly workplace culture. Importantly, today’s winners know this – and are striving to ensure their underlying workplace culture supports the flexible and family-friendly policies they have in place,” she said.

Commenting on being listed for a second year, Dominic Houlihan, director of people, places and services at the Intellectual Property Office, said: “The IPO is a great place to work. We are committed to the physical and mental wellbeing of our people. This includes policies that support our people to balance work and family life.

“An environment where people can meet their full potential is also one which delivers for customers. We retain valuable skills and are better able to respond to changes in the business environment.”

The IPO offers home working, flexible hours and shared parental leave, as well as support networks and counsellors.