The value of being a family friendly business
Getting the balance right between our work and home lives can be tricky. But the secret to having a happy and engaged workforce who are loyal to your company involves treating them as part of your family – however large your workforce may be.
People’s lives are constantly evolving, from starting a family, getting married, caring for others, taking on personal challenges such as extra-curricular study, volunteering and charity work.
Many employees will feel able to juggle this seamlessly. But that won’t always be possible and some, whether new or existing ones, will aspire to work for employers who are more family friendly.
Parents of newborns are now able to share up to a year’s leave to look after their child and employees have a right to request a flexible working pattern. Each workforce is different though and to get flexibility right means asking your employees what they need from you.
Engagement is key and assumptions about what your workforce might want should never be made.
Carrying out a survey is a good starting point, but ideas and input can come from other opportunities such as one-to-one meetings, informal discussions, team away days, an online survey, as well as by formal approaches like focus groups and setting up a project team.
Before undertaking this, you need to be sure you’re able to be flexible and that you want to offer more.
Whilst respecting privacy and confidentiality, find out from employees:
• What their responsibilities for caring are
• How this affects them personally and their work
• How family friendly they find your company’s current policies and practice within the organisation
• And most importantly, how things could be improved
If you get this right, then you will no doubt have a more engaged workforce who feel valued, appreciated and supported. Getting the balance right improves wellbeing. They are more likely to be creative, productive at work and feel less stressed and anxious.
Appreciation in the workforce - are they getting the message?
How family friendly is your organisation? Does it meet the needs of the workforce?
Julie Gordon is the Managing Director of cHRysos HR Solutions, a Doncaster based HR training and consultancy company providing CIPD and CMI accredited qualifications nationwide, as well as HR Consultancy to SMEs. Contact Julie on info@chrysos.org.uk or call +44 (0)1302 802128.
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cHRysos HR Solutions are a UK wide HR training and consultancy company offering CIPD accredited qualifications, Apprenticeships, Training and HR Services to SMEs. For more information about how cHRysos HR can help you or your teams successfully achieve further qualifications, contact us on info@chrysos.org.uk or call 03300 562443.