Hi
My company is the one that did the audit so I'm going to do my best to explain how it all worked - but can I say I'm really sorry first of all if anyone feels as though we've just given the awards away or sold them because that really wasn't what happened.
The process was that a company joined the scheme and we insisted that they complete both an internal and an external audit - precisely so that we didn't end up with a situation where a company was great for customers but rubbish for its staff.
We felt that had to be prepared to let us in for a good close look to join. My company did the internal audit, and Mumnsetters did the secret shopping where that was relevant (some companies who are in the programme like the law firm it obviously wasn't relevant).
For the internal audit, we asked them to submit all their policies and we asked them about their training and how they communicated the policies to staff. We were looking to see who just offered statutory minimum, who offered statutory plus and who offered enhanced statutory benefits and additional, worthwhile and innovative benefits. We then asked their staff in a confidential survey that came directly back to us.
Finally, we put all of that data together - internal and external - and scored it in order to work out which award to give.
Only 2 companies got gold and P&G was one of them. That was because in the policy information they had lots of policies that were above statutory minimum and some that were good family ways of working. Some simple like only having meetings in core hours so part time workers weren't discriminated against, through to help with finding childcare, return to work packages and so on. In their staff survey, 71% of respondents said they thought the company was gold. We had comments like 'my manager's put family first'.
We know that there are always going to be managers who are a bit rubbish - some companies in the programme who thought they would do brilliantly didn't do as well as they hoped because in all honesty their policies weren't put into practice. We're going to be de-briefing every company and highlighting the areas they need to work on and we'll take this to P&G to see if we can help them to sort it out.
I'm really happy to answer any questions about this or the programme as a whole so please ask away.......we really are trying to do a good thing getting companies to look at this and get better because we think it's shameful that the UK does so badly in the family friendly stakes.
We're trying to encourage, not kick, but we need to hear from as many people as possible to identify what's not working and encourage these big companies to sort it out. Will stop rambling. I'm not usually on the boards :)