Can you share examples of great family friendly policies?

[Pagetta]

I work for a company in a very male dominated sector, and have just been heavily involved in producing our gender pay gap report.

Our gap wasn't bad but wasn't great - fairly typical of a male dominated sector and we were pretty similar to our competitors. What was lacking for me in the report though was a clear action plan to show how we are going to improve.

I'm not in the HR team, but a related role, and my boss has asked me to draft what a more 'family friendly' policy may look like to take to our board.

So for example at the minute we pay statutory maternity, and flexi time and WFH at line managers discretion (which varies wildly), and that's about it. (We are a top 250 company for reference).

A lot of gender pay gap reports say "we are going to deliver a robust family friendly policy" or "we are going to implement a best in class family environment" - which means precisely nothing!

What i'd love to know is your experiences of great policies that support working mums/parents.

So in a previous job, I got a free pacapod when i went on mat leave, a space in the car park for 6 weeks before leaving (an 11 yr waiting list normally) and 3 months full pay, then statutory. Which was great.

So what does a 'family friendly' company look like to you - one that really supports working mums - and helps support those mums that want to continue on into higher level roles in their organisations.

(for example - a friend of mine said the fact that both her and her husband have flexible working hours has made it possible for them both to work full time with 3 kids)

Thanks for your thoughts!

hi there, writing from Canada, but we just passed a policy across the province which allows parents to take 10 emergency days off a year for their children. No repercussions. The first two are paid. You just say "I am taking a paid emergency day" and it's yours.

My husband has great flexibility in his job, he drops kids off at school and picks them up @ 3:30 pm.

We are considering a move to the UK and worry we will lose these types of perks.

sorry, meant to add that our maternity leave is 1.5 years now and they are working on free childcare, but that remains a campaign promise (canada). My husband took 9 months off with our last baby!

Allowing Home working (depending on role) makes the biggest difference to us.

Neither DH or I work at home every day but we both have the opportunity to WFH at least once a week which makes a huge difference (reduces commuting so increases family times, saves us substantial money in petrol, allows us to do the school run occasionally to maintain a connection to the school community etc etc)

Home working means that you can nip out for an hour for an assembly etc without interrupting the whole work day.

Company subsidised crèches would be great especially if they worked outside "normal" working hours.

Are you looking at family friendly or child friendly? Lots of people have caring responsibilities for parents with an aging society. So say for example you have paid or non paid emergency leave it should apply to everyone for family emergencies not just those with children. Lots older women end up having to work part time to juggle care of older family members.

I think famiily friendly - in the first instance its about supporting working mums - but actually a real family policy would support working parents, carers etc.

One idea i saw was buying up places at local school holiday clubs for your employee's children which i thought was really interesting!
Some employers contribute to care hours to relieve carers which is a fantastic scheme!

We have a subsidised staff nursery, 19 weeks full pay maternity leave (then statutory) and 5 family days a year.

Role dependent you can work from home (I can) and flexible working.

Hi there,

Can I ask if non-parents/carers feel resentful because they are not entitled to emergency or family days?

A culture where it’s what you do not the hours you do that make you a good employee.

Different contracts not just standard 9-5. for example 9:30 start to account for school drop off for some employees where this works within business needs.

Plenty of notice for one off events - staying late/change of location for training etc.

Ability to ‘buy’ extra holidays.

Clear and fair holiday booking system.

Close business on Christmas Eve and pay all employees for the day. Even a small bonus at Christmas.

I work for a large employer.
Several things we have - more than SMP. It's a long time since I had my babies, but I got 90% of pay for first 6 weeks of ML, then 50% pay up to 6 months. Then SMP equivalent up to 12 months.
They have recently provided a room for nursing mothers, somewhere comfy and private to express, with fridges.
My company also does the salary sacrifice childcare vouchers, and supports flexible working (not just for mothers, there are several men who work part time too)

We also have a 'trust ' system in my team. If you are late in due to school events, etc. They trust you to make up the hours
As long as the work is done, they don't mind if you need flexibility with start and finish times

Some examples...subsidized back-up care for times when regular childcare falls through; a working parent group (online or not) for sharing support and feedback; culture change if necessary (no point in flexible working etc if it isn't culturally acceptable).

Policies are only half of the picture - on paper my employer has all the policies: flexible working, working from home, working part-time etc.
In practice, how those policies are implemented varies hugely from one department to another.

In depts with a female head of dept with child caring responsibilities of her own, you can often find flexible working operated fairly and well. Its not always though.

Monitor how the policies are being managed and performance manage managers who aren't being fair and consistent.

Treat employees like responsible grown ups (but performance manage those that abuse the policies).