Law and financial firms among top family-friendly employers

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Work-life balance charity Working Families has revealed its top family-friendly employers in the UK, including public sector organisations, law firms and banks.

Law firm Pinsent Masons made it into the top 10 for the fourth year in a row, which it said was reflective of its commitment to providing a working environment that met the needs of working parents and carers.

“With the Covid-19 pandemic seeing the majority of our people working from home and adapting to this, our working parents and carers have also had the additional challenge of looking after and, in some cases, educating their children too,” said Kate Ferguson, Pinsent Masons’ head of responsible business.

“Our ability to exercise our agile and flexible approach has never been more important but we recognise that this is a journey and there is more work to be done.

“Over the last year, we have worked closely with our Family Support Network and Mental Health Champions to run a programme to support children’s mental health and we have provided webinars and additional support around the mental health and wellbeing challenges our people may be facing as a result of Covid-19.”

This year’s top 10 employers for working families are (in alphabetical order):

American Express
Crown Prosecution Service
DWF
Experian
Imperial College London
Independent Living Fund Scotland
Intellectual Property Office
Lloyds Banking Group
Pinsent Masons
Welsh Parliament

Organisations are assessed against the Working Families Benchmark, which takes into account the level of support they offer parents and carers; their flexible recruitment policies; line manager support; wellbeing and work-life balance; and communications strategies, among other criteria.

They are also scored against four areas: integration to organisational strategy and culture; policies; consistent practice; and evidence and statistics around flexible and family-friendly working.

The charity found that 52% of the employers surveyed analyse all jobs to determine the potential for flexibility before advertising vacancies, up from 41% last year.

Almost all (96%) include the creation of a flexible, family-friendly culture in their strategic plans, while 65% give employees the right to request flexible working from their first day at work, rather than having to wait the statutory 26 weeks.

Working Families chief executive Jane van Zyl said: “Covid-19 has demonstrated just how vital it is for employers to support the diverse needs of their staff team and build cultures that embrace flexible working. These employers excelled in our rigorous benchmarking process, proving they are leading the way in building family-friendly workplaces in the UK.”

The full list of the 30 most family-friendly employers for 2020 are (in alphabetical order):