Working Families announces the most family friendly workplaces in the UK 

Work-life balance charity Working Families has announced its annual list of the top family-friendly employers in the UK. Employers large and small from across the public, private, and third sectors compete annually to gain a coveted place on the charity’s list of Top Employers for Working Families. The announcement coincides with Working Families’ National Work Life Week campaign.

Employers were assessed using Working Families’ Benchmark and were scored on four key areas to build a comprehensive picture of their flexible and family-friendly policies and practices that specifically support mothers, fathers and carers. These are:

• integration to organisational strategy and culture– which looks at culture, attitude and how far flexible and family-friendly working practices have become embedded;
• policy– which looks at the creation, development and deployment of flexible and family-friendly working policies;
• consistent practice– which considers how well flexible and family-friendly working is supported; and
• evidence and statistics– which looks at the effects of flexible and family-friendly working on the organisation, and their ability to understand those effects.

This year’s Top Ten Employers for Working Families – in alphabetical order – are:

• American Express
• Crown Prosecution Service
• DWF
• Experian
• Highlands & Islands Enterprise
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Pinsent Masons
• Public Health England
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Southdown Housing

The Benchmark—which captures the experience of over 450,000 UK employees across the organisations that took part—is also used to examine trends in flexible and family-friendly policies and practices. Key findings for 2019 include:

• 41% of employers surveyed said that they analyse all jobs to determine the potential for flexibility before advertising vacancies. The Government is currently considering a requirement for employers to take a part-time and flexible-by-default approach to recruitment.
• Almost 2/3 of employers who took part in the Benchmark (64%) said that addressing their gender pay gap is their biggest opportunity for developing work-life balance in the coming year.
• 64% of employers who took part in the Benchmark believe that the biggest barrier to flexibility in their organisation is a lack of line manager skills.
• While 70% of employers surveyed provide training for line managers on managing flexible working, only 45% make this training compulsory. Consequently, only around a third (31%) of organisations have trained more than half of their managers.

“We are delighted to recognise the thirty outstanding organisations that made our Top Employers for Working Families list this year,” said Jane van Zyl, Chief Executive of Working Families.  “These employers excelled in our rigorous benchmarking process, proving they are leading the way in building family-friendly and flexible workplaces. Crucially, they are not just putting policies in place—they are building cultures that support their employees’ wellbeing.”