How to Create a Supportive and Inclusive Workplace for Families

Creating a family-friendly workplace culture involves implementing policies and practices that support employees in balancing their work/life responsibilities. Here are our top seven strategies to achieve this:

Flexible working 

Offering the flexibility to accommodate employees’ needs shows that you understand the varied needs of family life. Often parents need to tailor their days to school runs and feeding their children, and can catch up on work at times that suits their schedule. The same also applies for the option to work remotely if needed, or providing hybrid working hours.

Parental leave policies

Showing that you care about your employees' experience as parents and allowing them time to bond with new-born babies is an excellent way to increase engagement and long-term loyalty from your employees. Ensure your policies are inclusive enough to cover adoption and foster care which can also be a time consuming emotional, and lengthy process.

Childcare support

Childcare fees can be among the biggest expenses faced by families today, especially in the UK. Flexible benefit systems can allow parents to choose how to use stipends, subsidies and other allowances to help pay for the care of their children.

The average annual cost of a full-time nursery place for a child under two in Britain is £14,836, according to a report by the charity, Coram. When compared to the average UK wage of £33,000 per year, it is not surprising that fewer than one-in-five of all new mothers, and 29 per cent of first-time mothers, return to full-time work in the first three years after maternity leave. This falls to 15 per cent after five years. In fact, 17 percent of women leave employment completely in the five years following childbirth, compared to four per cent of men.

Fertility benefits 

Contributing towards the cost of fertility treatments such as IVF, egg donation or cryopreservation shows your colleagues that you understand the struggles of someone that is struggling to have a child, and that your company is prepared to help them out with it. Fertility benefits such as ours at Apricity offer the choice of tests and consultations at home, meaning people only need two to three in-person meetings per IVF cycle, compared to nine or ten with the traditional model. 

Family health benefits

Benefits such as health, dental and mental health insurance can be extended to partners and children. This can make a real difference to helping care for the health of your employee’s families and making the family’s income go further.

Paid time off for fertility and family leave

Offering paid family leave for emergencies or caregiving responsibilities shows that you put families first. A time of emergency is when your staff need you most, so giving them time to help out and fix the situation before they return to work is not only the right thing to do, but will encourage loyalty and engagement in the long term. This includes giving paid time off for fertility appointments.

A supportive work environment

Encouraging managers to lead by example and prioritise family time shows that team members have permission to structure work around their family, as long as they get their work done. This might include starting work late to celebrate a child’s birthday. The tone is often set from the top. Providing your managers with training and resources to support their team is important to ensure you set the culture. 

Implementing these strategies can help create a supportive and inclusive workplace culture that values and respects employees’ family responsibilities. A study by McKinsey & Company highlighted that companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. Also, those in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to experience above average returns.