If you’re an employee with family responsibilities, having an understanding employer who gives you support and flexibility can make a huge difference. 

And yet studies show that parents and those with family caring responsibilities can face significant challenges when it comes to juggling those demands with the pressures of a job. At the same time, the cost of employees leaving work due to caring responsibilities is an estimated £1.3bn a year, based on carer’s allowance payment figures and lost tax revenues. 

Claire McCartney, Policy and Practice Manager at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Develpment, says it is therefore a ‘win-win’ for everyone if carers are given flexibility in their role. “Doing so would get more people back into work, increase productivity and meet families’ and workers’ needs for a better quality of life, which they deserve.”

If we are to tackle the challenges of our ageing population, and the growing number of people who are having to balance their job with caring responsibilities, the onus is on employers to provide better support and flexibility at work. But what does that mean in practice?

Flexible working – but supercharged

Flexible working arrangements beyond remote and hybrid working – for example, compressed hours, job sharing and term-time working – can help people balance their work with their caring responsibilities, while also supporting employer efforts to recruit and retain staff.

Jenn Barnett, Head of Equity, Inclusion and Diversity at Grant Thornton UK, says: “Moving flexible working away from a gender-related issue towards a way of working for all and experimenting with different work patterns for everybody will help to create a culture that goes beyond individual requests for time off, focusing instead on output, client needs and team dynamics.” 

Be driven by data

A data-driven approach allows you to continuously identify and remove barriers. “A good place to start is to understand your own business challenges and the unique barriers faced in your business, using data, employee surveys and focus groups,” Barnett says. 

It can also help you to compare how your part-time people, flexible workers and returners are performing and progressing, as well as specific business areas or levels where there may be issues to address. Collecting your data on an intersectional basis can help you to understand if barriers are compounded due to ethnicity and socio-economic background, as well as gender. 

Joanne Waterworth, Head of Employer Services at charity Working Families, which produces an annual list of the top flexible and family-friendly employers in the UK, says organisations should regularly assess the effectiveness of family-friendly policies and initiatives through staff surveys, exit interviews and feedback from employee resource groups. “Use this feedback to make improvements and adjustments as needed to better support parents and caregivers.

Policies and benefits 

It’s important to regularly review and enhance policies and benefits, including parental leave, childcare support and other resources that can ease the transition for women returning from leave and support their work-life balance. But you also need to make sure staff are aware of the policies, support and benefits on offer.

“Many of our employer members find key touch points to remind new parents and carers of their right to flex and the importance of family-friendly working,” Waterworth says. “They flag it when onboarding and hiring new staff, through regular ad hoc messaging, using role models, enlisting flexible working champions and appointing ‘inhouse influencers’ to embed a culture that supports a healthy work-life balance. 

Educate staff and shatter stereotypes 

Showcasing stories of both women and men seeking flexibility and taking parental leave normalises shared domestic duties and can be helpful in dispelling flexibility myths, for example that working part-time shows a lack of ambition.

“Running gender allyship sessions for senior leaders helps them to understand subtle and often overlooked workplace barriers and microaggressions faced by women and minority genders and encourages male allyship from senior leaders around flexible working and work-life balance,” Barnett says.

Empower through support

Waterworth says it’s good practice to offer proactive support for employees transitioning to being parents or carers, including counselling, coaching, buddying, parents and carers networks, toolkits and guides.

Pairing returning women or first-time parents with mentors who have a shared experience can provide guidance, support and resources to help them navigate their return to work. Internal support networks or affinity groups also help to foster connections, share experiences and provide a sense of community. 

“Returnship programmes specifically designed for people returning from extended leave can offer structured reintegration into the workforce, mentorship and skill refreshers to support a successful return to work,” Barnett says. 

Culture is key

Leaders should ‘parent out loud’ and openly display the behaviours that they want to see embedded across the organisation. This includes talking about their parenting responsibilities and creating a culture that encourages working flexibly around those responsibilities. “Employees must feel comfortable advocating for their needs without fear of judgement or reprisal,” Waterworth says.

“Working to normalise women’s health is also vital. In addition to reviewing and updating policies and support relating to menopause and working families, simple steps like ensuring sanitary products are available also make an important contribution to inclusion,” Barnett adds.

Remove penalties from parental leave

Evidence shows that encouraging dads to share parenting equally is key to reducing the motherhood penalty, which drives 80% of the gender pay gap. While many organisations offer flexibility to women, it often comes at the expense of their careers. 

“This means tracking the career and pay progressions of all workers and openly sharing this with all employees,” says Helen Ilsley, a parental transition coach at The Executive Coaching Consultancy. “Leaders must model working parenthood and foster an environment where both men and women feel comfortable using parental support without fear of damaging their reputation or career prospects.”

Fair access to opportunity

Access to training, professional development programmes – ideally with ring-fenced places for female and other minority group talent – and opportunities for skills development will support people in resuming their career progression after returning from leave. 

“Managers need a lot of help and training to ensure returners have fair access to development opportunities, whether that’s in terms of development opportunities or work allocation. At Grant Thornton, reviewing processes around promotion to identify and remove bias has made a significant difference in the fairer progression of talent,” Barnett says. 

• Employment law updates including changes to carer’s leave, flexible working, and maternity and paternity rights are covered in this on-demand webinar from ICAEW and ACAS.