Professional services organisation Deloitte and consumer goods business Unilever have been recognised by employees for their family-friendly policies at 2017’s Mumsnet Family Friendly Awards.
Unilever won the Mumsnet Employer of the Year Award, based on responses from nearly 1,000 staff surveys. For this category, employees ranked organisations on how family-friendly policies were communicated, how aware staff were of the family-friendly policies available and how employees rated their employer overall.
Deloitte won the Mumsnet Returnship Award, Infrastructure business Tideway and investment organisation Fidelity were also shortlisted. This category celebrates employers who offer excellent returnship programmes in order to support parents who want to come back to work after having a child. Organisations that entered this category were required to have operated a formal, paid returnship programme in the last two years.
The Mumsnet Family Friendly Awards forms part of the parenting website’s Family Friendly programme, which celebrates employers which demonstrate family-friendly initiatives for their staff. This would include showing leadership in flexibility, returnships, and policies such as parental leave.
Winners of the Mumsnet Family Friendly Awards are decided based on surveys completed by employees of Family Friendly programme organisation members. The Family Friendly programme has been running since 2011.
The award winners were announced in a ceremony hosted by Sadiq Khan, mayor of London.
Emma Codd, managing partner for talent at Deloitte, said: “Deloitte is thrilled to be recognised by Mumsnet for its return-to-work programme, which launched in 2014 and was an industry first. Since then, the increasing number of returnship programmes shows that UK businesses are beginning to recognise that there’s a large pool of talented women, and men, who have taken a break from their careers, whether for family or other reasons. Deloitte’s return-to-work programme is one of a number of things that we have introduced as part of our work to ensure that we have a gender balanced firm.”
Justine Roberts, founder and chief executive officer at Mumsnet, added: “This has been the year of the returnship, and it’s been exciting to see so many employers embracing the idea with real enthusiasm. Our Family Friendly programme continues to evidence the innovatory thinking of the best employers. Many congratulations to all the award winners and the runners-up.”
Emma Codd will be speaking at Employee Benefits Live on Tuesday 10 October 2017.