Working Families Announces the UK's Most Flexible, Family-friendly Workplaces 2021

Working Families has announced its annual list of the top ‘family-friendly‘ employers in the UK. Now in its twelfth year, 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. 

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

American Express
Citigroup
Crown Prosecution Service
Grant Thornton
Independent Living Fund Scotland
Natwest Group (RBS)
North East London NHS Foundation Trust
Pinsent Masons
Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru)
Yorkshire Building Society

The Benchmark—which captured the experience of nearly 500,000 UK employees across the organisations that took part—is also used to examine trends in flexible and family-friendly policies and practices. Key findings from the 2021 survey include:

Organisations have not returned to pre-COVID flexibility levels: over 60% of employers reported that they still had more than 75% of their employees working flexibly
Employers reported that managers are becoming more output-oriented, recognising that hours worked is not a reliable measure of productivity
However there is still a long way to go and training for line managers has emerged as one of the most pressing needs for organisations: 42% of organisations said lack of line manager knowledge or skill was a barrier to creating a family friendly, flexible workplace
On average, only a tiny proportion of senior leaders work flexibly or part time (less than 7%) with the majority of these being women (5%). This suggests that creating more flexible working opportunities at a senior level could help reduce gender inequalities around pay and progression.

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 and their take-up; 
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.