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Best Practice Awards
The 2022 Best Practice Awards are now open!If you are interested in entering the awards for 2022, please register to receive the links to the entry forms.
Working Families, in partnership with Arnold Clark, are looking to find 2022’s leading employers, who are working to create outstanding flexible and employee-friendly workplaces.
Working Families’ annual Best Practice Awards recognise UK employers whose stand-out cultures and practices demonstrate that they deeply understand that all employees perform better when they have some degree of flexibility over when, where and how they work ‒ and that employees will be more productive if the organisation supports their work-life balance.
Now in their thirteenth year, the awards showcase and celebrate employers who are offering flexibility for all their people and going above and beyond in their support for parents and carers.
The 2022 award categories
Best for Mothers
Sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada
This award is about mothers at all stages of their children’s lives. We are interested in mother/parenthood from maternity and beyond until children leave home as young adults.
Best for Fathers
This award is about your support for fathers/partners at every stage of their children’s development. We are interested in your support for fathers/partners and how you support the parenting responsibilities of men throughout their careers.
Best for Carers and Eldercare
Approximately one in seven of your workforce will be caring for someone who is older, disabled or seriously ill. Many more employees will have become carers during the pandemic, taking on new ad hoc and regular responsibilities for adult and elderly friends and family. We are interested in hearing about innovative, practical and effective ways of identifying and supporting employees with caring responsibilities.
Best Family Network
More and more organisations are seeing the value employee networks provide. Networks have been shown to be an effective way to encourage peer to peer support, raise awareness of work-life issues and develop a flexible and inclusive workplace culture.
Best for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Sponsored by Investors in People
Employers play a critical role in supporting employee mental health and wellbeing and with the fast-changing nature of work, there has never been a more vital time for organisations to ensure they are supporting the wellbeing of employees. Not simply because it’s the “right thing to do”, but because creating a healthy working culture makes sound business sense. Working flexibly is often part of the solution. We are interested in hearing about innovative, practical and effective ways of identifying and supporting employees with mental health issues and how you promote good mental health and wellbeing in your organisation.
Best for Flexible Recruitment
Tell us how you ensure that roles are offered on a flexible basis at the hiring stage. We are interested in how roles are assessed for their flexible potential prior to recruitment and how you ensure that prospective employees know that flexibility is an option when they apply for a job and can discuss it at interview without prejudice.
Best for Flexible Working
Tell us about flexible (hybrid, agile, smart, dynamic etc.) working in your organisation. What we mean by embedding flexible working is when working flexibly is regarded as ‘business as usual’, is taken up by both women and men, is found through all parts of the organisation and at all levels of employee from junior to senior
Best Small Employer (SME)
We want to hear about your approach to family/employee friendly working practices, policies, and culture. What was the purpose of creating such a culture and how has this benefitted your employees and your business? What makes you unique compared to other organisations when it comes to supporting employees to integrate home and work life, in particular employees who have family/caring responsibilities?
Best for All Families
Sponsored by Fastn
How do you support all the families within your organisation? This is an opportunity to tell us what you do to ensure that you are seeking to understand and respond to the full diversity of families reflected in your workforce, and how you support them.
Guest Award – Best for Supporting Fertility and Pathways to Parenthood
Sponsored by Fertifa
For many employees, the journey to starting or building a family is not easy and the mental health impact of this is often suffered in silence. Failed IVF cycles, endless fertility investigations, multiple adoption appointments and assessments all take their toll physically, emotionally and financially. Is your company one which recognises this need and offers effective support? How do you support all the different pathways into parenthood that your employees have within your organisation?
