What to include in your entry
Making a winning entry: what to tell us
Share your story section.
Here are some of the things you could tell us where relevant:
1. What do you do – what is your entry about?
You could tell us about:
- specific initiatives/policies/practices
- family friendly and flexible working policies that go beyond statutory
- senior support
- consultation with staff
- is what you are doing new to you/your sector
- include any support for your initiatives/policies through line manager/staff training and communications strategy
2. Why have you done this and what targets do you have?
You could tell us about:
- aims & objectives – what you want to change
- your business case & benefits to organisation and people
- what will success look like
- how this makes you different from other employers
3. What have you achieved so far/impact?
You could tell us about:
- how you are monitoring and measuring progress/take up, to date
- evidence of success and effectiveness re aims and objectives
- effect on culture
- effect on policy and practices
- effect on mindset and behaviours
4. What are your future plans for consolidating and building on your progress?
You could tell us about:
- ensuring it becomes embedded
- future-proofing/safeguarding the initiative
- how learning will be utilised
- future enhancements
- targets and goals – aligning these activities with long term strategies
What makes a great application
- Demonstration of an understanding 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.
- Examples of a supportive and flexible workplace culture – this isn’t all about having a suite of policies in place (although this is good too).
- Examples of the specific support you give to those with parenting and caring responsibilities.
- Understanding that flexible (agile, smart, dynamic, hybrid) working means flexible in the broadest sense: e.g., reduced hours, job-share, core hours, flexible start and finish, working from home/remotely etc. and it can be formal/informal, regular, permanent or ad hoc.
- A great story; fresh approaches, effective business results, engaged and productive employees.
- Good data showing impact where possible (you will score much more highly if you include metrics).
- The case study should illustrate how your policies/initiatives work in practice and the impact they have (please don’t use HR staff for this).
- No repetition – include fresh information in each section.
- No organisation is perfect – what we want to see is the desire and active development of a working culture that benefits your organisation and your people.
If you have any questions, please contact Flora Wallington at flora.wallington@workingfamilies.org.uk