Top Employers for Working Families 2024 Announced
Published: 25 Sep 2024
Working Families has announced its annual list of the top flexible and family-friendly employers in the UK. For the fifteenth year running, employers large and small from across the public, private, and third sectors have competed to gain a coveted place on the charity’s list of Top Employers for Working Families. A wide range of companies from different sectors took part including law, banking and finance, higher education, energy and utilities and public services.
This year, organisations taking part in the Benchmark survey are going above and beyond the new Carer’s Leave Act that came into force earlier this year, allowing employees a day one right to a week of unpaid carers leave per year. 62% of Benchmark entrants offer paid carer’s leave, with 45% of participants offering five days of paid leave.
This year’s Top Ten Employers for Working Families – in alphabetical order – are:
- Audit Wales
- Citigroup
- Crown Prosecution Service
- DAC Beachcroft
- Grant Thornton
- Hill Dickinson LLP
- Independent Living Fund Scotland
- Mishcon de Reya
- North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT)
- Pinsent Masons
The Benchmark—which captures the experience of over 402,000 UK employees across the organisations that took part— highlights trends in flexible and family-friendly policies and practices. This year the key findings include:
- 85% of Benchmark employers carry out a job analysis on some or all roles to determine the options for flexible working prior to advertising
- 90% of Benchmark entrants provide training for managers to develop and lead flexible teams, up from 84% in 2023.
- Nearly all Benchmark employers (96%) actively encourage their managers to work in a flexible and family-friendly way.
- 96% of Benchmark employers have strategic plans to support family-friendly working.
Jane van Zyl, CEO of Working Families, said:
It’s inspiring to see the remarkable progress of our Benchmark employers, securing their place at the forefront of flexible and family-friendly workplaces. Leading from the front, 85% are starting with job design and proactively analysing roles for flexible working options prior to advertising – in our view, an approach that holds the key to making flex a success.
With 96% of Benchmark employers having strategic plans to support family-friendly working and 9 in 10 providing training for managers to lead flexible teams, it’s clear that we’re building a workforce that goes beyond ideals, to make this way of working a reality. In addition, the near-universal encouragement for managers to work flexibly themselves further underscores a commitment to creating work environments that are for everyone.
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.
Places 11-30 on our Top 30 Employers – in alphabetical order – are:
- Aviva
- bp
- Brodies
- Cranfield University
- dentsu
- Drax Group
- DWF
- Gowling WLG
- Linklaters
- LSE
- Markel International
- Mayer Brown
- Norton Rose Fulbright
- Royal Bank of Canada
- Southdown Housing
- Squire Patton Boggs
- TLT
- Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
- Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru)
- Yorkshire Building Society
The Top 30 Employers in 2024
Organisations across the UK who are leading the way in building flexible, family friendly workplaces were unveiled on 25 September, 2024.
The Working Families Benchmark
The Working Families benchmark is the only tool available that measures all aspects of flexible working and work-life policies and practice.