Family-friendly workplace
A family-friendly workplace takes into account different life situations as part of work and management, as well as workplace practices and attitudes. Family-friendliness is not limited to families with children, but family is a broad concept: family-friendliness extends to different stages of the life cycle and to very diverse families.
Examples of different families:
- Single-parent families
- Stepfamilies
- Bicultural families
- Rainbow families
- Multiple families
- Childless and those undergoing infertility treatment
- Adoptive families
- Family care families
- Child bereavement and widowed families
Other family-related life situations include, for example, caring for aging parents, separation and divorce, or the death of a loved one.
Everyone has their own unique family situation. In a family-friendly work culture, everyone is met and supported in their own situation.
The benefits of family-friendliness
- increase coping, job satisfaction and commitment
- develop operating culture
- strengthen employer image
- support the well-being of both the individual and the whole family
- through increased well-being reduce sickness absence and improve work efficiency and productivity.
How?
The key to implementing family-friendliness is identifying different situations, good personnel policy, a family-friendly attitude and following common rules. Good practices that support all family situations include:
- Proactive working time planning that takes into account employees' needs
- Flexible working hours and remote work opportunities
- Possibility of part-time work and reduced working hours
- Granting paid and unpaid leave.
More about family-friendliness on the website of the Diverse Families network.