Family Friendly
The goal of a family friendly workplace is to support employees in balancing work and home. Having family friendly policies help to reduce family work-life stress and support employees during various transitions over the life span, such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, and parenting.
Features that demonstrate a family friendly workplace include:
- flexible and alternative work arrangements, such as flex time, job sharing, reduced hours, compressed work-week, family leave options, telecommuting, leaves and sabbatical options, and phased retirement,
- recognition of child and family issues, including on-site child care and support for employees to attend to urgent family issues,
- accommodating major transitions, including policies that support pregnancy, breastfeeding, and parenting,
- providing counselling and referral services through an Employee Assistance Program, and
- an organizational culture and supportive management that recognizes work and family as a legitimate issue of the organization.
Why is it important?
Family work-life balance programs and practices can benefit an organization; while at the same time provide other indirect benefits to employees.
According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, family work-life balance programs have reported benefits, such as:
- attraction of new employees,
- retention of current staff,
- increased diversity in skills and personnel,
- improved morale,
- reduction in sick time and absenteeism,
- enhanced working relationships between colleagues,
- improved initiative and teamwork of employees,
- increased levels of production and satisfaction, and
- decreased stress and burn-out of both employees and managers.
KFL&A Public Health has numerous resources and services to help support family friendly workplaces. Developing family friendly programs is easier than you may think. All it takes is an interest and the connection to the right resources--let us help your workplace get started or help you enhance an existing family friendly program.