Make Your Business More Family-Friendly With These Tips

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

 For many businesses, the nine-to-five hours are long gone. People's modern lives no longer fit around these hours, and companies need to adapt and change their schedules to suit them, especially if they want to ensure they are getting the best employees for their business. 

You need to be able to support your employees with an excellent work-life balance. This can be difficult, especially when people's lives are constantly evolving. Caring for others, taking on personal challenges, or caring for children are just some of the reasons a person's life will change.

Being a family-focused business can help your employees manage these responsibilities easily. It has become more important than ever to ensure that you offer things like flexible working hours and support parental leave. 

Let's have  a look at some of the ways you can become more family-friendly as a business: 

Offer Flexible Working Hours 

If you don't have a physical store where your customers come to you, then there is no reason you can't offer highly flexible working hours. Flexible working hours are not just for people with small children anymore. There could be many reasons why your employees would want to work flexible hours. Depending on the business that you are in, you should think about being open-minded about these working hours. You'll find that your employees feel much more valued and are less likely to look for other employment when they have the flexibility they need with you. 

Offer Home Working 

Similar to offering flexible working hours, allowing people to work from home is also a good idea. If you do not need your employees to see your customers or clients physically, then there is no reason they can't do their work from home. You must ensure that you provide them with the necessary equipment to do the job you are asking for. The key here is to have trust in your employees to make sure that they are doing their job at the level that is expected of them. Consider offering hybrid working. This is where your employees would work part of their time at home and in the office. For example,  if you would like to meet with all of your employees, you may want to do a face-to-face meeting rather than remotely. 

Think Of The Facilities 

Suppose you must always have your employees in the office, and you can't offer homeworking or flexible working as an option. In that case, you need to think of alternative ways to support people who may have families. This could be offering facilities such as a creche or having on-site facilities such as a play center for children.  If this is something you would consider, you may want to contact some commercial playground equipment suppliers to advise you on what sort of areas they can build. 

Offer Support To Returning Parents

It could be that you have had parents who have returned from maternity leave or an extended career break to help raise their families. Returning to work after taking a break like this can be daunting. It's a good idea to offer some support to parents returning to work so they feel comfortable returning to their roles. Some people may feel as though their skills are outdated or they have missed imported updates within the office; this is your opportunity to provide them with some extra training and get them used to the new working environment. 

Think about holding some remote sessions before they return to work and offering them the opportunity to work from home and the office. A great way to support returning parents is to partner them up with a mentor for their first few weeks back. It’s also a good idea to hold regular catch-ups so you can ask them what support they need. Some employers offer KIT days for people who are on maternity leave; could you extend this to parents who are also on a career break?

Make Sure You Help Your Employees To Get The Right Work/Life Balance

Most employees with families spend their time balancing work and family life. Then when they try to fit in hobbies, caring responsibilities, appointments, and more, it can be extremely difficult. Thanks to technology, this has been made even more difficult because employees can now be connected around the clock. Everyone needs to earn a living. However, this shouldn’t be detrimental to your family life. You are much more likely to have a happy workforce if you offer them time to sort out family issues, go to appointments, have compassionate leave, and have time for hobbies. Of course, this needs to be for a reason. However, you could offer your employees the time they need instead of whatever they need to do. 

Make Sure They Take Their Holidays 

Even if your employees see their job as the most important thing, you need to ensure they are taking time to enjoy and with their families and friends.  Sometimes, you may find that they put the business first and don't take the holidays they should be taking. Whether it's bank holidays,  annual leave, or time they have worked extra, you should encourage your employees to take the time off they deserve.

 If you plan on giving your employees time off during school holidays or Christmas time, you must make sure you plan. This can significantly impact staff levels, especially if you are a small business. If you are struggling with staff, try sending an email around the office to see if anyone is willing to swap their leave for another day. As long as you ensure your employees have some time off during these hours, they should be happy. 

These tips should help you have a family-friendly business, which is more important now than ever. Do you think you will make your business more family-friendly with these tips? Let us know in the comments below.