Happy parents make happy employees
December 15, 2008
Some family friendly processes have become part of general employment law and practice, such as parental rights to request flexible working and parental leave. Others are more ad hoc and individual companies implement a variety of ways of engaging employees that have family or parental commitments. It makes business sense to look at the different backgrounds, interests and outside commitments of both current and potential employees. Firstly, the more narrow the description of an ideal employee becomes, the more narrow the pool of potential candidates becomes as well, and you may find yourself competing in ever decreasing circles for the employees who seemingly have the right credentials and outside commitments (or lack of them) but may not have the best set of skills and experience for the job you are recruiting for. Having a diverse workforce, with employees from different backgrounds, age, family commitments etc brings with it a diverse range of previous experience that can add real value to the business.
An inexpensive scheme for parent employees is the childcare voucher scheme, which I wrote about a few months ago (‘help staff benefit from cheaper childcare’, April 17, 2008). This basically works through salary sacrifice whereby the cost of vouchers is deducted from an employee’s salary before tax and NI deductions are made, therefore the tax and NI paid on the remaining amount is reduced. Normally the cost to administer the scheme is offset by the NI savings that the employer makes on the reduced gross salary payment to the employee, so this is what makes it a winning scheme all round.
The childcare vouchers option has become very popular in recent years, but the affordability looks set to be challenged in the future following a High Court ruling that led to the benefit entitlements for women on maternity leave being changed on 5th October this year (‘New maternity rights from 5th October’, September 23, 2008). Now that women on maternity leave will be entitled to retain the same benefits throughout their leave, employers may end up having to pay for vouchers the employee may already be taking through the scheme, even though the vouchers are based on salary sacrifice and the employee will be entitled to less or no salary due to maternity leave. This issue is causing many employers to rethink the scheme if they already have it, or may cancel plans to introduce it in the future.
Some companies think quite creatively about what sort of incentives or benefits they offer to employees who are parents, from crèche facilities on site to annual events involving all employees and their families. Someone I know works at a large retailer, and employees who are parents in that company are given filled party bags for each of their children at Christmas each year, which I think is a great idea.
What does your company do for employees who are parents? Do you think you work for a family friendly employer? What do you think of the risk to the childcare voucher scheme following the changes to benefits on maternity leave? If you have any thoughts on this or any other article on the site, leave a comment.
Things to consider:Gardeing Equipment
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