The national charity for working parents and carers, Working Families, has announced that DWF has been awarded a place on its prestigious list of the top family-friendly employers in the UK.

Now in its fourteenth year, employers large and small from across the public, private, and third sectors compete annually to gain a coveted place on the charity’s list of Top Employers for Working Families. DWF has been in the top 30 every year since 2018.

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 parents and carers.

The Benchmark—which captured the experience of over 330,000 UK employees across the organisations that took part— highlights trends in flexible and family-friendly policies and practices. This year the key findings include:

• 86% of this year’s Benchmark entrants already offer flex from day one – showing that the best employers are already well-prepared for the new legislation coming in 2024.
• 92% of employers assess some, or all, jobs to determine the potential for flexible working prior to advertising.
• 78% of organisations provide details of the options to work flexibly on their website.
• Almost half (48%) of employers are already using the ‘Happy to Talk Flexible Working’ strapline and logo on all their job adverts.

Louise Rogerson, Chief People Officer at DWF, said: “We are proud to be recognised as an employer of choice for working families once again. Our belief is that an inclusive and supportive working environment allows people to be themselves, develop and be happier at work.

“We want our colleagues to feel able to combine their career with family responsibilities and have worked hard to implement initiatives to support this, such as enhanced leave provision, agile and flexible working and a variety of internal support groups for returning parents and carers, among others.”

Jane van Zyl, CEO of Working Families, said: “We are delighted with the standard of entries for this year’s Top Employers for Working Families list. These employers show they are leading the way in building family-friendly and flexible workplaces in the UK and are already ahead of the curve when it comes to implementing the changes needed to comply with the new flexible working legislation coming into practice next year. Almost nine out of ten of our Benchmark entrants are already offering flexible working as a day one right.”