On The Horizon – October 2024

What does flexible working mean to you?

It’s National Work-Life Week (7-11 October). Perhaps it’s by design (if ironic) that it always falls just at that time of year when it feels all our teams are at full capacity in terms of workload? This year’s theme asks: ‘What does flexible working mean to you?’ and my colleague Kerri Haseman has a piece in Personnel Today urging employers to support employees in finding their better work-life balance. As Kerri points out, for HR teams this can include adding supports for family life as well as giving flexibility over time and location. With the Employment Rights Bill just into Parliament, flexibility will be the subject of much debate!

Another colleague, Angela Stalker, has an invited feature in HR Review exploring the implications of the much-discussed compressed working week for parents: there may be more need for wraparound care in such a model, for example. New research from Working Families underlines that without access to quality affordable childcare, parents struggle to deliver at work.

It is not only parents who need care support to square up work and life. Carers have been back in the spotlight with World Alzheimer’s Day in September. Annie Hayes wrote a compelling account in HR Grapevine of the retention issue for employers, the need to create a culture of openness and recognition, and went on to discuss the key role played by practical supports such as back-up care.

For many, resolving the work-life equation also means being able to switch off. One of the latest studies, with 2,000 UK employees by workforce management company Protime UK, discovered that “although 93% of workers said that work-life balance was critical for good overall wellbeing, 67% said they were unable to keep their work-life boundaries”.

Consultations with business are ongoing during the publication of the draft Employment Rights Bill. Despite the wide-ranging measures included in the Bill, the promissed ‘right to disconnect’ has moved into a Next Steps document, for later. When it comes, employers will likely need to agree a code of conduct with workers. If an agreed code resembles the overarching code in Ireland, it might cover, for example, not routinely performing work outside normal working hours, not being penalised for refusing to attend to work matters outside of normal working hours and a duty to respect another person’s right to disconnect (e.g. not routinely emailing or calling outside normal working hours).

Making dads more visible

Did you see the campaign by The Dad Shift, strapping doll babies in slings to male statues around London and Edinburgh? In London, Isambard Kingdom Brunel at Paddington; Thierry Henry near the Emirates Stadium and Gene Kelly singing in the rain in Leicester Square could all be seen proudly doing their thing while carrying a small child across their front. The campaign seeks fuller paternity leave and pay rights for dads and other non-birth partners. The latest review of paternity leave under the previous government resulted in more flexibility of the two-week leave from April this year (it can now be used across the full year), yet the disparity with maternity and adoption leave is still huge. In future, under the New Employment Right Bill, the existing leave will at least become a day 1 right (instead of needing 26 weeks’ service).

Shared Parental Leave was designed to bridge the gap, of course. However, take up has always been low, amounting to 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers. New research by economists at the University of Bath and Cardiff University with 40,000 households concludes “Shared Parental Leave (SPL) has failed to encourage greater take-up or longer leave by fathers, prompting calls for policy reform." The new government committed in its manifesto to reviewing parental leave policy in its first year.

The leading employers Bright Horizons works with know that enhanced corporate policies together with great HR support cut through any confusion and greatly improve take up of leave and therefore engagement and loyalty. These are firms such as Deloitte and Goldman Sachs, highlighted in The Times for equalising parental leave.

The other key is to provide coaching to new and expectant parents and their managers – as well as childcare support and back-up care – to ensure the transitions to and from leave are managed proactively and ongoing careers and wellbeing are kept to the fore. With this in mind, we were delighted to be part of HR Grapevine Virtual with a workshop on ‘Gender Equality in the workplace: How to retain young fathers’. It was an absolute pleasure to host two Dad-and-HR pairs: Marek Broniewski, Senior Vice President - EMEA Regulatory Reward, and Jenny Rolfe, Head of UK Benefits & Wellbeing at Citi, alongside Chris Bryant, Competition and International Trade Partner, and Emma George, Wellbeing and I&D Manager, BCLP in conversation about what matters to dads and the drivers for providing support.

The rising generation

Getting over our gendered assumptions is just one of many EDI challenges for the HR community. A report prepared by the former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Sir Trevor Phillips, has urged a step change in everyday experience for employees and a stronger understanding of the business benefits of diversity and inclusion in all its forms.

Another very current inclusion topic for HR colleagues is the multigenerational workforce. Korn Ferry thinkers highlighted a move toward ‘conscious unbossing’ among Generation Z: turning down moves to management in favour of focussing on individual contribution. We’ll be unpacking the myths and realities surrounding the best ways to engage Gen Z employees in our webinar with Personnel Today on 16^th October, along with editor Rob Moss, Amanda-Jane McCann, DEIB Group Chair and Client Relationship Manager from Bright Horizons and well-known Gen Z motivational speaker Sam Jones.

Whatever form of career progression appeals most to Gen Z, management certainly comes with a need for ever more elevated people skills. HR News reports “Dr Bilal Zaghmout, of York St John University, surveyed or interviewed 150 managers and staff in 30 companies in the UK, asking them about their management style and comparing their answers to their firm’s performance. He found that a 10% increase in a manager’s emotional intelligence score was associated with a 7% increase in overall business performance, including profitability.” As many of you will know, we've baked good management practice into our Parental Leave Toolkit, leaving nothing to chance in those vital conversations needed between managers and new and expectant parents every step of the way.

Childcare on the political agenda

With many children upwards of 9 months old now benefitting from funded early years education due to the continued rollout of the programme established under the former government, childcare provision continues its prominence as one of the keys to the UK’s growth.

The Education Secretary commented alongside a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggesting that the UK has one of the lowest expenditures per child in pre-primary education among the world’s leading economies. Bridget Phillipson said the rollout of funded childcare places could help address the disparity in enrolment between families from different income brackets.

Australia’s Victoria University compiled a global report on patchy access to childcare across selected global regions. England has the second highest challenges in terms of ‘childcare deserts’ (45%). It is these areas that would make the best target for the development of school-based early years provision.

Meanwhile, are we paying enough attention to the estimated 59% of grandparents helping out with childcare, up from 52% in 2023, according to new research from SunLife.

Whoever is responsible for supporting parents with caring for children – whether the state, employers, wider family, or a combination of all three – there is now well-established, cross-party agreement that the UK economy can only flourish when care is seen as part of the infrastructure.

Podcasts!

Finally, if you’re wondering what to listen to while on the train, or washing up, we had two podcasts released during September. We really like the way LACE partners runs their engaging ‘HR On The Offensive podcasts’. Having interviewed us about our Modern Families Index earlier in the year, the LACE team recently invited us back to explore our Work+Family Snapshot research and employer best practice advice. Meanwhile, the wonderful team behind the Inclusive Workplace conference explored our research and insights in this podcast with Ursula Tavender, ahead of our taking part in the November conference, which will be an HR event not to miss!