Unilever : UK wins gold at Mumsnet Family Friendly awards

19/11/2014

A gold award will be presented to Unilever in recognition of its innovative work in developing family friendly practices, supporting employees to manage work and family obligations. Unilever's 'Family Friendly Policy', launched in 2012, aims to help its 7,000 UK and Ireland based employees to juggle work and family commitments, through flexible and agile working, back-up care support for children and elders, nursery partnerships and maternity and paternity support.

Through its Family Friendly Policy, Unilever works to provide help for employees with family obligations:

• Back-Up Careis for children and adult dependents when normal care arrangements break down or when employees need temporary support if they are ill, injured or have had surgery

• The nursery partnership is designed for families who are looking to source regular child care - with priority places and waived registration fees

• Maternity and Paternity Support is an online maternity coaching tool which offers guidance and support through the different stages of becoming a parent, from planning a family to reintegrating back into work after having a child. It also provides managers with guidance on how they can support their team members through this exciting and life-changing time

• Enhanced maternity leave offers a significant enhancement to statutory requirements for the UK, with women being eligible for up to nine months' full pay

• Agile working as standard for all office-based employees, the core idea behind which is that all employees may work flexibly - anytime and anywhere - as long as the needs of the business are met. This means that employees are welcome to fit commitments around the working day, including childcare, appointments, health and fitness as a few examples

• Flexible working -which Unilever defines as a contractual arrangement whereby an employee can work part-time or as part of a job share - is facilitated, with encouragement given to applications from employees requiring formal flexible working for vacant roles posted internally

Tim Munden, VP HR, Unilever UK & Ireland, said, "Being recognised by Mumsnet as a gold standard family friendly employer is a fantastic stamp of approval of the Family Friendly programs we have put in place over the years. Supporting parents - both mothers and fathers - is exceptionally important today, both for a business to retain its best talent, but also to help our employees to integrate their family and work lives in the way that they want.

"However, it's not just about caring for children; we recognise that more people than ever are looking after their elderly parents, which can also present challenges. So we endeavour to support all of our employees, whatever their family situations and needs. It's what responsible employers need to do today."

Mumsnet's Family Friendly programme works with businesses to improve family friendly policies, both for employees and for customers. Since the programme started in 2010, over 1.7 million employees have been involved. Through the use of 'secret shoppers', staff audits and policy analysis, the programme tracks member companies to ensure they are living up to public commitments and continuing to develop family friendly practices.

Justine Roberts, Mumsnet CEO and Founder said, "It's great to see so many companies putting family friendliness at the heart of their businesses and realising that there are positive business benefits from considering the needs of families, whether they're customers or employees."

Find out more about the Mumsnet awards(Link opens in a new window) and Join the conversation on Twitter, #FamilyFriendly

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For further information, contact press@mumsnet.com.

Unilever is one of the world's leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries. We work with 174,000 colleagues around the world and generated annual sales of €49.8 billion in 2013. Over half of our company's footprint is in the faster growing developing and emerging markets (57% in 2013). Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel good, look good and get more out of life. Our portfolio includes some of the world's best known brands, 14 of which - Knorr, Persil / Omo, Dove, Sunsilk, Hellmann's, Surf, Lipton, Rexona / Sure, Wall's ice cream, Lux, Flora / Becel, Rama / Blue Band, Magnum and Axe / Lynx - now generate a turnover of €1 billion or more.

Our ambition is to double the size of our business, whilst reducing our overall environmental footprint (including sourcing, consumer use and disposal) and increasing our positive social impact. We are committed to helping more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being, sourcing all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020, and decoupling our growth from our environmental impact. Supporting our three big goals, we have defined nine commitments, underpinned by targets encompassing social, environmental and economic areas. See more on the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

Unilever has been recognised in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Indexes for 14 consecutive years. We are included in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top environmental score of 5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40 Index. Unilever has been named sector leader of the CDP's Forests programme for three consecutive years, and in 2014 led the list of Global Corporate Sustainability Leaders in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility annual survey - for the fourth year running. Unilever was named LinkedIn's third most sought-after employer worldwide in 2013.

For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.co.uk(Link opens in a new window)

Mumsnet is the UK's largest network for parents, with over 65 million page views and over 14 million visits per month. It has 180 local sites and a network of over 5,500 bloggers. It regularly campaigns on issues including support for families of children with SEN, improvements in miscarriage care and freedom of speech on the internet.

Mumsnet's Family Friendly programme works with businesses to improve family friendly policies, both for employees and also customers. Since the programme started in 2010, over 1.7 million employees have been involved. Through the use of 'secret shoppers', staff audits and policy analysis we track member companies to ensure they are living up to public commitments and continuing to develop family friendly practices.