Grant Thornton named Top 10 employer for working families

Work-life balance charity Working Families today announced that Grant Thornton UK LLP has been awarded a place in the Top 10 of its prestigious and competitive list of the top family-friendly employers in the UK.   

The annual list recognises organisations across the UK that are leading the way in building flexible, family friendly workplaces. Employers are assessed using Working Families’ Benchmark which builds a comprehensive picture of their flexible and family-friendly policies and practices that specifically support parents and carers. 

Jenn Barnett, Head of Inclusion, Diversity and Wellbeing at Grant Thornton UK LLP, said:

“This award reflects the ongoing commitment we’ve made to improving our working family policies and enabling flexible working that works for us all.   We’re seeing the working world change at a pace we’ve not experienced for decades, and as a result, we are now working more flexibly than ever. Throughout a difficult 18 months, our firm has adapted incredibly well, and I’ve heard numerous examples from our people of how the firm has adapted flexibly to carer responsibility and supported individual needs.

“With the boundaries between work life and home life blurring significantly, it’s never been more important to help our people mentally and physically create balance, supporting our lives outside of work while helping us to be at our best when we’re working. That’s what we’re continuing to do, and over the coming months we will launch new flexible and agile working policies.” 

Some of the recent achievements which contributed to the firm’s inclusion in the Top 10 employers list include:  

• We recently introduced a fully paid neonatal leave and matched paid leave for carers 
• Thanks to the strong foundations laid by our IS team, we seamlessly transitioned to a remote working business almost overnight in March 2020, enabling our people to work from home with ease, with no requirement to come to the office 
• We championed a supportive culture during the national lockdowns, with additional flexibility provided to those who needed it – particularly those with additional caring responsibilities
• We gave all out people two paid wellbeing days off work to support our people’s need for additional flexibility and care 
• We worked with our people to assess their working patterns and offered sabbaticals to help balance work, family and personal needs during the lockdowns 

Jane van Zyl, CEO of Working Families, added: 

“This year has been more competitive than ever, with an extremely high standard of entries. More and more employers are now realising just how vital it is to offer flexible, family friendly policies and a positive, inclusive culture to attract the most diverse talent. I’d like to congratulate each and every worthy member of our Top Employers list 2021.”