We genuinely want our people to be their best selves, both at work and in their personal lives. To do this, we believe that ensuring our people have the time, space and support they need to balance both family and work commitments helps to enable this goal.
At Randstad, we have an ambition to be the most equitable and specialised talent company. This drives us to continuously improve, innovate and implement policies and programs that support our people.
As a founding certified employer of Family Friendly Workplaces, in 2020 we embarked on a program of continuous improvement to refine our approach to supporting families, in all forms, at work. This included:
Review of Paid parental Leave policy and Policy
The review included increasing our paid parental leave benefit to parents of all genders enabling a stronger position for all working parents. We ensured that the policy was inclusive of all family scenarios.
We also considered the role that the extended family play in caring responsibilities, introducing leave for grandparents and foster carers.
We created an internal social page for carers to connect, seek support and education. We spotlighted employees who have utilised the program to further encourage adoption.
We also offer discounted childcare benefits, childcare search services and have a comprehensive wellbeing program called ‘Be Kind To Your Mind’ which covers a range of family friendly topics and wellness tools, from parenting to financial budgeting.
Work away program
Our ‘Work Away Program’ was one of the first of its kind within Australia, and enables employees to work from another approved location, for up to 4-weeks. We have a unique condition that this must be combined with annual leave, to encourage employees to spend time with family and foster those crucial familial connections.
We have had the absolute joy of watching many of our employees have the chance to reconnect with family and friends internationally post pandemic and this continues to be one of our most popular family offerings.
From a commercial perspective, this has also maintained productivity and increased engagement with many reporting it was a key reason for being able to continue to work with Randstad.
Hybrid remote working
Like many organisations, hybrid remote working has become the norm. However, we have used this opportunity to improve our existing flexibility policy to enable our people to work in a way that works for both them and Randstad.
This has given fabulous opportunities for working parents or carers of elderly parents, much valued time to do the things they need or embrace greater participation in family life. We have seen our employees feel empowered to make decisions around participating in school pickups, sports and training events or taking the time for family medical appointments.
We further developed an education program and tools for managers to ensure that they had the skills to discuss this with individuals, the team and ensure best outcomes.
We have a parents & carers group and intranet site to support parent carers, foster carers, and grandparent carers.
We also offer discounted childcare benefits, Be Kind To Your Mind initiatives that support both adults and children with a variety of wellness tools and a Work Away from Home program that allows our employees to work in any country in which at Randstad has a presence for up to 4-weeks. This means we have watched many of our employees have the chance to reconnect with family and friends internationally post pandemic.
Engagement
Overall our engagement score around equity, diversity and inclusion has remained consistently high since we have become a family friendly workplace, currently sitting at 8.7 (eNPS 54).
Attraction
Many of our family friendly policies and programs are leading within our industry, allowing us to showcase our point of difference and attract top talent to our business. Despite talent shortages, we have successfully increased our employee population over the last two years.
Overall productivity and commercial success
We have successfully ensured people can remain productive under varying circumstances leading to positive business results. Be it flexible or hybrid working, working away from home or managing the most challenging family emergencies our people are supported to continue to perform at their best.
Maeve Cawley
General Manager Health & Social Care
To see Randstad’s Work Away programme in action, watch the story of Maeve Cawley, returning to Ireland to visit family and friends after the Covid-19 travel restrictions ended. This story brings to life the impact that Randstad’s Work Away programme can have in reconnecting families and creating opportunities for our international talent to maintain their all important family connections.
Watch HERE
“At Randstad, our goal is to provide a supportive and inclusive environment where all of our people can be their best selves. Families take many forms and we continue to collaborate with our people to ensure that we have the right policies and programs to help them achieve the right balance between work and life. My own positive experiences of being a working parent at Randstad have helped to reinforce how important it is for organisations to embrace Family Friendly Workplaces for the engagement of their people.”
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