Certified Family Friendly Employment (family-friendly employer) is a recognition program for organizations that play an active role in supporting the balance between work and family life. It recognizes companies that create workplaces where employees can perform well professionally while also managing their personal responsibilities. This style of certification attempts to reward employers for adopting people and long-term policies that are good for the workforce, as well as the business.
The certification process usually begins with an application and self-assessment phase. During this phase, a company fills out a long questionnaire or provides evidence that it already has policies and programs in place relating to work-life balance. These can include flexible work arrangements, parent leave, childcare support, part-time arrangements, or programs that support employees when they return from family leave. The organization evaluates itself against a set of clearly defined criteria to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
After the initial self-assessment, an independent evaluation of the self-assessment is performed by a distinguished certification body, which conducts employee surveys to make sure the family-friendly policies are actually practiced as well as stated in principle. The assessment covers a range of key areas: workplace culture, flexibility, equal opportunities, employee well-being, and long-term support systems.
Once the evaluation is complete, the results are matched against the standards required for certification. If the organization meets the criteria, it is awarded the Family-Friendly Employer Certification. The term of this type of certification is determined for a certain number of years, such as two or three years, after which the business entity has to go through the whole procedure of recertification. This also helps to keep the family-friendly policies up and hopefully refine them over time.
Beyond the honor of formal recognition, certification also brings significant practical benefits. Being a certified family-friendly employer can help with employee retention. It also makes your company a magnet for employee talent. People stay longer in a company that takes good care of their health and supports them in certain moments of their lives (child-rearing, taking care of elderly relatives). Even better, it improves employee morale, productivity, and loyalty. From a business point of view, it improves the image of the organization, and it shows corporate responsibility to the customers, partners, and investors.
The certification program, like USIQ’s, generally offers feedback and development assistance as well. If a company does not yet fully meet the requirements, proposals for improvement are made, and the company may reapply once the proposed changes have been made. This approach makes the certification process a journey rather than a one-time audit, aiding organizations in their growth and evolution to changing employee needs.
