Family-friendly Employment Practices

Employees with family commitments often have to juggle between work and family responsibilities. By introducing family-friendly employment practices, employers can help employees balance the responsibilities of their work and families.

Measures to Take

Family-friendly employment practices may comprise the following:

• Special leaves to meet employees’ family needs, such as marriage leave, parental leave, compassionate leave, special casual leave, birthday leave and filial leave, etc.
• Flexible work arrangements, such as five-day work week, flexible working hours, flexitime, work from home or remote work, job sharing, etc.
• Living support, such as medical protection, child care service, counselling service on stress or emotional management, lactation rooms in the workplace to facilitate breastfeeding for working mothers, scholarships for employees’ children and family recreational activities.

The following links present you with case studies of exemplary employers and practical reference materials for putting in place relevant practices. You may find some inspirations for formulating family-friendly employment measures that best suit the interests of your organisation and the employees.

Advantages of Introducing Family-friendly Employment Practices

Human capital is one of the most important assets of an enterprise. Employers who adopt employee-oriented good human resource management measures can help boost staff morale and enhance their employees’ sense of belonging. These measures are most effective in encouraging employees to make greater contribution and commitment and hence laying a solid foundation for business growth.