A significant challenge for employers today, is how best to support employees through life changing events in a manner that ensures they continue to feel valued and fully able to contribute to the business. How well organisations respond to this challenge can have a significant impact on employee engagement, retention and morale. Lara Nicholl, Manager HRO Strategy & Co-ordination for Ford of Europe, explores.
At Ford, around a third of employees are parents of school-age children, whilst approximately 13 percent have pre-school age children. Creating a culture which respects and nurtures the parenting role at both a practical and emotional level is an important strand of Ford’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy. As a starting point, as soon as a female employee advises the Company that she is pregnant, she is appointed her own dedicated Maternity Advisor. The Maternity Advisor is a subject matter expert in the Company’s maternity policies and provides information, advice and support, from the pregnancy stage through to post maternity return to work. In addition, all female employees (providing they have 26 weeks service after the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth) receive 52 weeks maternity leave paid at 100 percent basic pay.
To complement the internal resources available, Ford also provides links to the National Child Birth Trust by giving all pregnant employees a comprehensive NCT information pack and reimbursing class fees for attending NCT ante-natal classes. Combined with the practical support offered there is also a fundamental recognition that parents may also need support at an emotional level to cope with the changes having a new member of the family may bring. To help employees make this transition Ford provides parenting workshops. All pregnant employees in Ford are given the opportunity to attend an in-house designed and delivered Maternity Workshop. This half day event provides a forum for expectant mothers across the business to meet each other, learn more about their statutory entitlements as new parents, and the Company’s flexible working policies as well as encouraging them to share their experiences and network.
Building on the success of the Maternity Workshop a similar workshop has recently been offered to new and expectant fathers and proved equally successful. The Fathers’ Workshop follows a similar format to that given to mothers by covering statutory rights and Company policies for fathers as well as maternity rights. A key aim of covering maternity rights is to better inform fathers so that they have a greater level of knowledge to support their partners. Each attendee is also given an information booklet published by the charity Working with Men.
The importance of having both workshops running side by side in Ford is that it provides a positive affirmation that the Company respects and recognises the duality of parenting. To further build on the emotional support provided through the parenting workshops, Ford has also encouraged the development of an internal employee resource group called the Ford Parents Network (FPN). Run by a group of volunteers of parents and guardians at all levels in the organisation and supported by an Executive Sponsor at Board level, FPN provides a forum for parents to communicate with each other on a wide range of parenting issues irrespective of their geographical location via Yammer (a corporate version of Twitter) and FPN’s own internal website . FPN also engages in direct discussion with the Company to ensure its parenting policies are best in class. Beyond the initial stage of having a child, difficulties in securing suitable childcare can often be an inhibitor to employees being able to return to work. To minimise this impact at its engineering facility in the UK, Ford paid for the building of an onsite nursery and continues to contribute to the running costs. Run by an external provider the nursery provides on-site childcare on a full and part time basis as well as providing emergency care; when an employee’s usual childcare arrangements break down. The nursery was rated outstanding in all areas by OFSTED in its last Inspection. Ultimately the key to whether Ford is successfully supporting new parents lies in its data. Approximately 98 percent of all maternity leavers return to the organisation, whilst satisfaction levels amongst parents of pre-school age children are consistently higher in employee surveys when compared to the total Ford employee population.
