Partner Article

UK Businesses DO Support Working-Parents

A new study from CV-Library, the UK’s largest job site, has revealed that the majority of working-parents (63.3%) believe that UK businesses do enough to accommodate staff with children, with most agreeing that their employer does plenty to support their needs.

Ahead of Working Parents Day, which takes place on 16th September, the job site conducted research amongst over 2,000 UK professionals to ascertain attitudes around maintaining a career alongside a having a family. Findings revealed that the majority of employees feel positive about being working- parents, suggesting an encouraging shift in attitude:

• Almost half of UK employees (48.1%) are working parents, with a remaining 23.3% planning to have children in the next five years
• 61.8% of UK professionals think businesses do enough to accommodate working-parents. This figure increases amongst working-parents, with 63.3% believing their employer does plenty to support their needs
• Over three quarters of workers (77.5%) don’t worry about building a strong job foundation before starting a family
• 60.7% of working parents believe that having children has not reduced their career prospects. A further 19.5% of working parents actually think having children has had a positive impact on their career
• Interestingly, those that are planning on starting a family are the most likely to worry that children will have a negative effect on their careers (36.7%)
• 58.5% of UK professionals believe that the children of working parents have an advantage when it comes to their own future career success

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library comments: “It is fantastic to see that British businesses are doing what they can to support working-parents, which is helping to change perceptions. The fact that UK professionals have such a positive attitude towards being able to start a family whilst still maintaining a good career is reassuring. We no longer live in an age where people have to choose between a career or a family and support from our businesses is essential to ensure this shift in attitude continues.”

However, whilst businesses seem to be offering their support to working parents, co-workers seem to be slightly less considerate, with over half of working parents (59.1%) believing their colleagues judge them if they need to leave work early for their children.

Attitudes also alter when it comes to securing a new job:

• Almost a quarter of job-hunters (22.4%) admit to being asked whether they plan to have children during an interview
• 1 in 4 working parents believe they were not offered a new job because they have children

Biggins concludes: “It seems that whilst employees with children feel supported by their existing employers, this support reduces when they look for work elsewhere. This suggests that work still needs to be done in the recruitment sector to ensure that working-parents aren’t disadvantaged when seeking new employment.”

For further information on CV-Library, visit www.cv-library.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Michelle Smithson .