Second WM People podcast published

WM People’s second podcast has been published covering best practice in family-friendly and flexible working, mental health and the depiction of working parents on tv.

In the second of the bi-weekly episodes, workingmums.co.uk editor Mandy Garner and Ben Falk, editor of workingdads.co.uk discuss WM People’s Top Employer Awards, which took place last week. They pull out some of the highlights and discuss policies and practice which make a difference, for instance, Vistry Group’s focus on male suicide in the construction industry, Lloyds Banking Group’s agile hiring practice and its continuing innovation in areas such as agile working and older workers and J Murphy & Sons innovative returner programme for prison leavers. They also debate how SMEs can support returners who have taken a career break back to work and how employers can get a greater take-up of equal parental leave policies.

In the section on mental health, the discussion starts from recent reports on mental health at work and the Labour party’s policy on encouraging those with mental illness back to work. They note that studies show that the longer someone is out of work the more their mental health is affected, but say that there also needs to be more of a focus on how poor quality work or work overload can contribute to mental health issues. The editors talk also of the impact on working parents of caring for children with mental health issues, particularly in the wake of Covid.

The last section covers the depiction of working parents on tv, starting from the new ITV series Maternal which tells the story of three mums returning to work in the NHS after maternity leave. They also cover Motherland, in particular the role of the only dad among the main characters and talk about the lack of realistic depictions of working parents generally on tv.

Listen above or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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