workingmums.co.uk 2017 Top Employer Awards launched

workingmums.co.uk has launched its eighth annual Top Employer Awards to celebrate best practice in smart working and workplace equality.

The Awards ceremony will take place in Central London on 7th November and will include a networking session and an in-depth Q & A session with leading experts in diversity and smart working.

The keynote speaker will be Ann Francke,  CEO at the Chartered Management Institute, who was named in the top 100 ’Women to Watch’ in the 2015 Female FTSE Cranfield report and is an expert on gender balance in businesses.

The Awards recognise employers, from micro businesses to corporates, who have embraced the business benefits of smart working and have been proactive in seeking to recruit and retain talented staff, particularly working parents who are looking to combine successful careers with being a parent.

Award Categories

There are six categories for employers and a Working Mums Champion Award for an outstanding individual, male or female, whose efforts have made a big difference to working mums in their workplace.

An Overall Top Employer will be chosen from the winners of the other categories. The 2016 winner was Sky, which was praised by the judges for its support for diversity, female career progression across the board and family friendly working which was backed up with strong evidence and case studies.

The six categories include Talent Attraction which aims to highlight employers who recognise the huge benefits of going the extra mile to ensure they reach candidates with years of experience who are looking for flexible roles and Career Progression, which highlights initiatives aimed at developing women’s leadership potential, an issue which will be a focus this year as legislation on gender pay audits comes into effect.

The full line-up of Award categories is:

– Innovation in Flexible Working Award
– Career Progression Award
– SME Award [split into sections for companies with under 25 and under 250 employees]
– Best for Dads Award
– Talent Attraction Award
– Family Support Award
– Working Mums Champion Award

All the Award winners are profiled on workingmums.co.uk and feature in our Best Practice Report which aims to share best practice as widely as possible and to inspire other employers. The 2017 Report was published in March. workingmums.co.uk has also followed last year’s Awards up with a series of roundtables with employers. The first, held in January, focused on flexible working and women’s career progression. The second, in June, will centre on family support, particularly dads, and returner initiatives.

Recognising Best Practice in Smart Working

Gillian Nissim, Founder of workingmums.co.uk, says: “Every year we are inspired by the entries we receive from a wide range of employers, whether small start-ups or large corporates. Our aim is to spread the word on what these employers are doing and encourage others to see the benefits this can have for both employers and employees. There is a growing recognition across all sectors of the importance of smart working for attracting a more diverse range of talent and an awareness that organisations that have more diverse teams at all levels will do better business.”

The Awards will be judged by an expert panel made up of Gillian Nissim, founder of workingmums.co.uk; Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk; Jennifer Liston-Smith, Director of Coaching & Consultancy at My Family Care; Dave Dunbar, Head of Digital Workplace at Nationwide Building Society; and Clare Kelliher, Professor of Work and Organisation at Cranfield School of Management. The closing date for entries is 21st July.

Click here to find out more.

*Pictured: Sky receiving their award in 2016.

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