Clanrye Group

“I have been part of the Clanrye family for 11 years and have experienced many times when I needed support including the birth of two children, the death of my daddy, an ill mummy and my own physical health restrictions. Clanrye’s flexibility has allowed my personal life to remain my priority”

Rachel Duffy, Communications &  Marketing Manager

What family friendly initiatives have you implemented in your organisation?

Clanrye Group as an organisation has been implementing family friendly initiatives over many years recognising the benefit of supporting working families. Such initiatives have included:

  • Flexi working hours / working from home
  • Finishing early on a Friday to start the weekend early with the family
  • Everybody Active physical activities for staff to promote positive physical and mental health to include weekly walks on a Thursday, weight loss programmes for staff etc
  • Reflective Practice with Line Managers to ensure staff feel their needs are being addressed to include their health and well-being.
  • Employers For Childcare Vouchers (for those who are eligible)

How have these benefited your organisation, your staff and their families?

These have had a huge positive impact on our staff which in turn benefits our organisation and more importantly their families. Staff feel supported within the organisation with flexible arrangements available should they need them, allowing their family to come first. By supporting our staff, motivation and productivity are high and this greatly impacts the people we support. Happy, contented and motivated staff yields a high quality service for everyone we work with and at Clanrye Group this is our priority.

What tips would you share with other organisations keen to become more family friendly?

The biggest tip we could share is to listen to your team. All of our initiatives have stemmed from employee feedback. There is no point in implementing initiatives that management feel might work for an organisation, you need to understand what the staff need, their concerns, their ideas etc. Once the staff are on board you will find the best family friendly initiatives that will work for them and they will support you in rolling them out.

Our strapline is ‘We Care’ and as simple as that sounds it is very important for any organisation to show they care each and every day.

What are your ‘family friendly’ plans for the future?

Having held Stakeholder Feedback Sessions in the last few months we have many new suggestions from staff on what we would do as an organisation. We are in the process of reviewing these but are confident that the emphasis will be on physical and mental health and well-being for the entire team.

What did winning a Family Friendly Employer Award mean to your organisation?

This was our second time entering the Employers For Childcare Family Friendly Awards, having received a Highly Commended Award in the Charity/Social Enterprise in 2017. Winning the award in 2018 was amazing for our organisation. We worked extremely hard throughout 2018 to ensure that Clanrye Group continued to develop our Family Friendly Initiatives and the recognition was most welcomed.  As an organisation where staff continuously promote the importance of positive family life it meant so much to be recognised externally as an organisation that supports working families and enhances working lives.