“At Northern Trust, our highest priority is to ensure we provide a best in class environment to attract, develop and retain talented people to support the current and future needs of our business. Creating an inclusive, flexible, family friendly environment for our team is essential to enable them to achieve personal and professional fulfillment. Supporting people through different stages of their lives and careers cannot be achieved in isolation, and recognizing that “family” can have a wide range of meaning to a diverse team means that initiatives such as the FFW accreditation are one of many ways we can work towards achieving those goals together. “
At Northern Trust, we are committed to an inclusive culture in which all individuals feel welcomed, respected, supported and valued so that they can fully participate in and contribute to our success. We believe that when we are truly inclusive and care for our employees who are parents or those with caregiving responsibilities, it creates a culture where their entire self is valued — not just the part that they bring to work with them, but the self that extends to their partners, children and family members at home.
There are several workplace initiatives supporting our commitment to a family friendly workplace.
First, is our Working Families Business Resource Council (BRC) which is part of our broader Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) strategy. Our Working Families BRC is an employee-led group, that creates and implements plans to support and enhance the experience of working families in the firm. These activities include webinars and panel discussions that focus on common challenges of working families and practical tips to manage these challenges; awareness sessions in regards to existing resources to support working parents and those with caregiving responsibilities; and external partnerships to adopt best practices for a family friendly workplace.
Next, is our Mental Health and Wellbeing program. We provide a variety of wellbeing resources to support working families, including providing mental health support. These include:
Lastly, we have an inclusive insurance, parental leave, and flexible work policy that suit each individual and their family’s needs. Our definition of “family” supports the diversity of our workforce. At Northern Trust, “family” includes, but is not limited to: a spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, among others. This definition also extends to LGBTQ+ families.
We provide subsidised private health insurance, group life insurance and salary continuance insurance to our permanent employees. We also offer paid primary and secondary carers’ parental leave not only for birth-related cases but also for adoption, legal guardianship or longer term foster care or surrogacy. This is well beyond the statutory minimum requirement. We also provide assistance to our employees for the expenses incurred related to surrogacy/infertility and adoption.
In addition, our flexible work policy supports workplace flexibility including remote work from home, as well as part time and flextime work, as such providing a variety of options to help manage different situations.
Through these initiatives, we continue to further create a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where everyone is supported and can bring their authentic selves to work.
Our employees recognise that whether they are a working parent, a spouse or someone who has a caregiving responsibility in the family, they are supported and welcomed at Northern Trust.
We see high engagement and participation in the events organized by our Working Families BRC. We also see regular utilisation of our mental health and wellbeing programs, parental leave and assistance and flexible work options.
Our recent engagement survey results showed improved scores in the areas of work-life balance, DE&I practices and current benefits program. Although we’ve seen improvement in these areas, we believe there is still work to do to further advance our family friendly workplace practices.
Our focus on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) helps us provide unrivalled service to clients and creates a healthy, thriving work environment for employees from diverse demographic groups, including working families.
As a family-inclusive organisation, we have observed that we were able to attract, hire and retain talent throughout the different stages of their lives. This enables us to position ourselves as an employer of choice in a highly competitive talent market.
Our clients also recognise the value we place on diversity, and we regularly share with them examples of how we put these values into practice in the community. We have seen interest from our clients on our DE&I initiatives, including the work that our Working Families Business Resource Council do.
“At Northern Trust, our highest priority is to ensure we provide a best in class environment to attract, develop and retain talented people to support the current and future needs of our business. Creating an inclusive, flexible, family friendly environment for our team is essential to enable them to achieve personal and professional fulfillment. Supporting people through different stages of their lives and careers cannot be achieved in isolation, and recognizing that “family” can have a wide range of meaning to a diverse team means that initiatives such as the FFW accreditation are one of many ways we can work towards achieving those goals together. “
Parents At Work acknowledge and pay respect to the past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation and the continuation of cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
