“As a working parent for the past 18 years, I have experienced first-hand that ‘the juggle’ is real. I am now at the life stage where focus shifts to elder care and navigating support from afar for parents in the UK. Fortunately I have had the benefit of working in a supportive and inclusive culture at Randstad RiseSmart which has enabled me to pursue my career ambitions whilst also accessing the flexibility I need to make it work. As the leader of a fast-growing career mobility business across Asia Pacific with a team of over 300, I am committed to supporting our people to not only bring their best self to work, but to bring their best self to their family and significant others. The lines between work and family continue to converge, each impacting the other. Our focus in creating a family friendly environment also extends to our program participants and we apply a holistic work/life framework that helps them to shape their future and secure their new beginning.”
We genuinely want our people to be their best selves, both at work and in their personal lives. To do this, we believe that ensuring our people have the time, space and support they need to balance both family and work commitments helps to enable this goal.
At Randstad, we have an ambition to be the most equitable and specialised talent company. This drives us to continuously improve, innovate and implement policies and programs that support our people.
As a founding certified employer of Family Friendly Workplaces, in 2020 we embarked on a program of continuous improvement to refine our approach to supporting families, in all forms, at work. This included:
Review of Paid parental Leave policy and Policy
The review included increasing our paid parental leave benefit to parents of all genders enabling a stronger position for all working parents. We ensured that the policy was inclusive of all family scenarios.
We also considered the role that the extended family play in caring responsibilities, introducing leave for grandparents and foster carers.
We created an internal social page for carers to connect, seek support and education. We spotlighted employees who have utilised the program to further encourage adoption.
We also offer discounted childcare benefits, childcare search services and have a comprehensive wellbeing program called ‘Be Kind To Your Mind’ which covers a range of family friendly topics and wellness tools, from parenting to financial budgeting.
Work away program
Our ‘Work Away Program’ was one of the first of its kind within Australia, and enables employees to work from another approved location, for up to 4-weeks. We have a unique condition that this must be combined with annual leave, to encourage employees to spend time with family and foster those crucial familial connections.
We have had the absolute joy of watching many of our employees have the chance to reconnect with family and friends internationally post pandemic and this continues to be one of our most popular family offerings.
From a commercial perspective, this has also maintained productivity and increased engagement with many reporting it was a key reason for being able to continue to work with Randstad.
Hybrid remote working
Like many organisations, hybrid remote working has become the norm. However, we have used this opportunity to improve our existing flexibility policy to enable our people to work in a way that works for both them and Randstad.
This has given fabulous opportunities for working parents or carers of elderly parents, much valued time to do the things they need or embrace greater participation in family life. We have seen our employees feel empowered to make decisions around participating in school pickups, sports and training events or taking the time for family medical appointments.
We further developed an education program and tools for managers to ensure that they had the skills to discuss this with individuals, the team and ensure best outcomes.
We have a parents & carers group and intranet site to support parent carers, foster carers, and grandparent carers.
We also offer discounted childcare benefits, Be Kind To Your Mind initiatives that support both adults and children with a variety of wellness tools and a Work Away from Home program that allows our employees to work in any country in which at Randstad has a presence for up to 4-weeks. This means we have watched many of our employees have the chance to reconnect with family and friends internationally post pandemic.
Engagement
Overall our engagement score around equity, diversity and inclusion has remained consistently high since we have become a family friendly workplace, currently sitting at 8.7 (eNPS 54).
Attraction
Many of our family friendly policies and programs are leading within our industry, allowing us to showcase our point of difference and attract top talent to our business. Despite talent shortages, we have successfully increased our employee population over the last two years.
Overall productivity and commercial success
We have successfully ensured people can remain productive under varying circumstances leading to positive business results. Be it flexible or hybrid working, working away from home or managing the most challenging family emergencies our people are supported to continue to perform at their best.
Cristina – Customer Success Manager APAC
Welcoming Marcos
RiseSmart provided Cristina with access to parental transition coaching pre, during and post her first parental leave, with our expert transition coach Sarah Cleasby. She was able to access this face or face or virtually and at times that suited her to craft plans and seek advice and guidance as required. Randstad’s parental leave policy (since updated) applied at the time, providing a booster payment of $2500 to Cristina on return.
During her parental leave Cristina had the option of up to 12 additional paid days of work to cover attendance at team days, business unit meetings, to attend training or to support projects virtually as required from time to time. This was accessed during her parental leave several times and Cristina felt connected to the business and allowed her re-assimilation post-parental leave to be seamless. It also ensured she had continuity of some income for the entire period.
Prior to Cristina’s return date, Cristina met with the (then) National Director over lunch with her son to discuss her career plans and aspirations. She decided to move from her full-time Strategic Relationship Manager role in the Sales Team to a flexible role in the Transition Services team. She came back initially on a 3-day/week basis, progressively moving to 4 days a week. Over time, Cristina has transitioned into a new role that expands on her skills and strengths – and yet still allows for flexibility. In the newly created Customer Success Manager role, Cristina continued to work 4 days a week.
Welcoming Marcos’ brother
Cristina is now expecting her second child – a baby brother for Marcos. With RiseSmart current extension in Asia Pacific, she has been promoted to a regional Customer Success Manager APAC role managing one direct report all while expecting her second child. As she is preparing to handover her role and embark on her second parental leave, Cristina attended the ‘Supporting Randstad Parents’ webinar with other expecting parents and future carers. We wish Cristina all the best with the addition to her family.
“As a working parent for the past 18 years, I have experienced first-hand that ‘the juggle’ is real. I am now at the life stage where focus shifts to elder care and navigating support from afar for parents in the UK. Fortunately I have had the benefit of working in a supportive and inclusive culture at Randstad RiseSmart which has enabled me to pursue my career ambitions whilst also accessing the flexibility I need to make it work. As the leader of a fast-growing career mobility business across Asia Pacific with a team of over 300, I am committed to supporting our people to not only bring their best self to work, but to bring their best self to their family and significant others. The lines between work and family continue to converge, each impacting the other. Our focus in creating a family friendly environment also extends to our program participants and we apply a holistic work/life framework that helps them to shape their future and secure their new beginning.”
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.
