Once you and your employees have agreed on how the business will approach family friendly practices, it’s a good idea to write it down. The advantages of having a written version available are that:

• All employees can be made aware of policies. Find out more about the benefits of work family balance policies.

• Employees can forward-plan based on what’s written, and

• If requests are denied, employees can see there is a clear and transparent process in place.

You might wish to include clauses in a collective agreement, write a stand-alone policy, create a one-page insert for your employee induction pack, or post it on your notice board. Whatever works for your business. Make sure employees know where it lives and that it’s not forgotten. Remind employees about the options available from time to time and keep them engaged. There are some excellent resources, such as draft clauses, available to help you write up your policies.

CASE STUDY: Use it, don’t lose it

Chris Johnston is the owner of Context, a business that has been providing strategic planning, research and consultation for heritage, environment and community projects for 22 years. Context developed family friendly policies and procedures about four years ago. They are incorporated in Context’s enterprise agreement, but making these policies known to staff is a challenge.

“The policies may be written down in a handbook, but the resources we put in don’t pay off unless staff take it down from the shelf and read it,” says Chris.“We are now going to post our policies on our new intranet. Our staff are very computer literate and we’re hoping this will make it more accessible and ‘top-of-mind’ for them.”

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