Westfield named Top 30 employer for working families for fifth year in a row

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has today been recognised for the fifth year in a row as one of the UK’s top 30 employers for working families by work-life balance charity Working Families.

The awards, which are now in their twelfth year, assess companies using the Working Families’ Benchmark to build a comprehensive picture of their flexible and family-friendly policies.

URW claims to be "committed to building a culture that promotes diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, CSR and values difference and work-life balance", working flexibly to support the needs of all employees, particularly those with children or those acting as carers.

The company has launched several initiatives and programmes being delivered ensure this development culture is honoured and achieved. Initiatives included a new dedicated ‘well-being hub’ on their employee benefits portal and access to trained Mental Health First Aiders, an Employee Assistance Programme helpline, new ways of working guidelines and the introduction of two extra paid days’ of leave, known as ‘well-being days’.

Regular wellbeing newsletters and workshops also increased awareness around mental health issues, particularly supporting those from working families - helping to reduce stigma around talking about issues with mental health and tackling issues such as sleep, nutrition, home-working and stress management.

Una O’Reilly, Group Director of Employee Engagement and Director of Human Resources UK at URW said: “We are extremely proud of the people focussed policies, practices and initiatives we’ve put in place to create a supportive culture for all our employees. The pandemic has placed a huge physical and mental toll on many of our employees and their families, and we knew that we needed to double down on our commitments to supporting their wellbeing.

“We’re delighted that this approach has been recognised by Working Families and are now looking forward to seeing how we can continue to support our employees and their families as they transition to a new hybrid way of working.”

Other initiatives and benefits introduced by URW include Shared Parental Leave as well as maternity/paternity pay that is significantly above statutory requirements. URW also offers a family buddy scheme, a new parent coaching workshop as well as carers, surrogacy, menopause and baby loss policies to provide further support to employees.