I was thrilled to attend and speak at the Top Employers for Working Families Benchmarking and Awards last week. The awards are a fantastic way to celebrate companies who strive to go the extra mile in providing positive working environments, supporting a true work/life balance and championing family-friendly work practices.

The companies who attended the event and walked away with the top accolades in their category have all recognised the need to adapt working practices to support employees with families. In the long run, this makes for a happier and more productive workforce; assisting them in attracting and retaining skilled and reliable employees.

I’d like to pass on our congratulations to all of the winners and shortlisted companies, who are setting the standard for companies across the UK.

You’ll find the full list of winners and shortlisted companies on the Working Families website and I’ve uploaded a few photos for you here.

Working Families has dedicated more than 30 years to helping employers adopt family-friendly work practices and we are proud to support them through this partnership. We’re looking forward to working on other initiatives over the coming year.

Sarah Jackson OBE, Chief Executive of Working Families added: “Our Top Employers for Working Families all demonstrate how being family friendly translates into business success. This is really important in these hard economic times, and so I’d like to thank Computershare for their support in helping us get the message out”.

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, CVS are proud to sponsor this year’s Working Families’ ‘Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark and Awards’. Here, Working Families provide an overview of the awards and how they recognise people who go the extra mile to provide a family-friendly work environment.

The Awards are now in their third year and over 50 organisations have entered, representing over three quarters of a million employees. Uniquely, the benchmark and awards provide employers of all sizes and from all sectors the chance to compare their work-life balance policies and practices with other organisations, and see how family friendly they really are.

At a time when your people give you a competitive edge, getting your family friendly policies right can mean the difference between being an employer of choice, attracting and retaining the best employees or losing out. Evidence is also increasingly pointing to the strong positive correlations between good work life balance and performance at work. Those organisations taking part in the benchmark will not only get insight into how their offering to working parents and carers stacks up against what is offered by other companies. They also get to compare how well their policies are actually working.

As well as the benchmark, which offers the opportunity for detailed insights into family friendly working, there is the opportunity for organisations to enter special awards across a range of categories. These awards recognise outstanding practice and creativity across the following family-friendly areas: Innovation and Engagement; Flexible Working; Best for Mothers; Best for Fathers; Best for Carers; and Best for Career Progression. There is a strong field of entrants in 2011 from a range of sectors.

The winners will be announced at an Awards ceremony on 27 September. For more information on Working Families, visit their website.

_{These opinions are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Computershare Voucher Services.}

On September 24th 2011, seven CVS relationship managers will be braving Mt. Snowdon to raise money for Honeypot. They’re aiming to reach the summit and raise £750 which will enable a child to visit Honeypot on a respite break, have an afternoon on the Playbus and enjoy Christmas and birthday presents from the charity. Here, Michelle Lloyd, one of the intrepid team, tells us why they decided to do the challenge and how the training is going.

We decided to set ourselves this challenge as we wanted to do something different for Honeypot. A few ideas were thrown around – a bungee jump, a sky dive, nothing too extreme! – before finally settled on walking up Snowdon.

We had to keep it secret for a few weeks whilst we did a bit of research, decided on the path we were going to climb (Miners Track), agreed on some training and set up our Just Giving Website. A few of our colleagues had worked out we were up to something and tried desperately to find out but I don’t think anyone expected us to do this!

Our colleagues were shocked that we’d decided on such a physical challenge – particularly having witnessed the amount of chocolate and cake we devour on a daily basis – but they have been extremely supportive, sponsoring us and offering messages of encouragement.

The team: Louise Hadley, Keeshak Downie, Jess Dutton, Michelle Lloyd, Ellen Crosby, Rebecca Lindsell, Mandi Farrer, Carol A Alker, Michael Smith

We started training shortly after we announced the challenge. A few members of the team (Ellen, Mandi, Keeshak and Becky) are already fitness fanatics, so had decided to complete a few extra miles on the treadmill, and Ellen had kindly taken myself and Lou under her wing to help us train.

Our first training session was at Cannock Chase, which is part of the Forestry Commission, and we had hoped to start off with a gentle stroll. Ellen had other ideas as she strapped weights round her ankles and pulled out additional weights for us to carry. Lou and I joked that Ellen missed her calling as an Army Sergeant as she power walked round.

Over the weeks our walks have become longer and harder. We do a 4 mile walk once a week with a few little ones in between; it’s still hard work but we’ve improved. However, we’re prepared for the fact that our training is nothing compared to the reality of Mt. Snowdon.

We’re now just 5 days away from our challenge and so far we have managed to raise £601! This is increasing daily thanks to our fantastic supporters and we’re extremely confident that we’ll hit our target before the big day.

If you’d like to know a bit more about the Honeypot Children’s Charity and read some of the messages of support left for us, check out our Just Giving page.

We’ll have another update for you soon!

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve entered into a partnership with Working Families; the leading work-life balance charity.

Over the next two years we’ll work with them on a series of initiatives, the first of which will be to support their ‘Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark & Awards’ later this month. The awards aim to recognise excellence in organisations that go the extra mile to deliver positive working environments.

Families are at the heart of what we do at CVS and we’re really proud to be supporting Working Families because we have a common goal; to promote a family friendly workplace culture to help create a positive relationship between work and home life.

Across all industries, working parents have built up valuable skills that employers should strive to retain and a key way to achieve this is through flexible working and family-friendly policies.

A Department for Work and Pensions report found that of employers questioned, six in ten (61 per cent) said that their organisation offers flexible working practices to their staff. This was more likely to be the case amongst large organisations.

Flexible working offers real benefits to employers and employees alike; employers can retain a skilled and happier workforce and busy parents can more easily meet their commitments at work and at home.

Sarah Jackson OBE, Chief Executive of Working Families said: “Working Families is thrilled to be working with Computershare Voucher Services. Both our organisations share a real commitment to enabling parents to be dependable and high performing employees as well as present and engaged at home.”

Working Families works with parents, carers and employers to find a better balance between responsibilities at home and work. The organisation helps employers to create workplaces which encourage a work-life balance for everyone.

I’ve seen a few forum posts recently about higher rate tax payers who’ve recently changed jobs and found that their childcare voucher entitlement has reduced – I wanted to provide a little bit of clarification on this as I’m sure it’s an issue many people are facing or have questions about.

When the tax changes came into force earlier this year, all those already receiving childcare vouchers could continue to claim the maximum voucher value available – £55 per week. They have ‘protected rights’ and can still claim up to £55 per week whilst they remain in the same scheme.

Those who’ve signed up since that date are classed as new scheme entrants by HMT and are only entitled to claim up to £55 per week if they are a basic rate tax payer. Higher rate tax payers joining a scheme now can only claim up to £28 per week (or up to £22 if they’re an additional rate tax payer).

However, if you’re a higher rate payer who was a member before the tax changes but you subsequently change your job – whether your new employer uses the same provider or not – you’ll lose your ‘protected rights’ and be classed as a new scheme entrant. Therefore, you’ll only be entitled to claim £28 or £22 per week, depending on your tax bracket*.

Your savings won’t be affected if your company switches providers. In this instance, you’ll still retain your ‘protected rights’ which means although you’re asked to join again with the new provider, you’re entitled to the same savings as before because you’re still a member of your current employer’s scheme with ‘protected rights’.

Childcare vouchers remain one of the most viable ways to save money on ever escalating childcare costs. If you’d like more information on the savings you could make visit our website.

*Basic rate tax payers will not be affected.