Family Friendly Work Arrangements: An inquiry into the provision, range and benefits of family friendly work arrangements that exceed the statutory minimum and which aim to assist employees to merge employment with their personal life (within public, private, semi-state & voluntary sector companies).

Family friendly work arrangements could be defined as measures that support or assist employees in managing the dual responsibilities of work and family life. This research study deals with the family friendly work arrangements made available to staff in a number of private, public, semi state and voluntary sector companies. The ultimate aim of this research project is to assess to what extent the introduction of family friendly work arrangements has benefited the companies surveyed. The provision, the range, the obstacles to, and the benefits of these family friendly work arrangements were investigated and analysed. The research objectives were threefold: - To identify the range of family friendly work arrangements, both formal and informal, which have been adopted by the companies surveyed. - To examine why and how the various work arrangements were introduced. - To determine the obstacles to and business benefits of these initiatives, as experienced by the companies targeted, considering issues such as staff recruitment, retention, motivation, productivity and absenteeism. The findings conclude that while 100% of the companies surveyed have family friendly work arrangements in place, there is considerable scope for promoting greater uptake of these initiatives. The findings also conclude there is a much greater uptake of family friendly work arrangements by female staff than by male staff. Finally, the study demonstrates that the larger private, semi-state and public sector companies provide a greater range of family friendly than the small private and voluntary sector companies