UAE has shown its dominance in maintaining work-life balance at the workplace by bringing a new voluntary initiative called the PFL, which stands for Parent-Friendly Label.  PFL is an award program aimed at encouraging entities to seek its coveted status for demonstrating and practicing certain initiatives to encourage their employees to be parents of care.  The award is being administered by the Abudhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA), a government entity that aims at holistic development of early childhood.  As per this entity, employers who showcase their initiatives for being parent-friendly will be awarded PFL, a label that adds value to the employer brand and increases the employer-of-choice index for working professionals, especially those who are in parenthood.  Through this label, it will demonstrate that the concerned organisation has a deep understanding of family needs by offering a work culture and environment that is compassionate toward working parents.

Under this program, the organisation will enjoy the benefit of using the label in any of their internal and external correspondences including marketing advertisements.

As there is no cost involved in applying, it really matters as to how committed are the companies in deploying their parent friendly policies.  As every beginning is the first step to success, there is no minimum or maximum threshold under this scheme as there is huge scope for growth in this philosophy.

This initiative by the UAE government received huge praise from organisations like UNICEF, for its aspirations to match internationally recognised best practices and work standards.

PFL label has two levels of recognition, PFL and PFL+.  PFL is awarded for workplaces that exceed local requirements and standards, whereas PFL+ is awarded for workplaces that exceed global leading policies and practices.

The workplace impact, PFL is expected to bring to the table includes a) positive impact on employees well-being, b) higher productivity, c) increased employee loyalty, d) increased employer competitiveness, e) enhanced reputation of employer brand and consequently f) better retention of talented workforce.

The societal impact, PFL is expected to deliver is a) reduction of parental stress, b) better work-life balance for childbearing parents, c) improve parent-child interactions, d) happy family life eventually results in happy society.

Organisations willing to or aspiring to get certified, may contact us or visit eca.gov.ae for more information on this subject.

– Editorial Team, Nass Talent Management and Studies LLC