"Early childhood": honoring the best working environment that supports "family values"
4 procedures for an employer to become a "friend of parents"
Investing in early childhood is the best in terms of economic efficiency for countries. ■ archive
The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority has identified four administrative procedures that would transform employers into "parent-friendly" institutions that provide the necessary facilities for working parents, understand family needs, and actively seek to welcome new parents.
She emphasized that she is working to appreciate and highlight workplaces that can be described as "friendly to parents", pointing out that, since last January, she began communicating with many semi-governmental and private companies in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, to get acquainted with their current practices, to be established at the end of the year. Ongoing honors for distinguished entities in adopting parent-friendly work policies.
The authority defined "parent-friendly" employers as workplaces that provide facilities for the parents who work for them, understand the needs of the family, actively seek to welcome new parents, and work to bypass the minimum requirements regarding maternity or paternity leave and breastfeeding hours, and this makes them environments Supportive and stimulating of family values.
And it identified four administrative procedures that would transform employers into 'parent-friendly' institutions, the first of which is the necessity to formulate administrative and employment policies concerned with allocating maternity leave beyond the specified minimum limits, nursing rooms, and support programs for mothers returning to work, and the second is the allocation of other policies concerned with establishing paternity leave that exceeds Specific minimum limits and support programs for new parents, and the third includes setting up family-support programs, such as allocating days to take children to the workplace, in addition to initiatives that help integrate the family and the workplace, and the last measure is to create a more attractive work environment, especially as parent-friendly workplaces contribute to It increases employee satisfaction and productivity, reduces job turnover, and helps to excel in the labor market when attracting talent.
The authority confirmed that it focuses on creating a positive change in the work environment in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and improving flexibility in the workplace, as it has worked closely with the Human Resources Authority in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to improve maternity leave, paternity leave and breastfeeding hours in the government sector, pointing out that it works with the sector. The private and semi-government, according to studies and research, to encourage the adoption of parent-friendly policies, because of their economic return on institutions and the satisfaction of their employees.
The authority, which was established last year, stated that it is working to support the comprehensive development process for children from the period of pregnancy until the age of eight, by setting policies and proposing laws and legislation based on scientific research on early childhood and promoting associated behaviors, and focusing on four main sectors that include health. Nutrition, child protection, family support, and early education and care.
She emphasized the choice of the four sectors in response to the multiple pillars of childhood development, and the coordination it requires between the different sectors, each of which complements the role of the other, because many research and scientific studies indicate the insufficiency of activating one sector to achieve the desired positive results of the early childhood development sector, pointing to a study Prepared by the Nobel Prize-winning economist, James Hickman, indicates that investing in early childhood is the best in terms of countries ’economic efficiency, and provides countries that invest in early childhood with human capital, future professional cadres with high potential, and strengthens countries’ economic competitiveness.
“Parent-friendly” employers provide facilities for their working parents, and understand the family’s needs.