EXCLUSIVE: KPMG will host an event during National Carers’ Week, which begins on 10 June, to flag up the benefits it offers to carers among its employee population.
A representative from the London Fire Brigade’s carers network will come into the professional services firm’s offices for a presentation, while Hugh Neal, chair of KPMG’s carers network, will speak to the fire brigade’s carers’ network.
Neal said: “We don’t just promote the carers network during carers’ week. It is something that goes on in various formats throughout the year.
The Carers’ Network hosts internal lunch-time events every six to eight weeks. “Sometimes we have a guest speaker, sometimes they just chat about their particular situations or a problem they have got,” added Neal.
KPMG offers quarterly webinars and guides for staff on work and family issues through its back-up care provider, My Family Care.
In addition, employees have the opportunity to take up flexible working, compressed hours, part-time working and job sharing. “KPMG was one of the first policies to offer flexible working,” said Neal. “I was the very first person to be offered a flexible working arrangement in 2003.”
KPMG is also part of the charity organisation, Employers for Carers, which has around 80 corporate members, such as British Gas, BT, London Fire Brigade, Metropolitan Police and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Neal added: “We found, talking to members of other organisations, many [employers] find that staff are reluctant to identify themselves as carers, because they are worried it might affect their career prospects.
“At KPMG, we are very good at looking at somebody’s career and planning it to work around their particular circumstances.
“People don’t often talk about caring duties as a parent would talk about their child. We are trying to address that attitude and make people understand that one in six people will be a carer [during] their life.”
