This blog will cover:

• The best family-friendly companies to work for in 2026
• What family-first policies and benefits look like in practice
• How leading employers are supporting parents and caregivers
• What makes a company truly family-friendly today

If you’re a working parent, finding a company that genuinely supports both your career and your family life can feel like a challenge. In 2026, the most family-friendly employers are going beyond the basics to create workplaces where parents can thrive, not just cope. From flexible working to enhanced parental benefits, the organisations featured in this list are setting new standards for how working parents should be supported at every stage of life.

Family-friendly working is not one-size-fits-all. Parents need different types of support depending on their role, their family structure and the ages of their children. The best employers recognise this and build policies that reflect real-life needs, not box-ticking benefits.

In this blog, we highlight the companies redefining what it means to be truly family-friendly in 2026 — and what working parents should look for when choosing a supportive employer.

What are the most popular family-friendly policies?

When working parents search for supportive employers, these are some of the most valued and impactful family-friendly policies:

• Enhanced maternity leave: Many leading employers now offer enhanced maternity pay well above statutory requirements, helping new mothers take adequate time to recover, bond and transition into parenthood without added financial stress.
• Enhanced paternity leave: Support for fathers and partners is growing, with companies offering extended, fully paid paternity leave to encourage shared parenting responsibilities and equal opportunities at home and work.
• Flexible working options: Remote work, hybrid working, flexible hours and compressed weeks help parents manage school runs, childcare needs and family commitments more easily.
• Childcare support: This can include childcare subsidies, emergency childcare access, on-site nurseries or back-up care services.
• Family or caregiver leave: Policies that support employees who care for children, elderly relatives or family members with additional needs.
• Return-to-work support: This may include phased return options, support groups, coaching for new parents and managers trained to support the transition back to work.
• Fertility, adoption and surrogacy Support: More employers are expanding benefits to support the diverse journeys people take to grow their families.

What are the best family-friendly companies to work for in 2026?

Mars UK: Producing some of the world’s best-loved brands, Mars’ team of 140,000+ associates are taking action every day toward the world they want tomorrow.

❤️ Mars' family-friendly benefits include part time roles, pregnancy support, enhanced maternity leave – 26 weeks at 90% pay, family health insurance and more!

Virgin Media O2: An award-winning fibre broadband provider & telecommunications company. Virgin Media O2 manage 47 million UK connections across broadband, mobile, TV and home phone and have around 18,000 colleagues, working hard to provide the very best connectivity to their valued customers.

❤️ Virgin Media O2's benefits include shared parental leave, enhanced maternity leave (26 weeks at full pay), enhanced paternity leave (14 weeks at full pay), job sharing and part time roles.

Mott MacDonald: Mott MacDonald is a global engineering, management, and development consultancy. They are a global engineering, management and development consultancy. Everywhere around the world, people’s needs and aspirations are changing, fast.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at Mott MacDonald include shared parental leave (they match up to 24 weeks full pay), enhanced maternity leave (26 weeks full pay) and part time roles.

NHBC: NHBC is the UK's leading provider of warranty and insurance for new-build homes. Their purpose is to raise standards in house building by championing high-quality homes and protecting homeowners. 

❤️ NHBC's family friendly benefits include family health insurance, enhanced paternity leave (3 months full pay), enhanced maternity leave (26 weeks full pay), pregnancy support and fertility treatment leave.

Mondelēz International: Mondelēz International is a multinational confectionary, food and beverage company that has been making treats in the UK for nearly two hundred years.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at Mondelēz International include enhanced paternity leave,
shared parental leave, tax-free childcare and enhanced maternity leave.

BT Group: With over 175 years of heritage, BT is the flagship business brand of BT Group. They are a B2B powerhouse serving 1.2 million business customers internationally. 

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at BT Group include enhanced maternity leave (18 weeks full pay, 8 weeks half pay, 6 months statutory), enhanced paternity leave (18 weeks full pay, 8 weeks half pay, 6 months statutory), job sharing and part-time roles.

Adaptavist Group: The Adaptavist Group are experts at delivering innovative software, tailored solutions, and quality services across some of the world’s most trusted technology ecosystems, including Atlassian, AWS, Slack, monday.com, Aha!, GitLab, and many more. 

❤️ Adaptavist's family friendly benefits include shared parental leave, fertility treatment leave, enhanced paternity leave (12 weeks full pay from day 1), enhanced maternity leave (26 weeks full pay from day 1) and compressed hours.

MONY Group: MONY Group is the UK’s leading price comparison website - providing free, online tools to help people manage, save and grow their money, by enabling them to compare and switch Insurance, Money and Home products.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at MONY Group include shared parental leave, enhanced paternity leave, enhanced maternity leave, part-time roles and fertility treatment leave.

Microsoft: Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. 

❤️ Microsoft's family-friendly benefits include shared parental leave, enhanced paternity leave, job sharing and childcare credits.

Amplifi: A data management consultancy that believes as long as work is done, employees can work in a way that works for them.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at Amplifi include enhanced paternity leave, enhanced maternity leave, shared parental leave, family health insurance, part-time hours and job sharing.

Boomi: Boomi is helping companies around the world connect data, people, and devices quickly and easily to advance digital transformation and deliver great customer experiences.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at Boomi include shared parental leave, compressed hours and paid parental leave.

Vodafone: Vodafone is a leading international Telco serving 300 million customers. Their strong belief is that connectivity is a force for good. If we use it for the things that really matter, it can improve people's lives and the world around us.

❤️ Vodafone's family-friendly benefits include enhanced maternity and paternity leave (16 weeks (paid) with a phased return to work over 6 months), flexible working and more.

SAP: SAP is a market leader in enterprise software. Thier applications and services enable business and public customers across 25 industries to operate profitably and adapt continuously.

❤️ SAP offers employees enhanced maternity and paternity leave, returnships, shared parental leave, fertility benefits, onsite childcare and more!

Maersk: With over 100,000 employees across 130 countries Maersk is a global leader in logistics services and can offer you the opportunity to grow and evolve in a truly diverse workplace.

❤️ Maersk's family-friendly benefits include part time hours, compressed hours, enhanced maternity leave and more.

BAE Systems : BAE Systems help customers to stay a step ahead when protecting people and national security, critical infrastructure and vital information. They provide some of the world’s most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions and employ a skilled workforce of 107,000 people in more than 40 countries.

❤️ BAE System's family-friendly benefits include enhanced maternity and paternity leave, job sharing, part time hours, compressed hours, shared parental leave and more.

Anglian Water Services: Anglian Water manage, supply, and recycle water for the driest region in the UK. Guided by the passion behind “Love Every Drop”, their commitment to delivering the highest standards of customer service and transforming the way water is valued by everyone is at the core of their mission.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits include enhanced maternity and paternity leave, shared parental leave, job sharing, part time hours and more.

Atom Bank: Atom Bank were founded in 2014 as the UK’s first app-based bank, and were the country’s first digital only bank to be granted a regulatory licence.

❤️ Atom Bank offers employees enhanced maternity leave, enhanced paternity leave (4 weeks inc 2 weeks statutory topped up to full pay), part time hours, job sharing and shared parental leave.

Bradshaw Advisory: Bradshaw Advisory helps clients navigate, influence and solve policy challenges by bringing together a team of senior experts in economics, data, policy and public affairs.

❤️ Family-friendly benefits at Bradshaw Advisory include a nursery salary sacrifice scheme, family health insurance, job sharing, part time hours, compressed hours and enhanced paternity and maternity leave.

Tangle Teezer: Tangle Teezer offers an online store for various types of hair products.

❤️ Tangle Teezer offers employees fertility treatment leave, adoption leave, compressed hours and more.
HEINEKEN UK: As the UK’s leading beer, cider and pub business, HIENEKEN UK are home to some of the world’s best-loved beers and ciders, and a leading player in the international drinks industry.
❤️ HIENEKEN UK offer employees enhanced maternity leave, adoption leave, shared parental leave and family health insurance.
Deliveroo: Deliveroo is an award-winning delivery service founded in 2013 by William Shu and Greg Orlowski.
❤️ Deliveroo offer pregnancy support along with enhanced parental and maternity leave.
ClearBank: ClearBank is a fast-growing clearing bank operating entirely in a cloud-based environment.
Northern : Northern connect tens of thousands of people in the North of England to work, leisure, education and more every day.
❤️ Northern offers enhanced maternity and paternity leave as well as pregnancy loss leave.
ASOS: Founded in 2000, ASOS has 20m active customers in over 200 markets. They bring fashion lovers around the world the best and most relevant fashion through our unique own brands including ASOS DESIGN, ARRANGE, COLLUSION, Topshop, and Topman, styled with the most exciting products from local and global partner brands.

❤️ ASOS offer enhanced maternity leave at 9 months full pay and pregnancy support.

OVO: OVO launched in 2009 with a belief that energy could be better. Since then they’ve welcomed over four million members, planted 5 million trees and set their sights on helping to save the planet. In 2019 they launched Plan Zero - their sustainability plan.

❤️ OVO offers employees shared parental leave, enhanced paternity leave at 4 weeks' full pay and enhanced maternity leave at 26 weeks' full pay/13 weeks’ statutory pay

Tombola: Tombola is Britain's biggest online bingo site where players can enjoy unique and award-winning games. 

❤️ Tombola offer employees enhanced paternity and paternity leave.