PwC, Asda & more | Major firms ramp up support for staff going through 'huge strain' of divorce

Some of the UK's largest businesses have committed to a new initiative to support staff who are going through separation, as a new survey reveals the major impact a family breakdown can have on an employee's performance.

Major UK employers, including Asda, Metro Bank, NatWest, PwC, Tesco, Unilever and Vodafone, who have a collective UK workforce of almost 600,000, have welcomed working with the Positive Parenting Alliance (PPA) to incorporate more family-friendly HR policies for staff going through a divorce or separation in the family home, such as recognising separation as a 'life event' and signposting details of available support.

The move comes after a survey from the PPA, a group of UK organisations and individuals whose aim is to create a more compassionate culture and better systems in the UK to ensure the long-term wellbeing of children when parents separate, found that 90% of respondents said that their work performance was impacted when they went through a divorce, and 95% reported that their mental health at work suffered.

This is the PPA’s second major initiative to help change the culture of separation in the UK after launching the ‘Parents Promise’ in May 2021.