Building a truly family-friendly culture & insights from Dan Geeson at the Working Families Roundtable

At the Working Families, ‘What Leading Employers Are Doing to Build Truly Family-Friendly Culture’ Roundtable, Dan Geeson, Programme and Commercialisation Manager at E.ON and joint lead of our Working Families network, shared reflections on how flexible working, inclusive policies and cultural change are shaping the organisation’s approach to supporting parents and carers.

Drawing on his own experience of working flexibly for nearly a decade, Dan highlighted how far the conversation has come and what still needs to change.

How flexible working is reshaping culture

One of the most encouraging shifts Dan has seen is the growing number of men taking up flexible working, such as condensed hours. “When I first started working flexibly nine years ago, I was met with resistance and confusion from my line manager and their manager,” he said. “That has clearly moved on in the last decade, but there is still more work to do to shift culture and mindset.”

The pandemic accelerated a change that had already begun. E.ON have supported flexible working well before this but remote and hybrid working unlocked new ways of balancing work and life, and E.ON deliberately leaned into that opportunity. COVID “shifted the dial” on flexible working, Dan noted, opening the door to arrangements that were previously considered unusual. As flexibility became more normalised, teams found new ways to collaborate, plan work more effectively and focus on outcomes rather than presenteeism, helping E.ON build a more adaptable and resilient way of working.

Supporting parents and carers and listening to colleagues

E.ON’s family-friendly policies have long been part of its employee offer, but Dan highlighted the impact of introducing equal parent leave. “E.ON’s maternity offer has been strong for some time, but the introduction of equal parent leave has put us in a really strong position to attract and retain talent,” he said. “Compared to many organisations, our offer is on par with, and in many cases ahead of, some very well-known employers.” E.ON believes strongly in gender equality and there was a clear imbalance in the support provided for new parents simply being focused on mothers.

Feedback from colleagues plays a central role in how these initiatives evolve. Through the Working Families Network and regular listening cafés, employees share both ideas for improvement and real-world examples of how E.ON’s policies have supported them as parents and carers. “We hear lots of great ideas from colleagues about how we can improve our offer,” Dan explained. “But we also get really positive feedback showcasing how E.ON supports parents in practice.”

Making flexibility real, not just written down

Policy alone doesn’t change culture. Dan emphasised that flexibility only becomes meaningful when people see it being lived and supported every day.

“Flexibility means different things to different people,” he said. “It’s important to hear how colleagues deal with the juggle of family life and what works for them. Sharing these stories brings our journeys to life.”

Leadership plays a particularly powerful role. When senior leaders talk openly about how they balance work and home life, it helps challenge outdated assumptions about what “commitment” looks like.

More recently, Dan has noticed more men openly blocking time in their calendars for the school run, signalling that caring responsibilities are normal, visible and supported. There are also strong examples of job sharing, where colleagues maintain high performance through communication and shared accountability.

At E.ON, our colleague-led Working Families network, continues to spotlight these stories, reinforcing that flexibility is part of E.ON’s core behaviours, with policy and frameworks acting as guardrails to support consistency and fairness.

What helped E.ON achieve Top 30 Employer recognition

E.ON’s recognition as a Top 30 Employer for Working Families reflects a combination of clear commitment and practical action. Key factors include:

• A strong employee value proposition: E.ON actively promotes flexible and family-friendly working in recruitment campaigns and on its careers website, with messaging such as “Enjoy flexibility that fits your life” and “We offer market-leading family-friendly policies and flexible working from day one.”
• The Working Families Network steering group: a dedicated group that shares messages, promotes best practice and keeps family-friendly working on the agenda.
• A culture where flexibility is the default: flexible working is widely accepted as a way to improve operational effectiveness, and part-time workers are valued as highly as full-time colleagues and equally valued for their impact.

What’s next: carers, job design and staying ahead

Looking ahead, Dan said the roundtable and the 2025 Benchmark findings reinforced the need to keep evolving E.ON’s approach. A key focus area is job design and flexible working in recruitment, with plans to work more closely with recruitment teams to embed consistency across the organisation.

Another priority is better identifying and supporting carers and diverse family structures. “Often people with caring responsibilities don’t self-identify, they see it in others before they see it in themselves,” Dan reflected, quoting Caring Together. Internal feedback and demographic trends have highlighted this as an important area for future focus.

Finally, E.ON is committed to staying ahead of changes in legislation and continuing to be market-leading in how it supports families.

As Dan’s reflections show, building a truly family-friendly culture isn’t about a single policy or initiative. It’s about listening, learning, and embedding flexibility into how work is designed, led and experienced — every day.