Are there Spillover Effects of a Family Supportive Work Environment on Employees without Childcare Responsibilities?

This paper focuses on the effects of a family supportive work environment on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. We therefore differentiate between employees with childcare responsibilities and those without. As the implementation of family supportive services is financially costly, it is important to know if and how a family-friendly work policy affects the attitudes and behaviors of the entire workforce. Using a survey of results taken from 1260 randomly selected employees in Switzerland, we analyzed whether the perception of a comprehensive family orientation – involving family supportive services as well as family-friendly dialogue and culture – has an effect on employees with responsibility for childcare, for care of the elderly and also, on those without any care responsibilities. Firstly, the results show that family supportive services only have a specifically positive effect on the life satisfaction of employees with childcare responsibilities. More surprisingly, one can see that spillover effects exist for organizational-related outcomes: A family supportive dialogue and culture both reduce the intention to quit and enhance the organizational commitment of the entire workforce – whether or not there is a direct benefit to the employees.