42% would switch employers if family isn't taken into account

Published: September 7, 2026
Last updated: 21. October 2026

An employee comes back from parental leave and notices in the first few weeks that the team meeting is still at 5 p.m. Another employee cautiously asks for one day of remote work because his father has needed help since his stroke, and gets a hesitant “we'll see”. Neither of these situations is a big conflict. And yet it's in exactly such moments that it's decided whether someone stays.

How often this tips the balance can now be quantified. The representative attractiveness study by Prognos, for which more than 2,500 employees were surveyed, reaches a result that should make every HR department prick up its ears: 42% of employees can imagine switching employers because family concerns are given too little consideration.

The key points at a glance

42% of employees can imagine switching employers if family concerns are given too little consideration (Prognos attractiveness study, over 2,500 respondents).
Around 80% name flexibility for planned and spontaneous time off as one of the most important employer characteristics – without disadvantages for their career.
Employee retention is decided in the unspectacular moments: the return from parental leave, the first care emergency, a reduced workload.
Reliable processes for these life phases win loyalty back – and this is exactly where the heyGuide Employee Lifecycle Assistant comes in.

Why this number weighs more than it sounds

So almost half of the people with family responsibilities have at least already played through the idea of switching. These are rarely the loudest voices in the company. They are often experienced professionals in the middle of life, who are fully trained, carry responsibility and whose departure gets expensive. Amid the skilled-labour shortage, each of these people is hard to replace and even harder to win anew.

What's interesting is what employees judge a good employer by. For around 80% of respondents, flexibility for planned and spontaneous time off is one of the most important characteristics – and specifically without their career suffering for it. 60% consider it very important that employers take the opening hours of childcare facilities into account. These aren't requests for big benefits. It's about the everyday friction points where appreciation is decided.

Retention forms in the unspectacular moments

Family-friendliness is often treated as an image topic, as something for the careers page. The study suggests a different conclusion: it takes effect where no one is looking. In the return from parental leave, in the first acute care emergency, in the question of whether a reduced workload is really allowed to stay reduced or whether full performance is secretly expected anyway.

This is exactly where many managers lack not goodwill but orientation. They are guiding someone through parental leave or a care situation for the first time and simply don't know what's coming, what applies legally and when which conversation would be due. And the employees themselves often don't dare to ask, for fear of being seen as less resilient.

What companies can make of it

The good news in this number: the 42% aren't a fixed quantity. They describe people who are still here and whose loyalty can be won back when family is taken into account in everyday working life. That doesn't need a two-year culture programme. It needs reliable processes for the life phases in which people waver: clear points of contact, timely information, managers who know what to do before the employee even has to ask.

This is exactly where heyGuide comes in. The Employee Lifecycle Assistant automatically supports employees and their managers through phases like parental leave and caring for relatives, with the right information at the right time. That turns a vague “family is somehow taken into account here” into a process both sides can rely on.

The 42% are a warning and an invitation at once. Those who take family seriously don't lose these people to the next employer who does.

Source: Prognos AG, "Family-friendly employers: the attractiveness study", representative survey of over 2,500 employees, presented in 2024.

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