Dear CEOs, Your People and Their Families Come First​

Your employee will skip a meeting to hold their sick child. And you would do the same. We keep saying people are the greatest asset. At Inspire, we act on this. We build cultures where people feel supported as humans, not only as workers. If you want your people to thrive, you need to respect the families they care for. Their partners. Their children. Their parents.

This is real life. You would never plan a board meeting on your child’s birthday. You would not walk away from your family during a crisis. So asking your employees to do that creates distance and breaks trust. Many of them are raising young children or supporting aging parents. Many adjust their routines every week to make life at home work. This affects their energy and their productivity.

When you listen without judgement, you see the impact. People speak openly. Stress reduces. Engagement improves because they feel safe. When leaders ignore these pressures, they see higher absence and faster resignations.

Supporting families is not a perk. It is the foundation of a healthy workplace. And this leads us into the theme of 2026, which is what I want to speak about next.

The Business Case for Family Friendly Policies

I have worked with enough teams to see one clear truth. When you support a person’s family, you support their performance. Not with fancy perks. With real help. Parental leave. Flexibility. Childcare support. These choices change how people show up. You feel the difference in retention, morale, and commitment.

I have seen parents break down from guilt because they missed a school event. I have seen employees hide stress because they care for an aging parent. When you give them space during these moments, something shifts. They stay longer. They trust you more. They give you honest engagement.

Here is where you start.

Expand parental leave and flexibility. Give all parents paid leave and flexible schedules, no matter their role or story. When leaders take their own leave, they tell the team that family matters.

Offer flexible work. Remote work or staggered hours help people manage real life without shame.

Bring families into your culture. Host simple family days. Invite children for one afternoon in the office. Create wellness sessions that welcome partners. When your employee’s family feels included, loyalty grows in a natural way.

Support caregivers. Offer daycare support, family counseling, or one day a month for personal errands. These gestures show your employees that you see them.

These steps build a workplace where people feel safe and respected. They choose you because you respect the people they go home to. This is how you stand out today. This is how you earn trust that lasts.

ALIGNING WITH THE UAE'S VISION FOR 2026

When the UAE announced 2026 as the Year of the Family, something in me paused. I felt a pull in my chest. A reminder of why I built Inspire in the first place. Family shapes how we show up in the world. Family shapes how we stand tall or how we break. And the truth is, every workplace influences that story far more than we admit.

The Family Growth Agenda 2031 is not a policy line. It is a call. A call for leaders to step in with care. A call to support the people who hold families together. When I read it, I thought about the parents I meet in workshops. The ones who rush from school drop offs to early meetings. The ones who carry both ambition and guilt in the same breath.

This national direction feels deeply aligned with what we do at Inspire. Our work has always been about helping people feel supported as whole human beings. When you protect family time, your employees breathe easier. When you respect their home life, they show up stronger at work. You see it in their energy. You see it in their confidence.

The UAE has given us a clear message. Family is not an afterthought. Family is the foundation. And if you lead a team, you shape that foundation every single day.

This is the heart of 2026. And this is the heart of the work we choose to continue.

THE INSPIRE JOURNEY: FAMILY AT THE CORE

When I look back at the beginning of Inspire, I never see a business plan first. I see my family. I see my children sitting beside me while I worked late. I see my spouse taking over things at home so I could chase a dream. I see my parents reminding me to breathe when I doubted myself. Inspire was never built by me alone. It grew in the middle of real life, real responsibilities, and real love.

Every value I hold today came from them. Empathy. Care. Resilience. I learned these long before Inspire existed. So when I started shaping this work, I knew I wanted people to feel the same safety I felt. The same comfort. The same sense of belonging.

This is why every program we design holds families at its center. We welcome partners and children into wellness workshops. We build events that celebrate employees and the people they go home to. I do this because my own family carried me when Inspire was only an idea. And now I want every leader to build workplaces where families feel seen, included, and appreciated.

BUILDING FAMILY INCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS

When I meet leaders who want to transform their culture, I ask one question. How much of your employee’s life are you willing to honor? The strongest workplaces today look beyond job descriptions. They look at the people behind them. They acknowledge the late nights, the school pickups, the doctor visits, and the emotional load that employees carry.

Family inclusive cultures grow from simple choices. A wellness hub where a child can sit while a parent attends a session. A fitness challenge that includes the whole family.A parenting workshop that helps employees feel supported in the hardest role they hold. A retreat where spouses are welcomed, not left out.

These choices tell your employees that you see them. That their lives matter.

This is the heart of the 360 engagement framework at Inspire. Engage. Connect. Active. Innovate. Events. Each part invites families into the journey. Engagement becomes community. Wellness enters the home. Events turn into human moments that carry meaning long after the day ends.

When you build this kind of culture, you create belonging. Not only inside the office, but in the places your employees return to every evening. And that is where loyalty grows. That is where trust takes root.

A Call to Action: Partner with Inspire

I have learned something through every team I worked with. Workplaces grow when leaders choose to care about the real lives behind the job titles. When you honor the moments your people hold close, you build trust that no policy can replace. A child’s school event. A parent’s health scare. These moments shape how your employees feel when they walk into your office the next day.

If you want a stronger culture, start there. Start with family. When your people know you value their home life, they show a different level of commitment. They feel lighter. They feel safer. They bring more of themselves to the work you expect from them.

If you want support in building this shift, Inspire is here for you. We will help you design programs and experiences that respect the whole person and the family behind them. The future is moving toward family first. The real question is whether you are ready to lead with that clarity.