How employers can support employees through the childcare crisis
Employers must support employees in their time of need or risk them leaving the workforce entirely.
The COVID-19-induced childcare crisis continues to weigh on businesses as many working parents proceed with the dual role of teacher and employee. While a smattering of schools currently offer full in-person learning, most are still operating under hybrid or 100% virtual learning plans. Coupled with the current surge in COVID-19 cases, there is no sign the demands of a working parent with virtual and hybrid learners at home will be reduced anytime soon. In fact, working parents are currently facing an increase of disruptions when it comes to childcare.
In the past few weeks alone, countless schools rolled back in-person learning as cases spike, and in districts where in-person and hybrid learning continues, parents are faced with unpredictable schedules as students may unexpectedly be sent home for distance learning if COVID-19 positive cases arise in the classroom.
Related: New study outlines challenges and solutions for working parents during the pandemic
This strain is having a negative impact as two-thirds of working parents say that their productivity has suffered while trying to manage both work and childcare duties. The disappearance of full-time schooling and conventional childcare options during the pandemic is forcing employers to reassess the belief that employees should be expected to balance their responsibilities at home and at work by themselves.
As the pandemic’s impact on available childcare continues to unfold, employers must support employees in their time of need with access to benefits that will make a difference or risk them leaving the workforce entirely. Let’s discuss the impact of the childcare crisis on today’s workforce and what employers can do to provide better support to their employees.
The impact
Working parents face the exhausting task of balancing their careers and childcare as the pandemic continues. In fact, 40% have already quit or reduced their hours because managing that balance proved to be too difficult. Between the resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the United States, the back-to-school season in full swing, and cases rising among children, it is unlikely finding a balance will come any easier for the remaining 60%. If employers do not step in to provide better support, they’ll continue to lose this population of talent, especially working mothers.
The reality of the childcare crisis is more mothers are shouldering the burden and taking a step back from their careers to care for their children. An analysis by the National Women’s Law Center found that women left the labor force at four times the rate of men in September, just as schools came back in session. This trend only adds to the existing challenges faced by working mothers. While women are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts, working mothers earn 69 cents for every dollar paid to working fathers. This, combined with the fact that women are disproportionately penalized with lower pay when returning to work after taking a leave of absence, threatens to reverse years of pay equity progress for working mothers.
Minimizing the impact with transparency in benefits
Business leaders must look at where they are falling short in providing support to working parents to help minimize the impact the childcare crisis will have on their workforce. A recent report found that 42% of working parents fear it would be a risk to their employment to take advantage of childcare offerings or benefits available to them through their workplace. As a result, 41% of mothers and 36% of fathers are hiding their caregiving struggles from their employer, putting themselves on the fast track to burnout. This data indicates there are cultural issues within companies preventing parents from feeling comfortable voicing when they need help.
The solution to eradicating this discomfort is implementing a culture of transparency around benefits to encourage all employees to use work-life offerings provided to them. In action, this could look like increasing communication around available caregiving benefits, providing data around the percentage of employees taking advantage of benefits, or executives leading by example. All employees, including mothers, fathers, and those supporting eldercare,, should be equally advised to take advantage of employer benefits. Encouragement from the top will help normalize employees utilizing caregiving benefits and eliminate fear that they will be penalized for doing so.
Rewarding and allocating benefits
As the needs of today’s workforce continue to change, it is more evident than ever that there is no “one size fits all” strategy when it comes to employee benefit offerings. With 2021 quickly approaching, employers should reconsider how they are allocating benefits to meet the needs of today’s diverse workforce. For example, when reflecting on what working parents have endured over the past eight months, employers may consider allocating additional budget to offer them benefits that provide greater support to balance work and childcare (e.g., flexible schedules, support for remote schooling, virtual parent support groups, Dependent Care Spending Accounts). Once employers start to understand the individual needs of employees, they can begin to tailor total rewards and benefits packages to best support them.
It is important to keep in mind that establishing a personalized benefits program is no easy lift and can quickly become time-consuming for HR managers. In order to prevent HR managers from spending time collecting employee information and analyzing individual benefits and rewards offerings, business leaders should look to technology for assistance to help automate the process. In practice, compensation solutions allow managers to get an all-in-one view of an employee’s total compensation, including their benefits and rewards packages. This all-in-one view provides employers with the data they need to make informed decisions and tailor total rewards and benefits packages to individual needs.
The reality is that arranging childcare is hard enough for employees under normal circumstances, let alone during a global pandemic when regular options like daycare, grandparents, and school are not reliably available. If employers do not step in to provide support now and continue this support in the future), they can expect more working parents to take a step back from their careers.
Tanya Jansen is co-founder of beqom.
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