5 strategies to better support working parents now and post-pandemic
With 1 in 5 working parents considering quitting their jobs during the pandemic, the time to act is now.
In year two of the pandemic, working parents are still struggling—some more than in the previous year. According to Pew Research, 33% of parents who are in the same job as before the outbreak started say it’s now harder to balance work and family responsibilities, and for mothers that statistic is even higher at 39%.
While 43% of parents say their employers have expanded policies and benefits to support during COVID, a lack of childcare, burnout, and mental health issues continue to plague employees.
Where do we go from here?
Parents are crossing their fingers for a full return to in-person school this fall, but without a vaccine for kids or a universal playbook for reopening, school schedules are most likely to remain inconsistent.
Juggling multiple jobs in addition to their paid positions—caring for their children, household, and aging parents—working parents will continue to need flexibility in their schedules, and companies like Ford, Target and Salesforce have already announced long term plans to allow office employees to work from any location or follow a hybrid model after the pandemic. This new “work from anywhere” mentality will alter the type of care people look for, shifting preferences from in-center daycare to in-home nannies and sitters.
Strategies to evolve your support for working parents in 2021
1. Know your parent employee population.
One of the most effective ways to understand the needs of your parent employees is to start a parent employee resource group run by parents within your organization. Fund and empower the group to run initiatives with the goal of making the biggest impact on productivity and retention. Many organizations tend to spend a lot on leadership training, and yet they neglect this more foundational resource that is necessary for many leaders and managers to be successful.
2. Solve the biggest pain point first.
Consult with your parent employee resource group and survey the population at large to identify the solution that fills their need most effectively. For most organizations, childcare is the biggest pain point, and there are a range of solutions depending on your budget and your employees’ needs, which may vary greatly by job type or location. Employers like One Medical are providing their doctors and nurses with backup care access, enabling employees to book in-home childcare by the hour with company-paid credits. Other employers like PwC are now offering a suite of childcare benefits including childcare reimbursements, tutoring services, protected time, compressed workweeks, and sabbaticals. Other companies are offering flexible work schedules to allow dual income families to better manage childcare.
3. Balance urgency with long term strategy.
Recognize when urgency is high and a decision needs to be made quickly. When assessing changes to your company’s policies and benefits, be sure to consider how relevant the solution will be when the urgency passes. While temporary benefits and policies like flexible hours are appreciated, they may lead to employee dissatisfaction if you are unwilling to offer a continuation.
4. Select the right partners.
There are a wide range of parental benefits offerings to consider, from childcare to on-demand parenting therapists, and many choices within each vertical. Seek out recommendations from other HR executives, thought leaders, and your own employees to start. Make sure you and the partner are aligned on what success looks like and are equally invested in driving to the desired utilization.
5. Lean into some differentiated offerings.
Is there an area where the company is willing to invest because it aligns with the company’s values or because the solution helps an employee subgroup that needs extra support? This could range from mental health services to elder care support to individual employee coaching. While these benefits may only be utilized by a subset of employees, the impact on productivity and company culture will boost retention and morale.
What to do beyond benefits
Leadership by example
Encourage leaders in the organization to share how they are working with kids, acknowledge that this is going on and that the company supports this—storytelling is very powerful. Additional research highlights the issue with 87% of parents working from home without childcare finding it difficult or very difficult to work (compared to 70% earlier in the pandemic).
Reduced meetings & schedules
Suggest that departments evaluate their meeting schedules with the goal of reducing the number of meetings with a focus on the highest priority meetings. Other more drastic options would allow employees to work part-time temporarily or work compressed workweeks.
Flex-time
Allow employees to choose their working hours and ask departments to coordinate team member schedules to allow for coverage. Encourage employees to mark their calendars with available or unavailable blocks and offer time-tracking tools if necessary. Only schedule mandatory meetings at times when most parents are free.
Employee-to-employee support
Besides founding an employee parenting resource group, start a Slack channel for parents to offer each other support, share helpful resources and best practices for working and parenting during the pandemic, and to give them a space to share stories.
Base goals on output versus facetime
Implementing an organization-wide strategic framework like Objectives and Key Results (OKR) as well as productivity tools such as 15Five or Asana can help your organization stay focused on monitoring and achieving goals to track employee performance.
Get involved with government legislation
Currently, companies shoulder the onus of supporting parent employees. There are movements underway at the State and Federal level to improve paid parental leave as well as childcare tax benefits and potentially subsidies. Corporate support for these initiatives will help to gain the attention of our representatives in Washington D.C. Organizations like PL+US along with Paid Leave for All and Caring Across Generations are a great place to start.
With 1 in 5 working parents considering quitting their jobs during the pandemic, the time to act is now. As your organization takes steps to support your parent employees, you’ll retain your top talent, foster productivity, and create a positive company culture.
