How workplace flexibility turns parents into long-term employees

Although summer is not officially over, the passing of the Labor Day holiday signifies the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year for working parents with school-aged children. This time of year is the adult version of back-to-school, except instead of the classroom, it’s in the workplace. The back-to-school season is associated with additional complexities that impact working parents.

New schedules, taking on a new set of extracurricular activities, supporting homework, and providing the energy children need as they navigate a new year of academic and social challenges, create a mental and physical load on working parents that employers just can’t afford to ignore.

The burnout crisis is still front and center in corporate America with a recent study from SHRM reporting that about 44% of 1,405 surveyed U.S. employees feel burned out at work, 45% feel “emotionally drained” from their work, and 51% feel “used up” at the end of the workday. The definition of burnout points directly to employees’ ability to manage load.

In 2019 burnout was listed in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon with the following definition: “Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: (1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; (2) increased mental distance from one’s job, or (3) feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and (4) reduced professional efficacy.”

In late August, the Surgeon General issued an official advisory to call attention to the mental health and wellbeing concerns of parents and a call to action for what employers can do to help. The advisory states that 48% of parents say they experience completely overwhelming stress on most days compared to 26% among other adults. One of the calls to action is to expand policies and programs that support the wellbeing of parents and caregivers in the workplace.

At Exos, we studied the impact of implementing a new way of working that prioritized recovery and flexibility into each employee’s day. This included intentional scheduling, meeting auditing, daily microbreaks, and a flexible four-day workweek, among additional tactics aimed at maintaining business effectiveness while decreasing employee burnout. Collected in partnership with the Wharton School of Business’ Adam Grant and doctoral candidate Marissa Shandell, the data revealed that pro-recovery practices can support employee wellbeing and sustain workplace effectiveness.

The pilot results showcase how this pro-recovery approach could be a solution for other employers looking to reform their workplace, reverse the exhaustion modern employees are facing, and retain top talent. The pilot reveals the impact of prioritizing employee recovery and flexibility over simply offering employees a condensed workweek, which can be especially helpful for working parents as they juggle both parenting and working.

After implementing a more flexible workweek, the study found that 91% of employees believed they spent their time effectively at work, compared to only 64% before the pilot. By enabling a work environment that allowed for deep-focused work, 91% of employees believed they were productive at work, compared to 67% before the pilot. Additionally, the percentage of employees experiencing burnout at least some of the time decreased from 70% before the pilot to 36% after.

Although burnout is a universal challenge, research shows that working women are more likely to be burnt out, which may correlate with their role in the parenting load and childcare needs. A recent study revealed that in addition to shouldering a larger part of the domestic duties than their partners, women also bear more of the mental load.

This unequal division of cognitive labor is associated with higher levels of depression, stress, burnout, overall mental health, and relationship-functioning. Moreover, as childcare issues occur, it is working mothers who are missing work more often than working fathers. In a subsequent analysis of the Exos data, not surprisingly based on previous findings reported in this article, Exos found a statistically significant main effect of gender, indicating that women were more exhausted, had higher levels of burnout and had less perceived support than their male counterparts.

Related: Thrive or restrict: Remote work wins as flexibility fuels project success

It is critical that leaders and companies become even more aware of solutions for times when there can be even more load put on their employees, such as during back-to-school. The same framework application should have a profound impact on working parents, who are dealing with even greater overall load. Now is the time to implement strategies that truly support the needs of a working parent. These are not nice-to-have benefits, but must-have benefits, to support employees being their best at work.

With 70% of working parents saying that working for a company offers benefits to support work/life balance is a non-negotiable, employers have the opportunity to get on the offensive. Through the implementation of a framework that embraces autonomy, flexibility, and recovery as a part of the work and not a reward for the work, companies have the opportunity to boost the productivity and retention of working parents in the workplace making a lasting positive impact on their work and home lives.

Amanda leads the Exos Performance Innovation team, bringing the most cutting-edge solutions to Exos clients and helping to pioneer the industry of human performance for almost 20 years. Amanda joined Exos in 2003 and holds a master’s degree in both sports/clinical nutrition and exercise physiology and has worked with professional, elite and youth athletes across elite sports, professional and collegiate sports teams, military operators and forward-thinking organizations to optimize their human performance systems. She speaks nationally about the importance of improving nutrition for performance and overall health but is known as a leader beyond nutrition and more broadly about how to bring an integrated high-performance program to life.