While most employers work to support their entire workforce, it’s critical to understand that working parents can face unique challenges. Often, managing childcare responsibilities is surprisingly tricky, particularly if there isn’t a caregiver at home full-time. As a result, working parent employees may struggle with maintaining balance and engagement, harming their well-being and productivity.
Fortunately, there are steps employers can take to empower working parent employees to be at their best while ensuring the welfare of their children. If you want to support this part of your workforce more effectively, here are four ways for your working parent employees to get you started.
1. Offer Flexibility
Flexibility is one thing that employers can offer working parent employees that’s essentially guaranteed to have a positive impact. Allowing workers to adapt their schedules to accommodate childcare responsibilities ensures their children receive critical care and support. Plus, it lets working parent employees remain productive, as they can adjust their hours and handle tasks outside of a set schedule to stay on target.
Similarly, flexible work arrangements like telecommuting programs can have a similar effect. For example, it could allow a working parent to stay home when a child is ill and needs oversight, creating a way for them to remain accessible to their family while staying productive.
2. Paid Time Off
One of the challenges of being a working parent is that they may need to take days off from work to care for their children. Without paid time off, they experience significant financial hardship, which can be highly disruptive.
Make sure any leave policies clearly show that using paid time off to care for ailing family members is allowed. Additionally, consider being generous when it comes to the amount of paid leave that’s available to employees, as that can ensure they can effectively manage their home-related responsibilities. Then, the peace of mind they have often leads to benefits for the company, including greater loyalty, engagement, and retention.
3. Offer Childcare Benefits
Many parents struggle with affording childcare for their kids. As a result, offering benefits that make it easier to cover and manage is helpful. This can include subsidies or on-site childcare options. Flexible spending accounts that can be used toward childcare are also beneficial, as well as having a backup childcare assistance program.
4. Have an Employee Resource Group for Parents
Employee resource groups (ERGs) can be the foundation of a supportive culture. By having one specifically geared toward parents, it will also align with their unique needs. It can become a critical form of support while also creating opportunities for your working parent employees to connect with one another. As a result, it can elevate your culture significantly, and that often leads to a boost in productivity and loyalty.
