If you run a business or are responsible for recruitment and retention, making your organization amenable to employees with children is essential.
This is not just about luring the most talented team members to key roles, but also about making sure working parents stick around once they are onboard.
Striking the right work-life balance has become even more essential to the modern workforce in recent years, so here is a look at how decision-makers and HR professionals can tweak policies and adjust benefits to exceed expectations.
Do more than the bare minimum when it comes to parental leave
The first step to supporting parents at work is to give them time off when their little ones arrive. If you study the key points on paternity leave
, you will know that businesses are required by federal law to provide at least 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family and medical matters, which includes employees with newborns.
Of course, by the standards of some other countries, this is a fairly meager offering, and so it is no surprise to see more businesses choosing to provide more generous parental leave packages.
The way you handle this depends on many factors, but you could consider extending the amount of unpaid leave that is available to new parents or making the mandatory leave paid so that they do not have to take a financial hit for starting a family.
At the end of the day, money is what matters most to people when deciding whether or not to bring children into the world, and if their employer does not penalize them for taking the plunge, then their job satisfaction and loyalty levels will be bolstered.
Likewise, this is the kind of perk that you can easily include in any job advertisements or mention in general recruitment literature. Prospective employees who might be thinking of having kids in the future will know that your company has got their back.
Manage the Return to Work Sensitively
Mothers and fathers of children who take time off after birth to bond with their infant will eventually want to get back to their desk. A lot can happen in the interim, and new parents can feel shell shocked by being dropped right back into the thick of things from day one.
This is where a staggered return to work policy can be useful. Being sensitive to the needs of new mothers in particular in this regard will be sensible, not only from the perspective of employee morale but also when it comes to productivity.
Offer Flexible Hours
One of the main challenges that come with balancing professional responsibilities with childcare is that the former can conflict with the latter when it comes to timings.
Working parents who cannot fit their personal obligations to their children around their office hours each day will likely become stressed, discontent and disillusioned with their job.
On the other hand, if you have the option to allow team members to choose their own hours and be flexible about when they are expected to be on-call, such issues evaporate in an instant.
Implement Remote Working Policies
Remote working goes hand in hand with job flexibility and can be seriously appealing to parents who want to have a rewarding career without neglecting their caregiving duties to their children as well.
No office-based businesses have the excuse of refusing remote working to those who need it right now, as both the technology and the desire to embrace it have emerged in recent years. Even so, it still makes sense to take a structured approach to its adoption, putting in place the policies and systems that will empower remote workers rather than leaving them at a disadvantage.
Obviously, there are some roles and some industries within which remote working is simply not a possibility. For those firms that can support it, employees with children will certainly appreciate it, don’t expect it today.
Provide On-site Resources
Parents that do come into the office can be catered to by companies with on-site resources that are tailored to their unique needs, throughout the life and development of their little ones.
New mothers are in need of support and resources after the return to work, and certain elements of this may be written into local law. Businesses may be required to set up a private space in which they can breastfeed or express milk and store it for later use, for example.
Again, you do not need to adhere to the minimum requirements of the law, but can poach working parents from rivals by giving even more in-house access to family-focused features as part and parcel of your benefits packages.
Larger businesses may even consider providing childcare facilities on-site, or give parents a stipend to cover some or all of the costs of this kind of third party support.
This is all about making sure that parents returning to the office can do so with confidence, rather than being distracted by nagging family issues, or worried about the steep price they are having to pay for childcare while they are working.
Ensure Career Progression Continues
This is a more nebulous concept than some of the other recommendations so far, but should still be taken seriously. In short, if employees know that they can have a family and still secure meaningful progression within your organization, they will feel more valued as a team member and more loyal to the company.
Aside from adhering to employment law in this regard, you can also indirectly demonstrate that this is possible by promoting parents and ensuring that those in senior positions who have families make this apparent. From something simple like keeping pictures of partners and children in your office, to organizing family barbecues and events, business leaders must do just that; lead by example.
Look at The Stats
Some readers may have reached this point and still remained unconvinced by the benefits that come from targeting working parents with policy changes and perks.
If you fall into this camp, or you simply want a more specific idea of where to start implementing alterations within your own company, then you just need to dig into the figures.
Specifically, look at the people who have left your organization over the past few years, and see if there is any correlation between their age and their family situation at the point of their departure. You could find that the connecting factor is their kids, in which case it should be undeniably apparent that you need to do more to help them in the future.
Ask for Feedback
Finally, do not be hesitant to ask working parents what kinds of support they need but feel are lacking at the moment.
Their input can be used to shape decisions, implement changes, and set out parental policies which can then apply to all employees.
And of course, you must be consistent with how perks and benefits for parents are handed out. If it seems like there is any favoritism in the organization, with some employees getting a better deal than others when it comes to their work-life balance, then it will create friction rather than helping with recruitment and retention.
