Supporting Parent Employees
Collaborative Post
One of the most difficult things for a parent to do is to go back to work once they’ve had their children. We’re not talking in the emotional sense here, but in finding an employer who is flexible and understanding as to what’s happening outside the office. When you go into an office, or any kind of working environment, the expectation is that you will do your shifts and you won’t complain.
When you have children to balance, it’s not always as straightforward as just putting them into wrap-around care. A working parent has to be able to afford that care, and still manage to find that balance of spending time with them. Getting the right HR advice for employers is important before you start hiring and offering benefits to parents that you don’t know about. Those with human resource knowledge will be able to tell you the policies that you should have in place for parent employees, but understanding how you can make life easier for them is important. Here are some things that you could consider to support working parents in your business.
- Give them the tools that they deserve. You have to remember, even if you don’t have children yourself, that children are a full-time commitment. Most parents who are working with children at home are not working because they want to, but because they have a life that they need to fund. It’s important to give people a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to school pickups or when their children fall ill at school and they need to go to collect them.
- Get to know the laws. Before you have a plan in place for working parents you actually need to know what’s required of you. There is plenty of legislation out there and this is why you need to speak to a human resource specialist to help you with it. As an employer you are not going to be versed in every single employment law out there, but you need to know who to turn to for that information. Staying up to date with the local employment laws and adhering to them is important so that you can avoid a lawsuit and ensure that people are happy and relaxed in their work.
- Talk to your employees. Put out anonymous surveys to each of your employees to ask them their opinions on what they need the most to keep themselves motivated and working hard. The reason you should do this is because going straight to the source helps you to understand what working parents will need. Rather than guessing,ask people what they need, and then plan with your budgets in mind.
- Offer flexibility. One of the best ways to secure loyal parent workers is to offer flexibility in the working day. If they have school runs to do or doctors’ appointments, offer them the option to work from home on those days or to work around them. Once you have their schedules in place, you can guarantee that people will offer you their best work because they know they’re getting the best from you too.
Supporting parent employees gives demonstrates that your business is supportive – and that’s what you need.
Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash
