Tackling deadlines, while not missing out on your kid's milestones.
Being knee-deep in a presentation one minute and rushing off to pick up your little one from school the next.
Yes, working parents often find themselves delicately balancing the demands of work and the joys of parenthood. This dance between two worlds requires comprehensive policies that cater to the diverse needs of all kinds of parents.
Making life easier for your employees who are parents is possible when you do your part. It all starts with developing a deeper sense of empathy for them by understanding their struggles and needs beyond work.
Implement Thoughtful Parental Leave Policies
The transition into parenthood is a transformative experience that demands time and energy. Especially for new parents, this can be a physically, mentally and an emotionally taxing phase. You need to think through parental leave policies by being mindful of certain factors, such as the duration of leave, benefits you’re providing and the ease of availing them. This would enable working parents to seamlessly sail through this phase without undue concern for their work or job security.
Add Flexibility Into Their Work
According to a research by Forbes, a significant majority, 69% to be precise, of working parents expressed that their increased involvement in their children's lives can be attributed to the implementation of flexible work schedules. This is the impact your work timings can have. You may require all employees to reach office by 9 am sharp but does the responsibility of caring for a child automatically pause when the clock strikes 9? That’s exactly why it’s important for you to offer much needed flexibility to working parents. This includes being flexible with their work timings and their working model by encouraging a healthy mix of office and remote work.
Dig Deeper Using Data
Rolling out any policy is usually an endeavour that aims to benefit your employees collectively instead of being tailored for individuals. Adopting a data-led approach will help you gauge the real needs of working parents. This data can be extracted through surveys, track records of your current policy for parents, responses from exit interviews of past employees who have been working parents, and much more. Doing this exercise will enable you to move beyond presumptions and make better decisions.
Encourage Safe Discussions
Ensure that working parents get enough opportunities to communicate their challenges and concerns related to parenthood, either with their manager or as a part of communities comprising colleagues who are parents. This provides them with a safe and secure space, be it an online group or dedicated spaces in the office, where they can express themselves without the fear of being judged.
And remember that families come in all shapes, sizes, and identities.
Most of us carry preconceived notions of what a “family” looks like. However, with changing times, we also need to move away from our traditional notions. With a majority of people from the LGBT+ communities embracing their true selves, do you still think that parents can only be visualised as heterosexual couples? Consider having a ‘parental’ leave policy that caters to all kinds of working parents by going beyond the tags of ‘maternal’ and ‘paternal.’
Psst! This blog was made with💚, lots of teamwork, and edited by a human with some help from generative AI. We're not ones to steal credit. #PuttingItOutThere
