Back to School: How to Better Support Parents at Work

Being a working parent has never been easy, and the pandemic brought its own unique challenges. Sixty-five percent of working parents (whose children participated in remote learning) experienced burnout as a result of the pandemic, according to a 2020 survey.

Now, as employees start to return to their offices, many parents will also be sending their kids back to school. This can be a stressful transition for both parents and children, as there has been an influx of new cases in young children and uncertainty around the effects of the delta variant. 

Here are some ways employers can effectively support parents in the workplace during these taxing times.

Understand the issues.

Uncover the actual pain points in your organization before trying to solve them. Benefits and policies for working parents sometimes miss the real issues. For example, you may be providing maternity leave but find you’re facing retention problems 4-5 years later. Do your policies address parents with school-age children? 

Use performance reviews, casual conversations, and surveys to gather information. Also, know where large concentrations of parents are within your organization—level, business group, etc.—and how this affects their needs. Is extensive business travel a problem or lack of funds for full-time child care? 

Define the demographic realistically.

Parenthood covers a much broader spectrum of your employees than new biological mothers, and programs need to be aligned to this reality. Working parents come in all genders, sexual orientations, biological and adoptive, in all age groups, socio-economic groups, and family situations.   

Establish family-first programs and policies.

Think carefully about both extensive programs and small interventions. Big programs may include:

• Flexible work schedules

• Accessible and affordable childcare options or subsidies 

• Mental-health benefits for parents and children

• Financial and employment protections for families suffering from COVID-19 

These support services for working parents are important. However, small changes can be equally important, including simple actions like labeling off-hour communications by urgency. Does this email need attention immediately, tonight after the children are in bed, Monday morning, etc.?

Continue remote work as an option.

Post-pandemic, companies are rethinking their views on remote work, and according to Lean In’s Women in the Workplace report, “sixty-seven percent predict a significant share of their employees will regularly work remotely in the future.” Whether or not WFH is a realistic possibility for your entire workforce, consider making it a full-time or part-time option for parents and caregivers. 

Take steps against burnout at work. 

Burnout is one of the critical problems working parents face because of the difficulties of juggling multiple major responsibilities. Dig deep and lean on DEI experts and consultants to uncover the root causes for burnout and take actionable steps to make work more sustainable for parents and all employees — mental health services, exercise classes or subsidies, more time off, reduced workload, etc. 

Focus resources on transition points.

Be aware that transition points in work and parenthood offer unique challenges — coming back from leave, adding new family members, navigating work promotions, or job changes. Concentrating benefits and policies on these transition points can be effective in keeping working parents engaged and satisfied with work.

Keep in mind that re-entry after the pandemic is a crucial transition point in itself.

Foster peer-to-peer support.

Encouraging a culture in which managers and employees feel free to connect on non-work topics can help eliminate the stigma of having a life outside of work and sometimes needing help. Also, parents are great resources for other parents. Your company can encourage interaction and mutual support. An intranet bulletin board, Slack, or Microsoft Teams, for example, could serve as a place to trade tips or pass on gently used items. 

You might even consider supporting a parent-focused employee resource group (ERG). As with other ERGs, it’s essential to ensure that one focused on parents has an adequate budget and that employees who take on extra work to support the ERG are compensated.

Kanarys is Your DEI Champion

At Kanarys, we are the diversity, equity, and inclusion people with the data-driven approach. Since 2018, Kanarys has aimed to change the world by creating equitable workplaces where everyone belongs. We guide your organization’s DEI path every step of the way with courage and collaboration. It starts with data, analytics and insights, and continues with recommendations and implementation. 

Our mission, as your partner and champion in the ever-evolving DEI journey: Help you understand what it takes to foster lasting, systemic change today and for tomorrow. Because when you succeed with DEI, your employees can thrive—and so can your organization.