Previously in our Series: Helping Women Return to the Workforce we discussed how to support women returning to the workforce. Flexible work models, clear communication, and tailoring productivity expectations are some innovative ways to invest in women’s employment.
In today’s environment, working parents are now commonplace. 78% of all families have at least one working parent in the home and recruiting them requires different considerations than their non-parent counterparts.
Why hire working parents?
Despite their prevalence, working parents experience long-held, unintentional biases by some employers, but most often they make great employees. Studies have shown that working parents tend to be more productive, are great multi-taskers, are more empathetic, and have better time management skills. Hiring working parents and implementing family-friendly policies can add to a company’s diversity initiative, help to retain top talent, and multiply the potential employee pool.
Flexibility is key in retaining top talent
Recruiting and acquiring top talent takes time and skill, but if your company doesn’t have family-focused initiatives, retaining highly skilled working parents becomes an impossible task. 52% of working parents say having children affects their interest in flexible jobs. Flex work can be beneficial for both working parents and non-parent employees by reducing absenteeism, increasing productivity, enhancing employee engagement, and increasing loyalty within the company.
Incorporate family-focused initiatives into your company brand.
Family-oriented policies can make or break attrition. Too few and you’re not going to retain your working parents. Too many and you risk alienating non-parent employees. Employers can help support working parents, and in turn retain top talent, by implementing family-focused policies and initiatives into your brand that address some of the pain points that these employees experience. Some of the ways that organizations can help their working parent employees are:
- Promote open communication and frequent check-ins: give employees a chance to talk about how they’re doing
- Make vacation non-negotiable – too often working parents don’t take an allotted vacation or bypass holidays. This leads to burnout, family issues, or performance decline.
- Set a visible example and encourage managers to get personal – when employees are privy to some personal details from their leadership, it creates an open and comfortable zone for employees to share information of their own.
Don’t overlook working fathers.
Working fathers are currently the sole or primary providers for 85% of dual-income households in America. Men who use common forms of workplace flexibility like telecommuting or parental leave are seen as not as fully committed as their counterparts, yet 50% of working dads say that work-family balance is difficult (more than working moms). When dads can succeed at work and be involved at home, children have better health, better grades, higher graduation rates, and lower rates of incarceration and teen pregnancy. Daughters involved with dads are more likely to pursue a wider range of careers. This includes traditionally male-dominated ones like those in engineering and science.
Finding and recruiting top talent is already difficult enough. Our recruitment specialists can help guide you on how to attract talent to fill your diversity initiatives.
Sneak peek to our next blog in the series, How to Attract and Retain Working Fathers – Worth the Investment: Today, millions of working fathers are the sole earners for their households. It can be difficult for them to escape the pressure to be present, and successful at work and home. With limited hours in a day, choices are made between attending meetings and family events.
